by John Marshall

“ The reduction of Pigeon Island has always been a prelude to any attempt against the town of Fort Royal, and the once tremendous fortresses of Bourbon and Republique. This island commands the anchorage in the upper part of the bay. Captain Cockburn and Brigadier-General Sir Charles Shipley reconnoitred the ground, and fixed on Morae Vanier (a steep hill) as the most proper situation to erect their batteries. ”

“ It is impossible to describe the heat and irritation of the seamen at the Nore, at the time of the arrival and the accession of the four ships of the line to their cause: the insolence of the leaders was raised to such a height that it was difficult to say where their excesses might end; and it was intimated, by some of the delegates who came to visit the Agamemnon, that violence might be offered to the officers and their adherents. ”

“ Turning with indignation from the agent of a government so faithless, and which could thus cruelly forsake its servants in the hour of extreme distress, the commodore ordered the signal to he made to weigh; it was instantly complied with; and as the squadron moved out of the bay, it was followed by numerous boats, ia which were the wives, the parents, the children, of many of the unhappy prisoners, in a state of grief which it would be vain to attempt to describe. ”

“ The Ambuscade, of 32 guns, had just received a very expensive repair in the dock-yard at Sheerness, and was ordered thence to the Nore; in coming out of the harbour, it blew nearly a gale of wind; instead of having a sail suitable to the weather, they set their top-gallant-sails. The ship, when clear of the garrison-point, would not steer, and in a minute after upset, and went down: fortunately, the spot, where the accident took place, was in four fathoms water, consequently most of the people who were on deck were saved upon the side of the vessel ”

“ Works were in the mean time thrown up behind some brushwood on the top of the hill; and in the evening of the 3d, a battery of one 13-inch mortar, and three 8-inch howitzers, was ready to open from Morne Vanier against Pigeon Island. It began at six o’clock the same evening, and continued with very little intermission till day-light the next morning, when the fort hung out a flag of truce and surrendered. This was no sooner perceived at Fort Royal, than the Amphitrite, a beautiful frigate of 44 guns, lying in the Carenage, was set on fire and destroyed [14] . ”

“ The whole hemisphere was illuminated with continued streams of fire, with the flashes of guns, and the bursting of shells. The fire of the enemy was equally severe. * * * * On the 22d a great explosion was observed in the fort, which we afterwards learned was occasioned by their small magazine having been blown up by one of our shells. On the same night the laboratory tent, in the rear of our great mortar battery, exploded, killing and wounding 9 men belonging to the Amaranthe. ”

“ The Crown was the first British ship of the line that anchored in Port Cornwallis, which had been taken possession of the preceding year, and fortified, in consequence of the supreme government at Calcutta perceiving the distress to which our navy and commerce were likely to be reduced for want of a harbour on the coast of Coromandel. After making some observations there, the Commodore proceeded to another place farther north, on the Great Andaman, called North East harbour, which appeared to be better adapted for the required purpose than the other ”

“ Never was man found in a more perfect state of nature: they were all mules, without a vestige of clothing; their woolly heads smeared with a red ochre, their bodies tattooed; their stature under the middling size, or about four feet seven inches. ”

“ The Phoenix was accompanied by a small squadron, and cruised off the harbour of Ejeroe [4] , not far from the Naze; where he soon gained information that a French and a Dutch cutter, with three English prizes, had taken refuge. Captain Halsted sent his boats in, and took them all out. The privateers, though vessels of force, surrendered without opposition; the enemy, as well as the Danes, cautiously avoiding to give the slightest justification of our aggression. The two privateers and the three merchant vessels were sent to England for adjudication ”

“ In Dec. following, Captain Brenton was sent by Captain R. D. Oliver to destroy the Shannon 36, which frigate had run on shore under the strong batteries of Tatihou island, near La Hogue, from whence the enemy were about to remove her, as she had sustained but little damage.
“The crew were made prisoners, and marched into the interior: and the enemy preparing to get the ship off, were prevented by the zeal and enterprise of two young officers. Lieutenants John Sheridan, and Henry C Thompson, who, with a select band of men from a sloop of war, boarded her in the night, and set her on fire. ”

“ At the renewal of hostilities, Captain Brenton was appointed to the Merlin, an old collier fitted as a sloop of war, and mounting sixteen guns between decks; in which vessel he was frequently engaged with the enemy’s flotilla and land batteries in the neighbourhood of Havre. ”

“ We then made sail towards the brig and the other schooner, which were lying well to windward, close to the beach, under cover of four batteries, and an immense number of troops and field-pieces, which they had brought down to protect her. Having placed the barge and two cutters under the command of Lieutenant Crooke, Mr. Collman (purser) , Mr. Smith (master) , and Mr. Thomas (carpenter) , who handsomely volunteered with 68 men to bring the brig out, I then made sail with the Stork and Express towards her, and directed the boats to lie off until the brig’s fire slackened. ”

“ Captain Brenton was removed to the Tonnant 80; the command of which ship he resigned in Nov. 1815. His “Naval History” has been so long before the public as to render any remark of ours upon that work superfluous. Contemporaries are not always the most impartial judges – posterity will decide whether he has or has not been profitably employed. That he has made many enemies is certain; but we have no doubt that he has also gained some friends. His style will be seen by the preceding extracts.
Captain Brenton married, Mar. ”

“ Rear-Admiral Campbell sailed with six ships of the line in Feb. 1802; he was followed by Commodore Stopford with seven more, in the month of March. These squadrons, having touched at Barbadoes and Martinique, ran down to Jamaica, where Sir John Duckworth, having formed a fleet of twenty-two sail of the line, sent them under the orders of Rear-Admiral Campbell to cruise off the Navassa, a small island between Point Morant and Cape Dona Maria. ”

“ We then bore up under a heavy fire of great guns and small arms. Having passed the batteries and the brig, the Circe’s boats, not waiting for the Stork’s to come up, boarded in the most gallant manner ”