by John Marshall, Royal Naval Biography — M‘Meekan… (1823)
“ We first find this officer commanding a few borrowed and miserably equipped gun-boats, employed in the defence of Cadiz, previous to the establishment, by Sir Richard G. Keats, of the “fire-eating” flotilla, alluded to in p. 131 of Vol. III. Part I. On one occasion, the force under his directions sustained very considerable loss, in an attempt to regain possession of some prison-ships, which, their cables having been cut by the Frenchmen confined in them, had drifted on shore, close under the besiegers’ batteries. He was afterwards appointed first lieutenant of the Maidstone frigate. ”
