40 guns, 18 pounders, and 350 men; and soon after two corvettes, l’Espion and Alert, mounting 18 guns, 9 pounders, and 200 men each. They at first took shelter under cover of three batteries in Hodierne Bay; but being hard pressed, cut their cables and ran ashore. The boats of the squadron were ordered under Sir Edward Pellew to destroy them; on boarding the corvettes, he found that many of their people were so dangerously wounded, that they could not be removed to the frigates without risk of their perishing; he therefore, for the sake of humanity, let them remain, to be relieved by their friends on shore. The corvettes were bilged and scuttled.
In Oct. following, we find Sir Edward Pellew cruizing off Ushant, with a small squadron under his own command, consisting of the Arethusa, Artois, Diamond, and Galatea frigates. On the 21st of that month, he discovered a large French frigate, and immediately gave orders for a chace. The enemy being to leeward was cut off from the land, and after sustaining an action of 40 minutes with the Artois, obliged to surrender[1].
At the commencement of 1795, our officer again served under Sir John B. Warren; whose squadron, on the 18th Feb., fell in with, off the isle of Oleron, a French frigate and twenty sail of vessels under her convoy; which were pursued half way up the Pertius d’Antioche, in sight of the isle of Aix. The tide of flood then setting strong up, and the wind being right in, the British ships were obliged to haul off; notwithstanding which they captured a national schooner of 8 brass guns, and seven merchantmen; and destroyed eleven others. These vessels were chiefly laden with provisions and cloathing for the French fleet and army. The frigate under whose escort they were, was la Nereide, of 36 guns. In the ensuing month, Sir Edward again commanded a squadron, and took and destroyed fifteen out of a fleet of twenty-five sail of coasters; the remainder he obliged to seek refuge among the rocks near the Penmarks.
A circumstance occurred, at the beginning of the year 1796, which displayed the bravery and humanity of the subject of this memoir, in the most interesting light. On the 26th Jan., the Dutton East Indiaman, was driven by stress of
