three days. The same person gave information that the French ships were from the West Indies, from whence they had sailed with only a sufficient quantity of stores and provisions on board to enable them to cross the Atlantic. This circumstance, together with their very rusty appearance, sufficiently accounts for Captain Maitland’s mistake. Had they been troopships, as he expected, there can be no doubt that the Duguay-Trouin, unsupported as she was by her consort, would have been captured by him. The Boadicea on this occasion had not a man hurt, but her sails and rigging were much cut up; which will not be wondered at, when we state that she received two complete broadsides from her powerful antagonist, as they passed on opposite tacks.
A circumstance occurred about the same period (1803), which enabled Captain Maitland once more to evince his zeal for the public service. Being with the in-shore squadron off Brest, the Boadicea struck upon the rock Bas de Lis, which penetrated her bottom, and occasioned her to make so much water, that it was with difficulty she could be kept free, although assisted by 100 men sent with cistern pumps from the other ships. In this dangerous situation it was deemed necessary to send another frigate to escort her to Portsmouth, from whence she returned to her station in a perfect state of equipment, and joined the Channel fleet within eight days after the accident, three of which had been spent in dock. In the course of the same year, he captured the French national lugger le Vautour, of 12 guns, pierced for 16, and 92 men, commanded by a Lieutenant de Vaisseau, and having a Commissaire de Marine on board, charged with important despatches from General Rochambeau at Cape François, St. Domingo; a Dutch East Indiaman; three West Indiamen; and also made several recaptures.
In 1804, when the line-of-battle ships employed in the blockade of Rochefort, were called in to join the Channel fleet, the Boadicea was left alone to watch that port. While thus employed, the enemy made repeated attempts to drive her off by sending out a ship of the line and a frigate; but as they never ventured to chase farther than 10 or 12 leagues from the land, Captain Maitland, by tacking at the same time with them, succeeded in maintaining his station till the arrival of a
