weather, or danger of coasts or shoals, but merely from inability to conduct her into port. At 6 P.M. on the 17th, her anchor was let go between the islands of Leyden and Alkmaar; soon after a gun was fired, and a signal made for assistance. None, however, arrived till the following evening, when a boat was sent to her from the Dutch Commodore. Never, perhaps, did any ship arrive in port more helpless from the mere effects of a dreadful and invincible disorder. From two British East Indiamen, which lay in Batavia Roads when she arrived, and from three others which came in a few days after, with the assistance of a few Dutch sailors, a fresh crew was at length made up, in which only 4 of the original seamen remained, the rest having either died in the hospital, or not being sufficiently recovered to re-embark previous to her sailing again on the 7th Dec. Nothing remarkable happening during the remainder of the passage home, she arrived off the Isle of Wight on the 28th May 1789, after an absence of rather more than two years. Lieutenant Shortland, during this voyage, determined for the first time the actual position of Solomon’s Islands.
Mr. T. G. Shortland subsequently served as Midshipman and Master’s-Mate on board the Director, Discovery, and Sandwich, the latter ship bearing the flag of Vice-Admiral Dalrymple at the Nore. Towards the latter end of 1790 he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant, in the Speedy sloop of war, on the North Sea station; and from Jan. 1793 till Sept. 1794, we find him serving on board the Nemesis, a small frigate attached to the Mediterranean fleet. His gallant conduct in Hieres Bay, after the evacuation of Toulon, has already been briefly noticed at p. 313. On that occasion, although exposed to a heavy fire of musketry from the shore, he used every effort to get the hospital-ship alluded to afloat; but finding it impracticable to move her, in consequence of its blowing a gale of wind, was under the necessity of clearing and setting her on fire, having first succeeded in bringing off the whole of the wounded men, provisions, &c
From the Nemesis, Lieutenant Shortland removed into the Romney of 50 guns, commanded by Sir Charles Hamilton, whom he accompanied into the Melpomene frigate, about April 1795, and continued to serve with for a period of four years; during which l’Aventurier brig of war[1], la Revanche,
- ↑ At 10 P.M. on the 3d Aug. 1798, Sir Charles Hamilton despatched five boats from the Melpomene and Childers, under the orders of Lieutenant Shortland, to attack a French convoy lying in the Bay of Corigeon, near Isle Bas. The weather was at this time very squally, with heavy rain and vivid lightning. At 3 A.M. on the 4th the boats boarded, and after a short but spirited resistance, carried l’Aventurier of 12 guns and
