with three passed Midshipmen and 30 Volunteers, he entered the harbour of Santa Martha by means of a ruse de guerre, for the purpose of endeavouring to effect the capture of a Spanish corvette of 20 guns and 130 men, reported to he there. Finding, however, that the vessel had sailed three days previously, he was obliged to put about, but was unable to get clear off without awakening the suspicions of the enemy, who, upon the British repassing their batteries, opened on them a fierce but fortunately a harmless fire. Mr. Willoughby’s next and last appointments as Lieutenant, after his return home with Sir John Duckworth as First of the Acasta 40, were – 11 Aug. 1805, to the Prince 98, Capt. Rich. Grindall – 28 Dec. 1806, to the Formidable 98, Capt. Fras. Fayerman – and 15 Jan. 1807, to the Royal George 100, bearing the flag of his friend Sir J. T. Duckworth. When the Ajax, in Feb. of the latter year, caught fire off the island of Tenedos, it was his fortune to save many from a premature grave; in doing which his boat once became so entangled with the flaming pile as to cause his being severely scorched, and all but involved in the general destruction. After passing the Dardanells, Mr. Willoughby, on 21 of the month last mentioned, was sent from the Royal George with a flag of truce to Constantinople, and a letter from the English Ambassador, Mr. Arbuthnot (who had hitherto failed in obtaining an answer to any of his despatches), to the Grand Vizier, demanding the surrender of all the Turkish men-of-war, with stores sufficient for their equipment. He succeeded in opening a communication, and ttimed to the best account the time he was among the enemy in reconnoitring, and making observations as to their means of defence, their different military positions, their harbour, arsenal, &c. He was the only officer, it may be remarked, who landed at Constantinople after the flight of the British Ambassador and merchants. Prior to the retreat of the expedition he further, on the 27th, commanded a double-banked cutter at the pursuit and capture, off the island of Prota, of a Turkish boat carrying 13 men; immediately preceding the surrender of which 2 of his party were killed by the discharge of two pistols whose fire had been expressly intended for himself. During a land attack made in the course of the same day on a strong party which had sheltered itself in a convent on the above island, he was struck by two pistol-balls, one of which entered his head just above the right jaw, and, from the upward position of his face at the moment, took a slanting direction towards the region of the brain, where it has ever since remained. The other shot cut his left cheek in two, and he lay for six or seven minutes apparently lifeless on the ground; but at the very moment that his companions began to retreat, one of his arms was observed to move, and he was carried off to the ship as one of whom no hopes were entertained. In short, so desperate was his case that the Surgeon of the Royal George also considered him to be mortally wounded, and officially reported him as such for three days afterwards.[1] Even to this day he cannot open his mouth to any considerable extent. Being discharged from the Royal George 13 July, 1807, he proceeded next to the Rio de la Plata as a passenger in the Otter sloop, Capt. John Davies, for the purpose of assuming command of La Fuerte, a Spanish corvette of 28 guns, which had fallen into the hands of the British, at Monte Video, in the preceding Feb. Finding, however, on his arrival that Lieut.-General Whitelocke’s movement had caused her restoration to the enemy, he sailed for the Cape of Good Hope, where, on 10 Jan. 1808, he succeeded Capt. Davies in the command of the Otter – to which vessel he was confirmed by a commission dated 9 April in the same year. On the night of 14 Aug. 1809, being off the Isle of France, Capt. Willoughby entered Black River with three of the Otter’s boats for the purpose of cutting out, notwithstanding the tremendous strength of the enemy’s defences, two merchantmen and a gun-boat: the former were taken, but the armed vessel, owing to the darkness, was not to be found. The Captain and his gallant companions then retired under a murderous fire from the shore, taking along with them one of the prizes, but abandoning the other for the sake of the wounded. The enemy on this occasion, to enable them to distinguish their object, threw up fire-balls of a superior description which illumined the whole river; and they continued to do so every half-minute until the British were out of range. During the operations of Sept. 1809, which led to the capture of St. Paul’s, in the Ile de Bourbon, Capt. Willoughby volunteered and, on the 21st, landed in command of 100 seamen appointed to act in concert with the troops under Lieut.-Colonel Keating, to whom his zeal, activity, and exertions proved of the greatest importance. After possession had been obtained of the first and second batteries, Lambousière and La Centière, he immediately turned their guns against the enemy’s shipping, from whose fire the British suffered much. Having in the end spiked the guns of the two batteries, he removed to a third, whence he continued to fire as before, until victory at length terminated in favour of the invaders a severe action which had been raging between them and a strong body of the French.[2] Previously to the embarkation of the forces he disabled the guns and mortars in the different batteries and on the beach, destroyed their carriages, and blew up their magazines. On the evening of the next day, the 22nd, he again landed in volunteered command of the marines of the squadron and of a few seamen, and effectually burnt an extensive Government store of considerable value. Returning with his boats on the 23rd, Capt. Willoughby once more went on shore, in order to reconnoitre the forces under General Des Brusley, and on that occasion he brought off a French 9-inch brass mortar. On 3 of the following Oct.[3] a descent being made at St. Gilles, also on the Ile de Bourbon, the Captain, after the reduction of one battery had been accomplished, assisted at the storming of a second, which, at the head of his gig’s crew, he was the first to enter. Two batteries, containing 4 long 10-pounders and 9 12’s, a guard-house, and a new public building, were on the same occasion destroyed. As a reward for the distinguished excellence of his conduct throughout the whole of the above attacks on Ile de Bourbon, both by sea and land, he was immediately promoted by the Commander-in-Chief on the station, Vice-Admiral Albemarle Bertie, to the command of the Néréide, a frigate of 38 guns. Towards the close of April, 1810, having discovered in Black River a ship (supposed to be of war) moored in such a position between the formidable land batteries that her stem alone was visible, he worked up towards the anchorage, and discharged several broadsides at her, nearly within point-blank distance, receiving in return a heavy fire of shot and shells from the shore, many of the latter bursting near and without the Néréide. The enemy’s ship was afterwards ascertained to be L’Astrée, a large 40-gun frigate recently arrived from Cherbourg with troops and supplies for the Mauritius. On 1 May, 1810, Capt. Willoughby landed with 105 officers, seamen, and marines, in face of a most destructive fire, at Jacotel, in the Isle of France, where he stormed one battery mounting 2 long 12’s, then tri-
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1807, p. 597.
- ↑ Of the Naval detachment serving on shore under Capt. Willoughby, 7 were killed, and 18 wounded, but not a single casualty occurred on board the squadron. – Vide Gaz. 1810, p. 214.
- ↑ Capt. Willoughby had landed with Lieut-Col. Keating the night previously between St. Gilles and St. Luce, attended alone by a black pilot, for the purpose of obtaining information as to the military strength of the latter place. On leaving their boat, they advanced, sword in hand, and without uttering a word, into a village inhabited by blacks, where they remained for upwards of a quarter of an hour, in momentary fear of being discovered by some of the strong French night guards, known to be constantly prowling about, particularly in the creeks and bays where a landing could be effected, and who were then not many hundred yards distant. All the circumstances of this adventure concurred in rendering it hazardous in the extreme.
