ship; but by the exertions and cool intrepidity of her commander, the fire was each time subdued, and the lives of 900 men, women, and children, preserved. She subsequently sprung a leak off St. Domingo, whilst on her way to Jamaica; and being surveyed at the latter island, was found utterly unfit again to cross the seas.
Captain Wight now removed his pendant into the London transport, and embarked a detachment of troops ordered to Savanna la Mer, at which place he received on board a party of the York hussars, for a passage to England. Whilst thus employed he was attacked by the yellow fever, from which he had scarcely recovered when the London sprung a leak under the chesstree, about four feet beneath her water line, and was with great difficulty kept afloat until her return to Port Royal, where she was discharged from the service, and her passengers removed into other vessels.
Having at length returned home in safety, he received an offer of further employment in the same line of service; but it not being his wish to avail himself thereof, he declined an appointment to a frigate under the Transport Board, and remained on half-pay till July 1800, when he obtained the command of the Wolverene, a brig fitted according to a plan proposed by Commissioner Schanck, with guns on the inclined plane, and grooves in her deck, by which she could fight them all on one side[1].
On the 19th of the following month, Captain Wight, being at anchor near the islands of St. Marcou, on the coast of Normandy, discovered two large French sloops attempting to make their escape from the river Isigny, and lost no time in pursuing them, with the Wolverene, two gun-brigs, and a cutter. The enemy finding themselves hard pressed, ran into the bay of Grand Camp, and anchored under cover of two batteries, which Captain Wight immediately attacked and kept in play, while his boats, under Lieutenant John Gregory, boarded and set fire to the largest vessel, lying aground within half pistol-shot of the beach, on which 200 men with muskets and three field-pieces were posted. The other sloop
