Page:Biographia Hibernica volume 1.djvu/44

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BARRETT.
35

1793, was himself promoted to the rank of rear-admiral of the white, and was stationed as junior officer in the Channel fleet, under Lord Howe, having hoisted his flag on board the Cumberland, of seventy-four guns, to which ship Lieutenant Barrett removed with him.

In the following year Admiral Caldwell, beIng promoted to the rank of rear-admiral of the red, hoisted his flag on board the Impregnable, ninety-eight guns, whither Mr. Barrett again accompanied him, and on board which ship he served in the memorable battle of the 1st of June. On the appointment of Admiral Caldwell to a command in the West Indies, he removed with the admiral on board the Majestic, of seventy-four guns, and on the 18th of October, sailed to join Sir John Jervis, (now Earl St. Vincent) on the Leeward Island station. His steady attachment to his patron, and his active services on this station, were rewarded by a promotion successively to the ranks of commander and post-captain, within a short time of each other.

The next period of Captain Barrett's career which we are to notice, will exhibit him in the strange and unmerited condition of private distress, as a consequence of zeal in his publie duty. While io the command, we believe, of the Ethalion, he (independently of some captures,) detained several Ameriean and other neutral vessels, under a clause of our treaty with the former power, employed in a contraband trade with the enemy's and our islands. This eircumstance materially contributed to a series of pecunary embarrassments, from which he was never altogether relieved.

In addition to this unfortunate occurrence, he was unlucky enough to become acquainted with a widow in one of the adjacent islands, who was said to possess a considerable fortune, and who, deceived by a rUmour of our hero's successes, favoured his advances:

"She was just at the age when beauty begins
To give o'er her reign of delight:"———