of 18 guns and 167 men, le Zelé of 16 guns and 69 men, several smaller privateers, and a number of merchantmen, were taken from the enemy.
In April 1799, Lieutenant Shortland was made a Commander into the Voltigeur sloop of war, stationed at Newfoundland. His next appointment was, pro tempore, to the Donegal of 80 guns, at Plymouth, which ship he fitted out with only 170 men, and moored in Cawsand Bay, on the seventeenth day after she was taken out of dock. Earl St. Vincent, who then, (July 1801,) presided at the Admiralty, testified his approbation of the extraordinary exertions used on this occasion, by appointing him, in Oct. following, to act as Captain of the Dedaigneuse, and afterwards confirming him in the command of that frigate. His post commission bears date Mar. 1, 1802.
Captain Shortland proceeded in the Dedaigneuse to the East Indies; but soon after his arrival there was obliged to invalid through ill health, and return to England as a passenger on board the Intrepid 64. He arrived at Portsmouth in Feb. 1803, and subsequently commanded the Britannia a first rate, and Caesar 80; the latter bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral Sir Richard J. Strachan.
At the latter end of June, 1806, Captain Shortland was selected by the late Sir Thomas Louis to command his flagship, the Canopus of 84 guns; and on the 27th Sept. in the same year, he assisted at the capture of le Presidente, a remarkably fine French frigate, mounting 44 guns, with a complement of 330 men[1].
The Canopus led the van of Sir John T. Duckworth’s squadron when forcing the passage of the Dardanelles, Feb. 19 and Mar. 3, 1807[2]. Notwithstanding the tremendous fire to which she was exposed on both those days, from the for-
- ↑ See Captain Edward Hawkins.
- ↑ See Vol. I. pp. 317, 799, and 808 et seq.
79 men, 16 of whom were wounded, several mortally. The batteries in the neighbourhood being by this time alarmed, and the wind blowing dead on the land, Lieutenant Shortland was obliged to relinquish any attempt on the other vessels, and work his prize off shore; which he succeeded in doing, after being exposed to the fire of the batteries for about two hours. This gallant exploit was performed with the loss of 1 man killed, 1 missing, and 3 or 4 wounded.
