year. His next appointment was, Nov. 1795, to the Defiance 74, in which ship he served on the Channel station, for a period of three years. The terrible fate with which he was menaced during the general mutiny will be seen by reference to p. 242 of our first volume.
From that painful subject, we now feel great pleasure in directing the reader’s attention to a most gallant exploit – the capture of la Vengeance French frigate, mounting 52 guns, by la Seine 48, to which ship Lieutenant Chetham had been appointed in Nov. 1798. An account of that action will be found under the head of Sir David Milne, K.C.B.[1] the following is an extract from his Captain’s official letter to Lord Hugh Seymour, dated off St. Domingo, Aug. 22, 1800:
“The behaviour of the officers and ship’s company was such as has always characterised British seamen. To my first Lieutenant, Mr. Chetham, I am greatly indebted for his cool and steady behaviour, and for the amazing fire kept up from the main-deck, which nothing could surpass.”
It is scarcely necessary to add that Lieutenant Chetham was immediately advanced to the rank of Commander, a just reward for his gallant conduct. He, however, appears to have continued with Captain Milne, in la Seine, on the West India station, until May 1801. We shall now give an outline of the services by which he attained his subsequent promotion.
After remaining on half-pay nearly three years, Captain Chetham was appointed to the Sally hired armed ship, and principally employed affording protection to the Baltic trade. In April, 1807, being then at Elsineur, he took upon himself the responsibility of proceeding to Dantzic, in consequence of the British Consul having hinted to him by letter that the ship he commanded might be of service in checking the operations of the enemy, whose grand object at that period it was, to secure the possession or command of the countries which he had over-run, by reducing the fortresses which still held out on the Vistula, the Pregel, and the Oder. It may
- ↑ See Vol. I. p. 681. N.B. La Seine had previously been employed on the coast of Africa.
