and by a rope fixed to the heel of the rudder. Having, with the assistance of the Trent’s cutter under Mr. Henry M‘Cleverty, the Master, towed the prize out beneath a ruinous fire from the battery, he returned in the cutter and, fortunately without further loss (every one nearly of the barge’s crew had been killed or wounded), brought off a felucca. In July, 1799, as detailed in our memoir of Capt. Otway, who accompanied him as a volunteer, he commanded the same boats at the capture of a Spanish vessel at Laguira; which port he had entered for the heroic purpose of endeavouring to retake the late British frigate Hermione, which, however, had sailed a few days previously. He subsequently, in the face of a troop of cavalry, brought off a felucca, found lying under a small battery on the north side of Puerto Rico. On the return of the Trent to England with the flag of Sir Hyde Parker, in Sept. 1800, Mr. Ussher, from the effects of his wounds, which threatened even to produce locked-jaw, was obliged for a time to seek half-pay, thereby losing the fairest chance of promotion. Although, on being surveyed by the College of Surgeons, the injuries he had received were declared equal to the loss of a limb, he was unable to procure compensation; although, too, his late Commander-in-Chief Sir Hyde Parker, in a letter to the Secretary of the Admiralty, “recommended him, in justice to his merits, not only for a pension, but for any mark of favour their Lordships might think proper to bestow on him.” On applying in June, 1801, for employment, contrary to the advice of his physicians, he was at once appointed to the command of the Nox cutter. In this vessel, which was stationed off Weymouth in attendance upon the King, he remained four months. Encouraged by a promise of early advancement, he was led, when the extensive promotion in honour of the peace of Amiens took place, to hope that his name would have been included; but the hope was vain. His next appointments were, 26 Sept. 1803 and 6 April, 1804, to the command of the Joseph cutter and Colpoys brig of 14 12-pounder carronades and 40 men, attached to the blockading force under Admiral Cornwallis off Brest. Towards the close of 1804, Mr. Ussher, it appears, was to have been the second in command under Capt. Peter Puget, had a plan, suggested by that otficer, of destroying the Brest fleet by means of fire-ships, been carried into execution. His unwearied vigilance however, and the discretion he evinced, in maturing the scheme as far as it went, were reported in very flattering terms to the First Lord of the Admiralty, by whom they were duly acknowledged. About this period the British fleet, during a succession of hard weather, was blown off the coast; and on regaining his station Admiral Cornwallis was in some doubt as to whether or not the enemy had left port. On hearing of this, Mr. Ussher, of his own accord, stood close in shore after dark, and, hoisting out his gig (a 4-oared boat), actually entered the harbour, discovered and rowed along the whole French line, and thereby obtained an exact knowledge of the enemy’s force, consisting of 21 sail. On arriving abreast of the French Admiral’s ship he was descried, and immediately pursued by three boats; but from these he fortunately escaped, as well as from the boats of 11 gun-brigs lying in Camaret Bay, who, on his clearing the Goulet Passage, united in the chase. The Colpoys, the next day, joined her own Admiral, with the signal flying “The enemy the same as when last reconnoitred;” affording to the latter the information he had anxiously desired, and to Capt. Puget the particulars that were required for the fructification of the plan he had formed. Mr. Ussher’s next exploit was that of landing at midnight with only 6 men, at not more than 200 yards distance from Bertheaume Castle, where he surprised a signal-post, obtained possession of the enemy’s private signals, locked the guard up in a room, and brought off the commanding officer. On 21 March, 1806, having driven three Spanish luggers under a battery of 6 24-pounders in the port of Avillas, he pushed with two boats, manned with volunteers, through a heavy fire of grape from the battery and of musketry from a party of soldiers, who had been sent on board the vessels to defend them, and, with 6 men in the headmost boat, boarded and carried them, the enemy jumping over one side as the British entered the other. Thirteen of the former were taken prisoners; and on the arrival of the second boat, which pulled heavy, two of the prizes, mounting each 2 guns, and laden with flax and steel (the third, in ballast, was restored), were brought off. On first boarding, Mr. Ussher had made two of the crew jump overboard and swim on shore, directing them to inform the officer commanding at the battery that if another gun was fired, he would hang the Spaniards, 11 in number, remaining in his possession. The menace having the effect he wished, he was enabled with safety to complete his operations.[1] On 19 April, 1806, the Colpoys, being in company with the Attack gun-brig, Lieut.-Commander Thos. Swain, he landed with 12 men from each vessel at the entrance of the river Douillan, and, after a short skirmish, spiked the 2 guns of a battery which had yielded protection to two chasse-marées. The latter were then taken possession of; the signal-post at Douillan was destroyed; and the whole service accomplished without the slightest loss, or any greater damage to the two brigs than that done to their standing and running rigging while engaged with the battery previously to its destruction[2] With, in addition to the Colpoys, the Haughty gun-brig and Frisk cutter under his orders, Mr. Ussher volunteered, not long afterwards, to endeavour to cut out a French frigate lying at St. Sebastian; but he was prevented by contrary winds from reaching that place until the ship had sailed. He destroyed next, with the same vessels and the Felix schooner, several batteries at St. Antonio, Avillas, and Bermeo; and, on 28 July, 1806, he took possession, after much opposition, of the town of Hea; the defences of which, two batteries, were, together with a magazine and some vessels, either taken or demolished. In less than a week after the latter event he was obliged to resign the command of the Colpoys; the fatigue he had undergone having been so great as to cause the wound he had before received in his thigh to break out afresh, accompanied by the most alarming symptoms. His claims being now backed by testimonials of the strongest character from Earl St. Vincent and Admirals Cornwallis and Graves, he had the gratification of being at length, on 18 Oct. in the same year, promoted to the command of the Redwing sloop of 18 guns. His conduct at Avillas had previously obtained for him a sword valued at 50l. from the Patriotic Society; and he had had the satisfaction of receiving from the crew of the Colpoys a similar token of their “respect and esteem.” While he commanded the Redwing, Capt. Ussher was chiefly employed in affording protection to the trade against the Spanish gun-boats and privateers near Gibraltar. While in escort, in March, 1807, of a convoy through the Straits, he succeeded, on passing Tarifa, in decoying the enemy’s flotilla within range of his carronades; and he then opened a fire which forced them to seek safety under their land batteries. On 20 April following he was engaged in a spirited affair with a division of gun-boats and several batteries near Cabritta Point; and from the latter date until 19 Aug. he was in one way or another constantly in collision with the enemy. On her return from conveying despatches to the Balearic Islands, the Redwing, on 7 Sept., drove several vessels on shore near the town of Calassel, on the coast of Catalonia; and, with the aid of her boats, would in all probability have taken or destroyed them, had not a violent thunder-storm intervened. On the following day, having pushed in within 100 yards of the castle of Benidorme, mounting 4 18-pounders, she enabled her boats, under the present Capt. John Macpherson Ferguson, to board and carry a polacre-ship, whose yard-arms nearly touched the walls. She then, although her masts, sails, and rigging
