which Captain Mounsey’s services have not been called for.
This gallant officer was nominated a C.B. in June, 1815; and as a further testimony of the royal approbation of his zeal and energy (on the 6th July, 1809), some honorable distinctions allusive to the capture of the Furieuse, to be borne in his armorial ensigns, have more recently been granted and assigned to him by the Kings of Arms, under the authority of the Earl Marshal.
Agent.– Joseph Dufaur, Esq.
THOMAS FORREST, Esq.
A Companion of the Most Honorable Military Order of the Bath.
[Post-Captain of 1809.]
We first find this officer serving as senior Lieutenant of the Emerald frigate. Captain (now Lord James) O’Bryen, by whom the following honorable testimony is borne to his gallant conduct when employed on a very hazardous service, in March 1804:
“H.M.S. Emerald, off St. Pierre’s, Martinique, March 13, 1801.
“Sir,– I have the honor to enclose you a letter I have received from Lieutenant Forrest, first of H.M.S. under my command, who I this morning sent, accompanied by 30 volunteers, on board the Fort-Diamond armed sloop, with directions to work to windward, so as to enable the sloop to weather the Pearl rock, and to bear down on an armed schooner, which had (finding it impossible to get into St. Pierre’s, this ship being to leeward), anchored close in shore, under cover of the battery at Seron. I at the same time sent the boats of this ship in a different direction, in order to take off the attention of the battery from the manoeuvre in contemplation, to be performed by Lieutenant Forrest.
“It affords me particular satisfaction to bear testimony to the handsome and gallant manner in which the service was executed. Lieutenant Forrest having laid the enemy’s schooner on board, under a heavy fire from her and the battery.
“In the performance of this service great judgment was exhibited, as, by the mode of doing it, a chain, by which she was fastened to the shore, was broke, 20 feet of which is now hanging to the schooner’s bow. The crew of this vessel“ (consisting of about 60 whites and blacks), “finding it impossible to withstand British intrepidity, jumped overboard and swam ashore, which they were enabled to do from her being moored close to it.
