Page:Royal Naval Biography Marshall v2p2.djvu/434

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
926
POST-CAPTAINS OF 1805.

“Mr. Turnbull presents his compliments to Captain Vincent, and ha the pleasure to enclose him a statement of the proportioned donations which the Committee have been enabled to raise, in order to replace the loss of clothes and necessaries which the officers and crew of his Majesty’s sloop Arrow may have sustained in consequence of their gallant action in the Mediterranean. The amount in all being 477l. 10s., Captain Vincent will be pleased to draw for it, at ten days sight, on Joseph Marriot, Esq. and distribute it according to the list sent herewith. Exactly the same donations have been made to the officers and crew of the Acheron: and it gives Mr. Turnbull much pleasure to have had the opportunity on this occasion of contributing to establish a precedent, for indemnifying those brave men, who may have lost their little property in the service of their country[1].

In May 1806, Captain Vincent was appointed to succeed Captain Robert Barrie in the Brilliant of 28 guns, on the Irish station; and directed to assume the temporary command of the Pomoiie 38, then waiting at Spithead for that officer to join her. After exchanging ships with Captain Barrie, he proceeded to Cork, and was sent from thence by his commander-in-chief, Lord Gardner, on a cruise to the westward of Ireland, where he fell in with and took charge of several West India traders, stragglers from the homeward bound convoy; the whole of which he escorted safely into the British Channel.

Towards the close of the same year, Captain Vincent was obliged to resign the Brilliant, through ill health; and it was not till 1808, that he found himself sufficiently convalescent to go again afloat. He then applied for active employment, and was immediately appointed to the Hind 28; but as that ship was then stationed in the Mediterranean, he received, with his commission to her, an order to act as Captain of the Cambrian, a frigate of the largest class, fitting at Plymouth, to convoy a fleet of merchantmen to that quarter, and on his arrival to exchange with Captain Francis W. Fane, then commanding the Hind.

On his arrival off Cadiz, Captain Vincent fell in with the squadrbn under Vice-Admiral Purvis, who was then paving the way for an amicable intercourse between his Majesty’s

  1. The sums were thus proportioned:– to Captain Vincent, 50l.; to the Lieutenants, Master, and a passenger of similar rank, 20l. each; to the warrant officers, l0l. each; to the Midshipmen and other petty officers, 5l. each; and to the seamen, &c, 2l. 10s. each.