by John Marshall

“ The brig suddenly bore up athwart the hawse of the frigate; and la Gloire, had she not as suddenly luffed up, must, as the French captain, Mons. Roussin, says, have passed completely over her. Two broadsides from la Gloire now carried away the bowsprit, fore-yard, and gaff of the Linnet, and compelled her to surrender. Such seamanship and intrepidity, on the part of Lieutenant Tracey, shew where la Gloire would have been, had he encountered her in a frigate. ”

“ He obtained his first commission on the 6th Oct. 1800; and commanded the Princess Augusta, a small hired cutter, of eight guns and about thirty men, in an action with a French privateer, of fourteen guns and full of men, near the mouth of the river Tees, June 13th, 1804. During this engagement, which lasted nearly four hours, the Princess Augusta received several shot near the water’s edge, and was much shattered in her rigging, but had not a man killed, and only three of her little crew wounded. ”