by John Marshall

“ Johnson, by practising a bold ruse de guerre, saved the Fortitude from being again taken by le Dauphin ketch, which vessel approached so near that her guns and men were distinctly seen from the deck without a glass, but soon hauled to the wind and made off, on seeing her late, but unrecognized, prize, although without a gun on board, brace up, make sail, and stand towards her. When the Dauphin first hove in sight, the Fortitude was under easy sail, in order to allow the recaptured brig, then in sight astern, to come up and keep company. ”

“ This officer was born at South Stoke, July 3d, 1793; and entered the royal navy in the beginning of Feb. 1807, as midshipman on board the Vestal 28, Captain Edwards Lloyd Graham, under whom he served, for nearly two years, off Boulogne, in the North Sea, at the Azores, and on the Newfoundland station. ”