in the subsequent operations of the flotilla, he had an attack of the prevailing epidemic, and was consequently obliged to be invalided. On his recovery, he rejoined the Monarch, after an absence of eight months.
In Aug. 1810, Lieutenant Cobb was sent to join a flotilla, consisting of twelve gun-boats, then about to be equipped at Gibraltar, under the orders of Commodore Penrose. The especial object which H.M. Government appear to have had in view on this occasion, was the protection of the bay and its neighbourhood; the recent success of the Trench arms having excited a well-founded alarm, not only for the security of our ordinary commercial relations with the Mediterranean, but also that the supplies on which Cadiz mainly depended might be intercepted, and those also cut off which were then chiefly procured from the Barbary coast, for the service of our cavalry in the peninsula. So large a force, however, soon appeared less requisite at Gibraltar than the enterprising character of the enemy had led ministers to expect it would become; and therefore, almost immediately after its organization, the greater part of this flotilla was ordered to be incorporated with another, previously established in Cadiz bay. Here, and on various detached services at Frangerola, Estapona, Conil, Sancti-Petri, Tarifa, and Algeziras, Lieutenant Cobb commanded a gun-boat for two years, during which period he took his share of every privation and danger attending so harassing an employment; and was, on several occasions, very flatteringly noticed by the distinguished officers under whom he successively served. For his conduct at Algeziras, he moreover received, the thanks of the Regency of Spain, who transmitted also a request to the British ambassador, that his services might receive the consideration of H.M. Government. An outline of the operations of the combined flotillas, during the hottest part of the siege of Cadiz, will be found in Vol. III. Part I. pp. 127–141. The expedition against Frangerola is noticed in Suppl. Part III. pp. 198–200. For an account of the gallant and successful defence of Tarifa, the reader is referred to Landmann’s “Historical, Military, and Picturesque Observations on Portugal,” &c. Vol. I. p. 545, et seq.
