Troubridge, to wait for an opportunity of rejoining the Greyhound, which did not present itself until after the former ship, by striking on the southern extremity of the north sand at the entrance of the Straits of Malacca, had sustained the serious damage which led to her supposed ingulphment, near the island of Rodrigues, in Feb. 1807[1].
In the beginning of July, 1806, Mr. Grace (then again on board the Greyhound) assisted at the destruction of a Dutch armed brig, under the fort of Manado; and at the capture of another vessel of the same description, at the island of Tidore. On the 26th of the same month, he bore a part in an action with a Dutch squadron, which ended in the capture of the Pallas frigate and two East Indiamen, the latter armed for the purpose of war, and richly laden with the produce of the Moluccas: – on this occasion, he was officially recommended by Captain Elphinstone, as a “young officer deserving of promotion”[2].
Sir Thomas Troubridge had previously allowed Mr. Grace to choose, whether he would remain in his flag-ship, or go back to the Greyhound for another cruise; promising, in either case^ to take an early opportunity of promoting him. This promise he renewed just before his departure from India for the Cape of Good Hope, telling him, at the same time, that he might as well remain in the frigate a little longer, under the command of his son. Captain (now Sir Edward T.) Troubridge. By this arrangement, Mr. Grace providentially escaped the melancholy fate of all on board the Blenheim and her consort.
The Greyhound’s anxious cruise in search of those ships has been noticed in our memoir of Sir E. T. Troubridge, with whom Mr. Grace continued, as master’s-mate and acting lieutenant, until that officer was superseded by Captain the Hon. William Pakenham, who afterwards perished in the Saldanha frigate, at the entrance of Loughswilly[3]. Mr. Grace’s appointment as acting lieutenant was given to him by Sir Edward Pellew, (now Viscount Exmouth) June 19th, 1807.
- ↑ See Suppl. Part III. p. 315.
- ↑ See Suppl. Part I. p. 281.
- ↑ See Nav. Chron. V. 27, pp. 42 and 88.
