and to inveigle them into the American service, by high bounties and great promises, in direct contradiction to the declaration of the American officers to me, that they did not wish such a thing; only eight Englishmen have remained behind in the United States, two only of which number have volunteered to serve in the Constitution.
“Leaving the character of my officers and ship’s company, as well as my own, to the decision of this honorable Court, the justice of whose sentence no person can presume to question, I close my narrative, craving indulgence for having taken up so much of their time.”
Having attended to the whole of the evidence, and also to the defence of Captain Dacres, the Court agreed,–
“That the surrender of the Guerriere was proper, in order to preserve the lives of her valuable remaining crew; and that her being in that lamentable situation was from the accident of her masts going, which was occasioned more by their defective state, than from the fire of the enemy, though so greatly superior in guns and men. The Court did, therefore, unanimously and honorably acquit Captain Dacres, his officers, and rew, of all blame on account of her capture.”
Captain Dacres was subsequently appointed to the Tiber frigate, the command of which ship he retained until she was paid off at Deptford, on the 13th Oct. 1818. He married, in 1810, Arabella Boyd, third daughter of Lieutenant-General Sir Hugh Dalrymple, Bart.
Agents.– Messrs. Maude.
PETER RAINIER, Esq.
A Companion of the Most Honorable Military Order of the Bath.
[Post-Captain of 1806.]
This officer obtained post rank, Jan. 17, 1806; his proceedings at Batavia in Oct. following are thus described by himself, in an official letter addressed to Rear-Admiral Sir Thomas Troubridge, Bart, commander-in-chief in the Eastern Seas:–
