French corvettes, one of 16 guns, the other of 10, conveying despatches from the Directory to Buonaparte. Captain Dixon was subsequently stationed off Malta, with a squadron of ships of war, in order to prevent succours from being thrown into the island, and to watch the motions of the French ships lying in the harbour of Valette.
About midnight, on the 30th March, 1800, the Penelope frigate, which had been ordered by Captain Dixon to keep close in shore for the purpose of watching the enemy more narrowly, discovered a line-of-battle ship under a crowd of sail, steering to the N.E. The necessary signals being immediately made, the squadron which was at anchor, cut or slipped their cables, and went in pursuit, guided solely by the cannonading of the Penelope. At day-break on the 31st, the Lion had arrived within gun-shot of the enemy, who appeared in great confusion, his main and mizen-top-masts and main-yard having been shot away by the Penelope, whose raking broadsides had been poured in with great effect during the night.
Steering between the British frigate and her crippled opponent, and so near to the latter that the yard-arms of the two ships barely passed clear, the Lion ranged up on the larboard side of the enemy, fired a destructive broadside of three round shot in each gun, and then luffing up across the bow, received the Frenchman’s jib-boom between the main and mizen rigging. The combatants, however, remained entangled but a few minutes, and Captain Dixon, whose object it was to avoid either being boarded, or exposing himself to the more powerful broadside of the enemy, took a position on his bow which he maintained, and, aided occasionally by the Penelope, kept up a steady cannonade for about half an hour, when the Lion became unmanageable and dropped astern; still firing, however, as did also the frigate, whenever an opportunity presented itself.
In about fifty minutes after the commencement of the action, the Foudroyant of 88 guns came up under a press of canvas, and hailed the enemy to strike; which being declined, a furious combat ensued, the Lion and Penelope frequently doing great execution; and it was not until the French ship had become an unruly hulk, having lost all her masts, that her
