colours were hauled down. She proved to be the Guillaume Tell of 86 guns, bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral Decrès, the only remaining ship of the French fleet which was in the action of Aug. 1st, 1798[1].
A more heroic defence than that of the Guillaume Tell is not to be found among the records of naval actions. Of her crew, which, according to Captain Dixon’s official letter, amounted to 1000 men[2], two hundred are represented to have been killed or wounded. The following appears to have been the loss sustained by each of the British ships engaged; Lion 8 killed 38 wounded; Foudroyant 8 killed 69 wounded; Penelope 1 killed 3 wounded. The Guillaume Tell was added to the British navy, and still appears on the list, under the name of the Malta.
Soon after the capture of that fine ship, Captain Dixon, who deserves the greatest credit for having so boldly approached her in a vessel so vastly inferior both in guns and men[3], was removed into the Génereux of 74 guns, and continued to be employed in the blockade of Malta until the surrender of that island, on the 5th Sept. in the same year[4]. We subsequently find him stationed at Minorca, during the absence of Lord Keith on an expedition against the French in Egypt.
Our officer arrived at Portsmouth, from the Mediterranean, Aug. 13, 1802. On the renewal of hostilities in the following spring, he was appointed to the Sceptre of 74 guns, and in the ensuing year, to the Queen, 98, in which ship he joined the Channel fleet. On the 28th April, 1808, he was advanced to the rank of Rear-Admiral, and soon after appointed to a command in the Baltic, with his flag in the Temeraire, another second rate. Early in 1812, being nominated Commander-in-Chief at Brazil, he proceeded thither in the Montague, 74, and continued on that station during the remainder of the war. He returned to Plymouth in the Valiant, July 8, 1815.
- ↑ See note at p. 183.
- ↑ A letter in Clarke and M‘Arthur’s Life of Lord Nelson augments the Guillaume Tell’s crew to 1220 men; but her officers appear to have stated the number actually on board, at 919.
- ↑ The Lion had not more than 300 men on board at the time of the action.
- ↑ See p. 281.
