prosecute his voyage with the remainder. The Dutch Admiral accepted the former part of the proposal, and saluted the British flag, but declined proceeding without the whole of the vessels, and sailed into Spithead. From the darkness of the night, many of the transports with stores escaped, and got safe into Brest.
Towards the end of the same year, the Swallow was ordered to the West Indies; and in Feb. 1781, Captain Bickerton was present at the capture of St. Eustatia, by the naval and military forces, under the respective commands of Sir George Rodney, and General Vaughan[1].
On the 8th of the same month, Captain Bickerton was posted into the Gibraltar, of 80 guns; and in the skirmish which took place between the British and French fleets under the respective commands of Sir Samuel Hood and the Count de Grasse, April 29th following, he commanded the Invincible, of 74 guns[2].
Captain Bickerton was subsequently appointed in succession to the Russel, and Terrible, both 74’s; but finding the latter unfit for service, he exchanged into the Amazon frigate, and was ordered to England. The Amazon was paid off in the month of February, 1782. In September following, he obtained the command of the Brune, another frigate; but in
- ↑ Early in 1781, Sir George B. Rodney received intelligence of the commencement of hostilities between Great Britain and Holland, and instructions for the immediate attack of the Dutch settlements in the West Indies. These were executed with the same promptitude with which they had been conceived; and the island of St. Eustatia was taken possession of on the 3d Feb. A fine Dutch frigate, of 38 guns and 300 men, and five other vessels of war, from 14 to 26 guns each, all ready for sea, were taken in the road, together with upwards of one hundred and eighty sail of merchantmen, many of them richly laden.
Sir George Rodney having learnt that a valuable Dutch fleet had sailed for Europe 36 hours previous to his arrival in the bay, despatched a small squadron in pursuit; by which means the whole were captured, and brought back to St. Eustatia. On the English Commodore, Reynolds, coming up with the enemy’s convoying ship, the Mars, of 54 guns, an action commenced, which lasted but for a few minutes; when the Dutch Commander being killed, she struck her colours.
Soon after the capture of St. Eustatia, the island of Saba, St. Martin’s, and all the other Dutch colonies in that quarter, excepting Curaçoa, fell into the possession of Great Britain.
- ↑ See Retired Captain John N. Inglefield, in our next volume.
