equally resolved to engage the enemy, in hopes of crippling them so as to render their ultimate capture certain. Unfortunately, the wind began to moderate, and as it slackened the frigates increased their distance: whenever it freshened again for a short time, the Cherub had evidently the advantage of sailing. At 2 P.M., the Latona frigate was seen from the mast head, coming up on the lee-quarter. At sunset, the enemy’s manoeuvres led Captain Tucker to believe that they intended altering their course after dark; and as he thought it probable that they would separate, he considered it most expedient to keep a little to windward. When dark enough not to be observed by the Frenchmen, he hauled up as close as he could without taking in his royal, top-gallant, and fore-top-mast-studding sails; on the morning of the 17th, he had the mortification to find that they had both escaped him. It subsequently appeared that one of the frigates bore up after dark, and at midnight found herself alongside of the Latona, Captain Hugh Pigot, who very soon captured her: the other braced sharp up, and was intercepted by the Bonne Citoyenne sloop of war, between Bermuda and Halifax[1].
The subject of this memoir assisted at the reduction of Guadaloupe, in 1810; and remained on the Leeward Islands’ station, under the orders of Sir Alexander Cochrane and his successor. Sir Francis Laforey, in consequence of whose report to the Admiralty, of the excellent state in which the Cherub was kept, and the discipline of her crew, their Lordships were pleased to direct that she should be rated as a post-ship, and signed a commission promoting Captain Tucker to that rank, and continuing him in the same command, Aug. 1, 1811.
At the end of Sept. 1812, the Cherub returned to England with ninety-six sail of merchantmen under her protection. Captain Tucker was immediately ordered to refit her for foreign service; and in a little more than two months he sailed for the South American station. During the time that his ship was in dock, at Portsmouth, her crew were allowed a month’s leave of
