violent gale of wind, during which the ship worked so heavily as to cause several bolts to start some inches from her sides; and before her arrival at Spithead the whole fabric of the upper works was literally frapped together, by means of hawsers passed fore-and-aft through the opposite main-deck ports.
Mr. Thruston next joined the Cruiser sloop, Captain (now superannuated Rear-Admiral) Charles Wollaston, on the North Sea station, where he witnessed the capture of several privateers and neutrals, the latter laden with enemy’s property. We subsequently find him serving under Captain Wodehouse, in the Brilliant, Iris, and Resistance frigates. The last named ship was employed in attendance on King George III. at Weymouth, during the summer of 1802; and wrecked a few miles to the northward of Cape St. Vincent, when proceeding to the Mediterranean, May 31st, 1803. On joining the fleet off Toulon, her captain, officers, and crew were tried by a court-martial, and the whole, with two exceptions, fully acquitted: – these were Lieutenant Southcott, who had charge of the watch when she ran aground, and Mr. Rose, the master; the former gentleman was placed at the bottom of the list, and the latter dismissed H.M. service.
Disliking the tedium and irksomeness of a crowded flagship, Mr. Thruston, on the departure of Captain Wodehouse for England, volunteered his services to Captain Thomas Staines, and was received by that officer on board the Camelion sloop; as were also two of his fellow sufferers in the late shipwreck, (the gallant Manners, who afterwards lost his life in the command of the Reindeer; and the present Captain George Scott). The character of their new commander for enterprize is sufficiently known to warrant the belief that the three young volunteers were not idle during a cruise of some months on the coasts of Italy and France: – it was the summer season, and scarcely a night passed in which the boats, commanded by these young gentlemen, were not actively, and for the most part, successfully employed, in boarding and cutting out vessels from almost every accessible place along those shores.
