found it necessary to call them down to cut away the main-mast. Whilst I was waiting for the men to come down, a sudden gust overset the ship; most of the officers, with myself, and a number of the ship’s company, got upon the side of the ship; the wheel on the quarter-deck was then under water. In this situation I could perceive the ship settling bodily some feet, until the water washed up to the after part of the slides of the carronades on the weather side. Notwithstanding the ship was so far gone, upon the masts, bowsprit, &c. going away, she righted as far as to bring the lee gunwale even with the water’s edge. By the exertion of all the officers and men, we soon got the lee quarter-deck guns and carronades overboard, and soon after one of the forecastle guns and sheet anchor cut away; which had ao good an effect, that we were enabled to get at the pumps and lee guns on the main-deck; the throwing them overboard was, in our situation, a work of great difficulty; and I could perceive the ship was already going down by the stern. This arduous task was accomplished under the direction of Lieutenant Edward Pakenham, whose great experience and determined perseverance, marked him out as perhaps the only individual to whom (amidst such great exertions) a pre-eminence could be given. The water was above the cable on the orlop-deck, with a vast quantity between decks; and the stump of the main-mast falling out of the step, occasioned one of the chain pumps to be rendered useless, as was the other soon after; by the great activity of the two carpenter’s mates, they were alternately cleared. Besides the loss of our masts, the ship has suffered considerable damages, the books and papers totally destroyed, and 20 seamen drowned and wounded.”
From the Amazon, Mr. Dacres was removed, as first Lieutenant, into the Alcide of 74 guns, Captain C. Thompson; in which ship he was present in Admiral Graves’ action off the Chesapeake, Sept. 5th, 1781[1]; and in the different skirmishes with Count de Grasse’s squadron, at St. Christopher’s, in the beginning of the year 1782[2]. He also participated in Rodney’s glorious victory over the French fleet, on the 12th April succeeding[3].
The present just rule, of promoting first Lieutenants on such occasions, was not then established; and Mr. Dacres remained in the Alcide till 1783, when he was appointed junior Lieutenant of the Bombay Castle 74, stationed at Portsmouth, where he continued about two years, and then accompanied Commodore Sawyer to Halifax, in the Leander 50, from which ship he was paid off in 1788.
In the Spanish armament of 1790, Lieutenant Dacres was appointed, first, to the Dictator 64, and afterwards to the
