Sir James Saumarez was afterwards detached with two frigates to cruise off Rochfort, where he remained for six months, during the most tempestuous weather. He then resumed his station in the fleet off Brest, from whence he was sent to reinforce Sir John Jervis, whom he joined five days before the memorable battle off Cape St. Vincent, on which occasion the Orion was one of the six ships that attacked the body of the enemy’s fleet, and afterwards joined in the attack of the huge Santissima Trinidada, which, according to an entry made in the Orion’s log book, at length hauled down her colours, and hoisted English ones, but was rescued by several of the enemy’s fresh ships. In this engagement, already detailed in our memoir of Earl St. Vincent[1], the Orion had only 9 men wounded.
On the 30th April, 1798, Sir James Saumarez, who, subsequent to the above battle, had been employed in the blockade of Cadiz, accompanied Sir Horatio Nelson to the Mediterranean, and shared in the honours acquired off the Mouth of the Nile[2]. The Orion was the third ship that doubled the
- ↑ See pp. 21 to 28.
- ↑ A formidable armament, which had long been in preparation, and had become the subject of various conjectures as to its destination, sailed from Toulon on the 20th May, 1798. It consisted, according to report, of fifteen ships of the line, ten or twelve frigates, some smaller armed vessels, and two hundred transports, carrying upwards of 40,000 troops, a considerable number of horses, and a vast quantity of provisions and military stores. The conduct of the whole was committed to Napoleon Buonaparte, who enjoyed the character of being the greatest General of the age, and was considered a man of superior talents and extraordinary resources. On the 9th June, this expedition arrived off the island of Malta, of which possession was taken with so little resistance as to excite suspicion of a previous concert between the captors and the knights who held the sovereignty. Having left there a sufficient garrison, the republican chief proceeded to his ultimate destination; and on reaching the coast of Egypt on the 1st July, disclosed the object of the expedition to be the acquirement of a station from whence the British possessions in India might be advantageously assailed. Buonaparte took Alexandria by storm; gave the Beys a defeat, which rendered him master of Cairo; and after organizing a temporary government, he set out in pursuit of the fugitive Beys to the confines of Syria.
The equipment of the Toulon fleet being known to the British ministry, though its destination was uncertain, Earl St. Vincent, who commanded the squadron employed in the blockade of Cadiz, was directed, if he thought
