On the 5th June, 1805, Captain Losack, then commanding the Helena sloop of war, on the Irish station, captured, after an action of 15 minutes, the Santa Leocadia, Spanish ship privateer, pierced for 20 guns, mounting 14 nine-pounders, with a complement of 114 men. His post commission bears date, Jan. 22, 1806.
In the autumn of 1810, Captain Losack was appointed to the Galatea of 42 guns, which ship formed part of the squadron under Captain Charles Marsh Schomberg, in an action with three French frigates, off Madagascar, May 20, 1811; The following is a statement of the loss and damages which she sustained on that occasion, viz. Lieutenant Hugh Peregrine, R.M. and 15 men, either killed outright or mortally wounded; Captain Losack, Lieutenant Henry Lewis, R.M. and 17 men severely; and her first Lieutenant (Mr. Thomas Bevis), 2 Midshipmen (Messrs. Henry Williams and Alexander Henning), 21 men, and 3 boys, slightly wounded. Fore and mizen-topmasts shot away, the bowsprit, foremast, main-yard, and maintop-mast badly wounded; all the other masts more or less injured, the standing and running rigging cut to pieces; one boat destroyed by a shot when in the act of receiving a tow rope, and another cut adrift whilst towing astern; 55 shot-holes in her hull, her stern much shattered, and nearly four feet water in her hold.
On the 31st of Oct. 1812, Captain Losack, then on his return to England, in company with two South Sea whalers which he had taken under his protection at the island of Ascension, fell in with the President and Congress, American frigates, and, strange to say, they allowed him to escape without making any strenuous effort to bring his ship to action. The Galatea was, at that time, 93 men short of complement, so that an action with even the smallest of the enemy’s ships would pot have been desirable on the part of Captain Losack; but the conduct of Commodore Rodgers is quite inexplicable. One of the whalers was unfortunately intercepted when endeavouring to get to leeward of the Americans; the other effected her escape.
In consequence of an implied charge of misconduct, con-
