by John Marshall, Royal Naval Biography — Smith, William Sydney (1823)
“ A court-martial assembled yesterday on board H.M.S. Victory, to try Commander W. S. Smith, of the Larne, for having run the said ship on shore, on the 4th inst., and for his conduct on that occasion. It appeared by the evidence, that the Larne, being on a cruise in the narrowest part of the Channel, between Calais and the South Foreland, on the morning of the 4th instant, fell in with and detained a Dutch galliot, from Villa Nova, bound to Rotterdam, and having placed the master and a pilot on board, took her in tow and made all sail for the Downs. ”
