affection and esteem of a ship’s company, was perhaps never shown than on this occasion. When the business of paying the crew was finished, a deputation came aft to Captain Stirling and his officers, to thank them for their attention during the three years they had been together, and to assure their late commander that had the Pompée been ordered to any part of the globe, they would have cheerfully gone. When Captain Stirling got into his barge to go on shore, they gave him three hearty cheers.
Soon after the renewal of the war, in 1803, the subject of this memoir was appointed Resident Commissioner at Jamaica, where he remained until advanced to the rank of Rear-Admiral, April 23, 1804.
In the summer of 1805, Rear-Admiral Stirling, with his flag in the Glory of 98 guns, assumed the command of the squadron stationed off Rochefort; from whence he was despatched by Admiral Cornwallis to reinforce Sir Robert Calder, then cruising to intercept the French and Spanish squadrons on their return from the West Indies. He formed a junction with the Vice-Admiral July 15; and on the 22d, an engagement took place between the hostile fleets, which ended in the capture of two Spanish line-of-battle ships. The success would probably have been greater but for the prevalence of a thick fog. The result of this action, taking into consideration the great disproportion of the opposite forces[1], would, in some circumstances, have been deemed a first-rate victory; but such is the perversity of popular opinion, that the conduct of Sir Robert Calder, instead of receiving its meed of praise for what he had achieved, was violently impugned because he had not done more. At length the murmurs of disapprobation became so frequent and unrestrained, that that Admiral demanded a court-martial to investigate the circumstances which took place during, and subsequent to, the action. This was granted; and, to his great surprise and mortification, the court decided, that through error in judgment, unmixed,
- ↑ The British fleet consisted of fifteen line-of-battle ships, two frigates, and two smaller vessels. The enemy had twenty sail of the line, seven frigates, and two brigs. The English had 39 men slain and 159 wounded. The slaughter on board the combined squadrons was very great, but their exact loss has never been exactly ascertained.
