“As soon as I had an opportunity of showing to Captain Richards the letters of his Majesty’s Ministers to the English Consuls and Ambassadors at the different courts, and he was thereby convinced of my attachment to, and connexion with the British nation, he conducted himself to me with brotherly affection, and anticipated every wish of my heart. This voyage was therefore one of the pleasantest I had ever undertaken.”
Captain Richards’s next appointment was, July 1, 1804, to the Broderscarp sloop, stationed as a guard-ship in Whitstable bay, where he continued until Oct. 1805. Whilst commanding that vessel he detained and made prize of a neutral ship, with a valuable cargo of hemp and tallow, bound to a French port.
On the 18th Sept. 1806, Captain Richards commissioned the Forester, a new brig of the largest class, in which he was employed escorting the trade to and from the Baltic, and occasionally cruising on the coast of Holland, where he recaptured an English ship laden with timber, feathers, and wheat, and prevented many neutrals from entering the blockaded ports of the enemy. He also captured the Hiram, a celebrated smuggling cutter ; and burnt the wreck of H.M. late frigate Flora, in order to prevent the Dutch from obtaining any of her materials[1].
In June 1808, Captain Richards was entrusted with the command of a small squadron stationed off Goree; and in the following month he received orders to fit for foreign service.
The Forester sailed from Spithead, with 500,000 dollars on board for the use of the Spanish patriots, and seven sail of transports under her convoy; two, laden with ordnance stores, bound to Corunna; and the others with provisions for the West India garrisons.
After a stay of eight days at Corunna, Captain Richards proceeded to Barbadoes, and there joined Sir Alexander Cochrane, by whom he was successively employed in the blockade of Martinique and Guadaloupe.
- ↑ The Flora 36, Captain Loftus Otway Bland, was wrecked Jan. 19, 1808; and in the same gale every vessel of the Heligoland squadron except the Forester, was likewise driven on shore.
