by John Marshall

“ The vessel thus alluded to contained about 1,500 barrels of gunpowder, started into puncheons placed end-upward, fastened to each other by hawsers wound round them, and joined together with wedges, having moistened sand rammed down between them, so as to render the whole, from stem to stern, quite solid, and thereby increase the resistance: besides which, on the top of this mass of gunpowder, lay between 300 and 400 charged shells, and nearly as many thousands of hand grenades. ”

“ Captain Austin Bissell, an eminently distinguished officer, perished in the Blenheim 74, bearing the flag of Sir Thomas Troubridge, on his return from Madras to the Cape of Good Hope, in Feb. 1807.
This officer entered the navy as midshipman on board the Inflexible 64, Captain Rowland Cotton, with whom he sailed to the relief of Gibraltar, in Mar. 1781: he was also in the same ship under the command of Captain the Hon. J. Chetwynd, in the last action between Sir Edward Hughes and Mons. De Suffrein, fought off Cuddalore, in the East Indies, June 20th, 1783. ”

“ Lieutenant-Colonel Cochrane, and Lieutenant Bissell, of the navy, were volunteers in the Imperieuse, and rendered themselves extremely useful; the former by commanding some guns on the main-deck, and the latter in conducting one of the explosion vessels. ”