Lieutenant Larkan’s order enjoining him to be steady, to take up the match gently and hand it to him, he threw it up the scuttle with such force that it fell down an adjoining hatchway where a large quantity of combustible matter was deposited; and but for the promptitude of Lieutenant Larkan, who seeing another man standing near, instantly pushed him down upon the match, which was thereby fortunately extinguished, the most alarming consequences might have followed. Others, however, being secreted in different parts, as was evident from the increased smoke, Lieutenant Larkan having succeeded in reaching Gibraltar Bay about mid-night, and reported the condition of the vessel to his Captain, was ordered to destroy her without delay, a service which he performed so effectually, that in little more than a quarter of an hour the water for some distance was covered with her burning wreck.
On the appearance of hostilities with Spain in 1790, Lieutenant Larkan again joined Lord Hugh Seymour, in the Canada of 74 guns; and at the commencement of the French war in 1793, he accompanied him to the Mediterranean in the Leviathan, a ship of the same force.
During the memorable actions of May 29 and June 1, 1794, the Leviathan, at that period attached to Lord Howe’s fleet, bore a distinguished part. The veteran Admiral, in his supplementary official letter, dated June 21, thus notices her conduct on the 28th of the former month:
“The quick approach of night only allowed me to observe, that Lord Hugh Seymour Conway in the Leviathan, with equal good judgment and determined courage, pushed up alongside of the 3-decked French ship, and was supported by Captain Parker of the Audacious, in the most spirited manner. I have since learnt that the Leviathan stretched on farther a-head, for bringing the second ship from the enemy’s rear to action, as soon as her former station could be occupied by a succeeding British ship; also that the 3-decker in the enemy’s rear, as aforesaid, being unsustained by their other ships, struck to the Audacious, and that they parted company together soon afterwards.” Respecting the Leviathan on the ensuing day, his Lordship adds: “The Queen Charlotte was therefore immediately tacked; and followed by the Bellerophon, her second astern, and soon after joined by the Leviathan, passed through in action, between the fifth and sixth ships in the rear of the enemy’s line.”
On the 1st June, the Leviathan engaged l’Amérique of 74 guns, bearing the broad pendant of a French Commodore,
