the officer charged with Sir Charles Grey’s despatches, who was thus enabled to execute his mission in safety[1].
In Nov. 1794, Sir John Jervis presented Mr. Wight with an appointment to act as a Lieutenant on board the Beaulieu frigate, commanded by his friend Captain Riou; from which ship he was afterwards removed into l’Aimable of 32 guns, on the same station. This promotion was conferred upon him as a token of the Admiral’s approbation of his very distinguished conduct during the preceding campaign.
The Beaulieu was engaged in a variety of active services, and on one occasion destroyed a French troop-ship, mounting 24 guns, and laden with military stores, after an action of two hours with the battery of St. François, Guadaloupe. Previous to her being set on fire, a shot struck her fore-mast, against which Mr. Wight was leaning, and passed through it about twelve inches above his right arm. L’Aimable, commanded by Captain Mainwaring, had a very sharp contest with the Pensee, a French frigate, mounting 44 guns, with a complement of 400 men, 28 of whom were killed, and 36 wounded, whilst, strange to say, she herself had not a man slain, and only two or three persons wounded. During this conflict Captain Mainwaring and Mr. Wight were knocked down by the hammocks, &c., set in motion by the enemy’s shot, but sustained no material injury[2]. The following particulars of the action have been furnished us by a gentleman who bore a part therein. We give them at length, in consequence of no other correct account ever having appeared in print:
- ↑ Fort Matilda (formerly Fort St. Charles) had a very high wall next the sea, and was completely commanded on the other three sides by land; so that, although impregnable against an attack by ships, it was not capable of maintaining a long defence against a vigorous enemy on shore. It was taken by the British, April 22, 1794, and evacuated Dec. 10, in the same year.
- ↑ Captain Jemmet Mainwaring was lost in la Babet, oa his passage to the West Indies, in 1801.
