down, to commemorate which Rear-Admiral Rainier granted a full pardon to all the ringleaders of the late mutiny on board his flag-ship, one of whom had been capitally convicted, several sentenced to severe corporal punishment, and others to long imprisonment. This act of clemency greatly endeared him to the squadron, and it was followed by the re-establishment of good order in every ship under his orders.
In Aug. 1798, Lieutenant Dobbie was appointed first of the Centurion 50, commanded by his patron’s nephew, the late Rear Admiral John Sprat Rainier.
An expedition against Manilla was at this time in contemplation, but obliged to be given up in consequence of the invasion of Egypt by General Buonaparte, and an overland despatch having reached the commander-in-chief, acquainting him that the enemy had brought the frames of several ships of war from Europe, with the intention of setting them up at Suez. On the arrival of this intelligence the Centurion was sent from Bombay to Mocha, where she found the Albatross brig, with which vessel she proceeded to Suez; and these, if we mistake not, were the two first British men of war that had ever visited the head of the Red Sea. During his continuance on that station, including the whole of the year 1799, Lieutenant Dobbie surveyed the roads of Jeddah and Cossire, Jaffatine harbour, and various other anchorages, his plans of which proved very useful to the expedition afterwards sent from India under the command of the late Sir David Baird and Rear-Admiral Blanket[1].
In the summer of 1800, the Centurion and three frigates[2] were sent to blockade the port of Batavia and intercept the trade coming from the other Dutch settlements in Java. On the 23d Aug., this squadron took possession of the arsenal at Onrust, captured five armed vessels, and destroyed twenty-two sail of merchantmen.
One of the above prizes, a brig pierced for 16 guns, and just launched, was immediately afterwards manned, armed, and equipped, by order of Captain Ball, the senior officer, who
- ↑ See Memoir of Captain Francis Mason, C.B.
- ↑ Daedalus 32, Captain Henry Lidgbird Ball; Braave 40, Captain Thomas Alexander, and Sybille 40, Captain Charles Adam.
