clared war against Great Britain, he was nominated to the command of the London, of 98 guns, fitting for the flag of his late royal pupil; but which, we believe, was not hoisted on that occasion.
Our officer’s next appointment was to the Galatea frigate, in which he was present at the capture of la Revolutionnaire of 44 guns, Oct. 21, 1794[1]. In the summer of the following year, he accompanied the expedition under Sir John B. Warren, to Quiberon[2]; and on the 30th March, 1796, assisted at the capture of l’Etoile, of 30 guns and 160 men, and four sail of French merchantmen. The Galatea on this latter occasion had 2 men killed and 6 wounded. The other ships in company, namely the Pomone, Artois, and Anson, sustained no loss.
Captain Keats continued to command the Galatea until the year 1797, when he was removed into the Boadicea, another frigate, in which he distinguished himself as an indefatigable cruizer, and captured several very formidable French privateers. On the 2d July, 1799, he commanded the frigates belonging to Sir Charles M. Pole’s squadron, employed in covering an attack made by some bomb-vessels upon a Spanish squadron which had taken shelter under the batteries on the isle of Aix, and a floating mortar battery moored in the passage between the Boyart shoal and the isle of Oleron[3]. We next find him in the Superb, of 74 guns, employed off Cadiz. In our memoir of Sir James Saumarez[4], we have given an account of the battle which took place off Algeziras, between that officer and M. Linois. Owing to the Superb being in the offing, at too great a distance to perceive the night signal made by Sir James on his receiving intelligence of the arrival of the enemy from the Mediterranean, Captain Keats was prevented sharing in that action; but having re-joined the Rear-Admiral at Gibraltar, he was enabled to participate in the subsequent engagement, in which, indeed, he was the principal actor.
At noon on the 12th July, 1801, six days after the event just alluded to, M. Linois broke ground from before Algeziras, for the purpose of proceeding to Cadiz with his squadron, and
