war. Sir George Collier at this time had orders from Rear Admiral Griffith to send the Acasta into port, she being much in want of a refit; but yielding to the entreaties of her commander, he determined to deviate from his instructions, and allow her to accompany the Leander and Newcastle in pursuit of the ertemy, whom he expected to fall in with near the Western Islands, imagining that their first object would be to intercept our homeward bound trade. He shortly after captured the Prince de Neufchatel, a remarkably fine American privateer schooner, mounting 18, and pierced for 22 guns; which vessel, instead of being sent to Bermuda or Halifax, where she would have sold for a very handsome sum, and from whence it is very probable she would have passed again into the hands of her original owners, was immediately despatched to England with the intelligence of an enemy’s squadron being at sea, by which means;the Admiralty were enabled to make timely arrangements for the protection of the valuable fleets then on their passage home[1].
Continuing his search for the enemy, Sir George Collier discovered a large brig, which he approached under easy sail, so as not to show any particular anxiety, suspecting from circumstances that she was a British vessel in the possession of the enemy, and being desirous of obtaining information from the prize-master by imposing the Leander upon him as an American ship. Nothing could have happened better: the brig proved to be the John, of Liverpool, lately captured by the Perry privateer; and the person in charge of her went on board the Leander, in his own boat, without the slightest hesitation. The moment he got upon deck, he congratulated the officers on the squadron being at sea, and in a situation where they would do “a tarnation share of mischief to the d___d English sarpents, and play the devil’s game with their rag of a flag.” He then observed, that he knew the Leander the moment he saw her, by her black painted masts and sides, and the cut of her sails, to be the President, as he was in
- ↑ So highly was the Prince de Neufchatel admired, that orders were given for her model to be taken and preserved in Deptford dock-yard; but owing to some accident or other her back was broken whilst there, and she was afterwards sold for a mere trifle.
