tracts of that officer’s public letter, reporting the capture of the island of Capri:–
“Capri, from its situation, protecting the coasting communication southward, was a great object for the enemy to keep, and by so much one for me to wrest from him. I accordingly summoned the French commandant to surrender (May 11th, 1806), and, on his non-acquiescence, directed Captain Rowley to cover the landing of marines and boats’ crews, and caused an attack to be made under his orders. That brave officer placed his ship judiciously, nor did he open his fire till she was secured, and her distance marked by the effect of musketry on the quarter-deck, where the first lieutenant, James Crawley, was wounded, and a seaman killed. An hour’s firing from both decks of the Eagle, with that of two Neapolitan mortar-boats, drove the enemy from the vineyards within their walls; the marines were landed, and gallantly led by Captain Bunco; the seamen, in like manner, under Lieutenants Morrell and Redding, of the Eagle and Pompée, mounted the steps, for such was their road, headed by the officers, nearest to the narrow path, by which alone they could ascend. Lieutenant (W. F.) Carroll had thus an opportunity of particularly distinguishing himself. Captain Stanners, commanding the Athenienne’s marines, gallantly pressing forward, carried the heights, and the French commandant fell by his hand; this event being known, the enemy beat a parley, * * * the capitulation annexed was signed, and the garrison allowed to march out, and pass over to Naples, with every honor of war.”
The loss sustained by the Eagle on this occasion amounted to no more than two men killed, and her first lieutenant and ten men wounded. Captain Rowley was afterwards severely injured by a shell, while employed on shore in the defence of Gaieta, to which fortress, on hearing of the straitened circumstances of its garrison, he had hastened from the Bay of Naples. Previously to the surrender of Gaieta by the Neapolitan Governor, Captain Rowley brought off the guns which before his arrival had been landed from British men-of-war. He likewise superintended the embarkation of the troops of His Sicilian Majesty.
The Eagle was attached to the grand armament sent against Antwerp, in 1809; and we find part of her officers and crew employed in the defence of Fort Matagorda, near Cadiz, in April, 1810[1]. She captured the French frigate Corceyre, pierced for 40 guns, mounting 28, with a complement of 170
