in her power to run down and close with him; but she seemed not to wish to leave her own shore at a greater distance; and on the Imperieuse making all sail towards her, she took in hers, and continued firing at long range. It was now sunset, and every likelihood of a calm; the British therefore gave the headmost vessels a well-directed broadside, and stood off. The enemy hauled close under the land, except the gun-boats, which, trusting to their oars, followed the Imperieuse and Cephalus a short time, keeping up a distant fire. At day-light, on the 18th, Captain Duncan observed that the whole had returned to their anchorage. It was his intention, had the breeze continued, to have laid the 74 on board; and with such men as he commanded there is no doubt that she would easily have been carried. The enthusiastic zeal of the crews of the Imperieuse and Cephalus exceeded any thing he had ever witnessed, and made him “doubly regret, that the situation of the enemy would not allow of his giving full scope to their valour[1].” This spirited affair took place before thousands of spectators; and certainly did not leave King Joachim much to boast of the improvement of his navy. We believe the 74 bore his name; she fell into the possession of the British, by the capitulation of Naples, in 1815.
Captain Duncan continued off Naples, with two frigates under his orders, till the defects of the Imperieuse rendered it necessary for her to leave that station in order to be refitted. He then escorted a fleet of transports, having troops on board, from Palermo to Alicant, and returned from the latter place to Mahon, where his ship was hove down and new coppered. Whilst there he received an appointment to the Resistance 38, and was at the same time offered the Undaunted, another beautiful frigate of the same class, should he prefer her to the other. The following genuine epistle from his crew, however, prevented him from accepting either:–
- ↑ See Captain Duncan’s official letter to Sir Edward Pellew.
