following honorable testimony, from the pen of his Commander-in-chief, will shew:–
“Dear Bowen,– The intelligence we received from the patrons of two pilot boats, when off Cadiz, on the 17th Dec., that the French frigate then lying between the Diamond and Porques rocks, had been dismasted and captured by an English frigate, impressed us all with an opinion that the Terpsichore had achieved this gallant action. I lament exceedingly that you and your brave crew were deprived of the substantial reward of your exertions: but you cannot fail to receive the tribute due to you from the government and country at large. I was very much agitated with the danger you apprehended your brother was in, when you wrote: I have, however, derived great consolation from the report of Captain Mansfield, that he was much recovered, and able to walk down to the Mole, before he sailed from Gibraltar[1]. The account you gave of Francis Fane is very grateful to my feelings, and I have sent your postscript to Lady Elizabeth, as the greatest treat I could give to a fond mother, and a high-minded woman. * * * *. I desire you will remember me kindly to your brother, and to all the good fellows in the Terpsichore, and believe me tobe, most truly your’s,
Mr. Fane subsequently joined the Emerald frigate, commanded by Captain Jacob Waller[2]; under whose eye he performed a philanthropic action highly deserving of notice. The circumstance is thus described by the Rev. Cooper Willyams, in his account of the Swiftsure’s “Voyage up the Mediterranean” at p. 93, et seq.
- ↑ Lieutenant George Bowen was severely wounded in the shoulder by a shot fired after la Vestale had actually struck. He also received several bad contusions in different parts of his body.
- ↑ See Vol. II. Part I. note * at p. 327.
- ↑ The Emerald was at this time attached to the squadron left by Lord Nelson, after his glorious victory in Aboukir bay, to watch the coast of Egypt, and cut off the supplies sent from France for the Republican army in that country.
