then collecting at Malta, the whole of which he escorted in safety to the Downs, where he arrived, after a tempestuous passage, in the month of Feb. 1810.
The Mercury was paid off, at Woolwich, shortly after her arrival; and in June following Captain Duncan received an appointment of a much more gratifying description, it being to the Imperieuse, a fine 38-gun frigate, of which he assumed the command at Gibraltar, on the 22d Sept., having followed her thither, as a passenger, in the Milford 74.
In May 1811, the Imperieuse and Resistance were detached to Algiers, in quest of two French frigates; but not meeting with them, Captain Duncan was obliged to content himself with obtaining the release of a Cephalonian brig, which had been carried into Tripoli by an Algerine cruiser. He was afterwards sent on two short cruises, under the orders of Captains Blackwood and Dundas, during which he assisted at the capture of ten merchant vessels. With the exception of those three trips he was constantly attached to the inshore squadron off Toulon, for upwards of nine months; a service of the most irksome nature to an officer of his enterprising spirit. The time, however, was approaching, when his talents for conducting operations along shore were again to be called into action.
In July, Sir Edward Pellew, who had recently succeeded Sir Charles Cotton in the chief command of the Mediterranean fleet, relieved Captain Duncan from his mortifying situation, by sending him to Naples on a special service, for the able execution of which he received that officer’s particular thanks.
On the 11th Oct. 1811, being the fourteenth anniversary of Lord Duncan’s victory, his son commenced a series of active operations in the Imperieuse, by attacking three of the enemy’s gun-vessels, each carrying an 18-pounder and 30 men, moored under the walls of a strong fort, near the town of Possitano, in the Gulf of Salerno.
About 11 A.M. the frigate was anchored within range of grape, and in a few minutes the enemy were driven from their guns, and one of the gun-boats was sunk. It, however, became absolutely necessary to get possession of the fort; for although silenced, yet (from its being regularly walled
