of Du Guay Trouin. Trouin himself in the Achille escaped, though with difficulty; but his prize, the Bristol, was regained, and the Gloire, overtaken by the Chester, was brought to action and captured (Laughton, Studies in Naval History, p. 322). In 1710 the Chester was part of the force under Commodore George Martin for the reduction of Nova Scotia, and covered the main attack; when Martin went home, Mathews remained as senior officer, and the following summer joined the fleet under Sir Hovenden Walker [q. v.] at Boston. The Chester was then sent to convoy some transports to New York, and, having been a good deal shattered in a heavy gale, was afterwards ordered to make the best of her way to England.
For the next few years Mathews settled down at Llandaff Court, but in January 1717–18 he was appointed to the Prince Frederick, apparently to wait till the Kent was ready. On 31 March 1718 he took command of the Kent, which went out to the Mediterranean in the fleet under Sir George Byng, afterwards Viscount Torrington [q. v.], and had a distinguished share in the action off Cape Passaro, materially assisting in the capture of the Spanish admiral [cf. Master, Streynsham]. After the battle Mathews was detached in command of a small squadron in the more especial object of closely blockading Messina, and intercepting George Camocke [q. v.], rear-admiral in the Spanish service, if he should attempt to escape. In January, however, Camocke did manage to escape in a small boat, and during the next eighteen months the service of the different detachments of the fleet was practically limited to the blockade of Sicily. In the autumn of 1720 Mathews returned to England with the admiral. From 1722 to 1724 he commanded a squadron in the East Indies against the pirates. His efforts, however, were unavailing. The pirates were, indeed, somewhat overawed by the neighbourhood of the king's ships, and their ravages ceased for the time; but their strongholds were unassailable, and they repulsed an attempt on the island of Kolaba, a little to the southward of Bombay, made by the squadron in co-operation with a body of Portuguese troops from Goa.
On his return in 1724 Mathews again settled down to a country life at Llandaff, virtually retired from the service, and was passed over in the promotions to flag rank. The purchase of an estate formerly belonging to the family and the wish to rebuild the house would seem to have determined him to accept the burden together with the emoluments of office; and in 1736 he was appointed commissioner of the navy at Chatham, an employment then understood as distinctly civil. When, however, war with Spain broke out and war with France appeared imminent, Mathews obtained the restoration of his rank, involving promotion at one step, 13 March 1741–2, to be vice-admiral of the red, and his appointment as commander-in-chief in the Mediterranean, and plenipotentiary to the king of Sardinia and the States of Italy.
A man at the age of sixty-six, thus undertaking new duties and the renewal of long-forgotten and imperfect experiences, could scarcely have been expected to succeed without the goodwill and hearty co-operation of his subordinates; and this the government neglected to secure for him. Rear-admiral Lestock [q. v.], then in temporary command in the Mediterranean, had been for some years senior officer in the Medway while Mathews was commissioner at Chatham, and their relations had not been friendly. It was said that Mathews, on accepting the command, stipulated that Lestock should be recalled; and though the matter was perhaps not put thus crudely, we have his own statement to the Duke of Newcastle that ‘I took the liberty of giving your Grace my opinion in regard to Mr. Lestock before I left England. I did the same to Lord Winchelsea and Lord Carteret’ (Mathews to the Duke of Newcastle, 3 Jan. 1743–4). Lestock, however, was not recalled, and the ill-feeling which showed itself at once on Mathews's arrival was only prevented from breaking out in open quarrel by the fact that Mathews's duties at Turin kept him very much away from the fleet. But they also kept him away from the exercise of the command. He had never been at sea with the fleet, and was a comparative stranger to every officer under his command when the combined fleets of France and Spain sailed from Toulon on 10 Feb. 1743–4, and stood towards the south in a long and straggling line ahead. The English fleet left Hyères roadstead at the same time, closely attending on the allies; but during the 10th they never succeeded in getting into line, though the signal to form line was kept up all the time, and was still up when night fell. Mathews then made the signal to bring to, intending that the several ships should first get into their station; and those in the van and centre so understood it and obeyed it in that sense. Lestock, with the ships of the rear division, brought to where he was, some miles astern, and drifted still further away during the night.
At daybreak on the 11th the rear was separated from the rest of the fleet by a gap
