This manœuvre, and the warlike appearance of the Indiamen, deterred the French admiral from attacking them, so that the whole fleet reached Lisbon in safety.
1799. The Company's ships Earl Howe and Princess Charlotte received instructions from H.M.S. Victorious to cruise between the Palmyra Rocks and Pigeon Island. The commander and officers having received commissions from Government, they were occupied in this service until the close of 1800.
1800. The French frigate Melée was taken single-handed by the Company's ship Exeter, Captain Meriton. In the same year a gallant defence was made by the Company's ship Kent against the Confiance of twenty-six guns, commanded by the celebrated Surcoufe, and though the Kent was captured, it was only after having lost her commander and twenty-two men killed and thirty-four wounded; the action lasted nearly two hours.
On the 27th of June the Company's ship Arniston, Captain Campbell Majoribanks, having just anchored at Bencoolen, was attacked by a French sloop of war, supposed to be the Confiance, of twenty-six guns. The Arniston promptly cut her cable, gave chase, and fired several broadsides into her: but, outsailing the Arniston, by beating to windward, she escaped after a chase of several hours.
That year the Hughes, cruising in the Bay of Bengal for the protection of trade, engaged a French ship, which also escaped from superiority of sailing, after having thrown her guns overboard.
In 1801 the Company's ship Phœnix, Captain Moffat, captured a French privateer single-handed, and the Company's ship Admiral Gardner, Captain Saltwell, beat off the Bellona, French frigate, single-handed.
1803. The Company's homeward-bound China fleet (with a number of country ships and whalers under protection), having no men-of-war in company, fell in with the French Admiral Linois, in the Marengo, eighty-four-gun ship, Semillante, forty guns, Belle Poule, forty guns, Corvette, twenty-eight guns, and a brig of eighteen guns. The enemy being to windward, Commodore Dance, at the suggestion of Captain Timins, made the general signal to tack. The Indiamen then stood towards the French fleet, engaged, defeated, and chased them out of sight. The details of this extraordinary victory of English merchant ships over French men-of-war are familiar to the readers of naval history. The fleet, consisting of China ships, was valued at six
