1780; and continued in that ship on foreign service till the peace of 1783; during which period he bore a part in the actions between Vice-Admiral Arbuthnot and Mons. de Ternay, Mar. 16, 1781; Rear-Admiral Graves and the Count de Grasse, Sept. 5, 1781; Sir Samuel Hood and the same French commander, Jan. 25 and 26, 1782; and in Rodney’s battles of April 9 and 12 in the same year. On the latter day the America led the centre division of the British fleet, and sustained a loss of 12 men, including 2 Lieutenants, killed, and 22 officers and men wounded, besides being greatly cut up in her masts, sails, and rigging, notwithstanding which she was far advanced in pursuit of the flying enemy when the Ville de Paris surrendered[1].
The America returned to England in July 1783; and from that period Mr. Sanders was constantly employed in different ships till May 1792, when he was removed from the Duke of 90 guns into the Lion 64, commanded by the late Sir Erasmus Gower, who entrusted him with the command of the Jackall, a brig of 101 tons, originally a Welch coaster, which vessel had been purchased into the service, and fitted as a tender to the embassy under Lord Macartney, then about to proceed to the court of Pekin[2].
- ↑ For an account of the above actions see Vol. I, pp. 40 and 133; Vol. II, Part I. p. 63, et seq.: and Vol. I, note at p. 35 et seq.
- ↑ Captain Gower was appointed to the Lion at Lord Macartney’s express desire, and gratified with the choice of his own officers, whom he selected from a personal knowledge of their merit. The nomination of a Captain was far from being a matter of indifference to the Ambassador; for, beside the proper qualifications to conduct any very long voyage, with safety and comfort to the passengers and crew, still more might possibly be requisite in an undertaking in which a new tract of sea was to be explored; as it became a part of the plan to sail directly for the harbour next to the capital of China, through the Yellow Sea and the Gulf of Pekin, for a space of 10° of latitude, and more than half that quantity of longitude, no part of which had ever been described by any European navigator. To every branch of the sea service Captain Gower was known to be fully equal. In addition to the military exertions of this spirited and able officer, he had twice, at an early age, been round the world, having suffered, and materially contributed to surmount, the vast variety of evils incident to such perilous and protracted voyages, by which his mind was inured to, and provided with resources against, the accidents
