In the beginning of Aug. 1813, Lieutenant Hotham assisted at the capture and destruction of the batteries of Rovigno, twenty-one sail of merchantmen lying in the harbour, and several ships and vessels on the stocks. “The conduct of the officers, &c. employed on this service,” says Captain Rowley, “merits my warmest encomiums.”
The Eagle was afterwards employed by Rear-Admiral Fremantle in the blockade of Trieste, while the Austrian army under Major-General Count Nugent was harassing Eugene Beauharnois in his retreat from Istria and Croatia. The capture of the arsenal, on the night of Oct. 6th, 1813, has been noticed in our memoir of Captain John Duff Markland, C.B., by whom that service was voluntarily conducted. The subsequent operations against the citadel are thus described by Rear-Admiral Fremantle:–
“On the 11th, the General returned from Gorizia, having obliged the Viceroy to pasH the Isonzo. It was then determined to lay siege to the castle. By the 16th, in the morning, we had twelve guns in two batteries, which opened their fire and continued nearly the whole day; towards evening, the enemy was driven from the windmill hill, which was taken possession of by the Austrian troops, and two howitzers were advanced there. The firing was continued occasionally until noon on the 23d, by which time Captain Rowley had got a 32-pounder within 200 yards of the Schanza, where there was a strong building with one gun, and loop holes in it, standing upon a hill, with a wall round it nearly fourteen feet high, an officer, and 60 men.
“We had had some communication with the castle in the morning, but the truce was broke off at a very short notice by the enemy, who opened on all sides. The 32-pounder was fired upon the Schanza. The first shot the gun recoiled, and, the ground giving way, it fell backwards off the platform, which was six feet above the level. It was fine to see Captain Rowley and his people immediately get a triangle above the work, and the 32-pounder, with its carriage, run up to its place again, under a shower of grape and musketry, which occasioned a severe loss. Towards evening, the enemy in the Schanza held out the white flag, and surrendered to Captain Rowley.
“Having now possession of the Schanza, which commanded the castle and the windmill hill, we set to work upon some advanced batteries within 400 yards of the castle; but the weather was so wet, and the labour so great, that they wore not complete until the morning of the 29th, when the enemy acceded to our altered propositions for surrendering the castle.
