and take him out, which he accomplished without accident, rowing clear of the enemy’s fire, and presenting him in person to the British Admiral.
On his return to port, Lord Duncan, as a mark of his approbation, applied for Mr. Richardson to be appointed one of his Lieutenants, and he was accordingly removed into the Venerable, on promotion. He subsequently served with the same gallant veteran in the Kent 74, and we find him commanding a detachment of seamen, attached to Sir Ralph Abercromby’s army, from the period of debarkation near the Helder, until the surrender of the Dutch squadron under Rear-Admiral Storey, in Aug. 1799[1]. The nature of the service in which he was personally engaged will be seen by the following extract from his Lordship’s public letter to the Admiralty:
“I shall not enter into a detail of the landing of the troops, or what happened on Tuesday, as their Lordships will have that stated by Vice-Admiral Mitchell; suffice it to say, the troops rowed towards the shore at day-break, and landed, though immediately opposed by numbers, and from that time till half-past four P.M. were continually in action.”
Lieutenant Richardson returned from the Texel in command of a Dutch 68-gun ship; but afterwards rejoined the Kent and served under Lord Duncan till that nobleman’s resignation, at the commencement of 1800. He subsequently accompanied the present Sir W. Johnstone Hope to the coast of Egypt[2], assisted at the landing of the British troops in Aboukir bay, and was present in the battle of Mar. 8, 1801. His next appointment was, as first Lieutenant, to the Penelope frigate, commanded by the Hon. Henry Blackwood, with whom he continued on the Mediterranean station till the spring of 1802.
The Penelope, after refitting at Portsmouth, was ordered to convey Sir Alexander I. Ball and suite to Malta. Lieutenant Richardson, on his arrival at that island, was promoted to the command of the Alligator a 28-gun frigate, armed en flute. On his return to England, in April, 1803, he was sent to join Commodore Hood on the West India station; and he appears to have been entrusted by that officer with the direction of a flotilla employed in the reduction of Demerara, Essequibo,
