by John Marshall

“ By the constitution of the Naval Academy at Portsmouth, every youngster who had been three years there, and three years afloat, was entitled to pass an examination for lieutenant. In 1806, the plan of a Naval College was adopted in its stead, by which lads were to go through a particular course of education, without any specific time being fixed, and having been four years afloat, they were then entitled to pass. The Naval College was not, however, actually in existence, till 1808, and the Naval Academy, at which young Montagu was educated, subsisted till that time. ”

“ Sir,– Having reconnoitred the port of Otranto on the 27th instant, and observed a convoy collected, which I thought would make a push for Corfu the first N.W. wind, I took a station off the island of Fano on the following morning to endeavour to intercept them, and sent the barge and gig you were good enough to leave with me, under Lieutenant William Henry Nares, of the Apollo, and the barge and pinnace of this ship, under Lieutenant John William Montagu, close in shore, when, as was expected, about one a.m. they came over, protected by eight gun-boats. ”

“ Notwithstanding this strong force, aided by three more gun-boats from Fano, and the cliffs covered with French troops, they were attacked in the most determined and gallant manner. Lieutenant Nares, in the Apollo’s barge, boarded and carried one gun-boat, and Mr. Hutchison, in your gig, actually boarded and carried another before our barge could get alongside.
“It is with the deepest regret I am now to inform you, that Mr. Suett [1] , master’s-mate of the Cerberus, was shot through the heart in boarding another gun-boat; in him the service has to lament the loss of a most gallant young man ”