of any of his friends we beg leave to say that any authentic documents relative to Sir James Lind’s services, if sent to us for the purpose of being published in the Supplement to this work, shall be carefully returned, when copied.
A painting (by F. Sartorious) representing the discomfiture of Mons. Linois, was exhibited in the Antique Academy, in 1805.
JOSEPH NOURSE, Esq.
A Companion of the Most Honorable Military Order of the Bath.
[Post-Captain of 1804.]
This officer was made a Lieutenant Dec. 10, 1799, and served as such on board the Courageux, of 74 guns, commanded by the late Vice-Admiral Sir Samuel Hood, K.B. by whom he was successively advanced to the rank of Commander and Post-Captain.
On the 29th Aug. 1800, Lieutenant Nourse volunteered to assist in cutting out an enemy’s ship from under the batteries in Vigo bay, which service was gallantly performed by the boats of a squadron under Sir John Borlase Warren, The enemy made a most desperate resistance, her commander having secured the hatchways to prevent his people from retreating, and cheered the British as they advanced to the attack, She proved to be la Guêpe, French privateer, of 300 tons, mounting 18 nine-pounders, with a complement of 161 men; 25 of whom were killed, and 40 wounded. The boats, (20 in number) had only 4 men killed, 1 drowned, and 20 wounded. Among the latter were Lieutenants Henry Burke (the senior officer) severely, John Henry Holmes, and Joseph Nourse, slightly[1].
At the latter end of 1802, when Sir Samuel Hood resided at Trinidad as one of his Majesty’s joint Commissioners for that island, Lieutenant Nourse commanded the Advice, a small vessel employed as a tender to the colony; and when his friend succeeded to the chief command on the Leeward Islands’ station, vacant by the death of Rear-Admiral Totty, he accompanied him into the Blenheim 74, from which ship Sir
- ↑ La Guêpe was afterwards the British sloop of war Wasp. See p. 592 et seq.
