Requin, a vessel of the same description, with 58 men. In April, 1812, he had a very narrow escape, his gig having upset off Cowes, to which place he was conveyed in an apparently lifeless state. By this accident 3 of his boat’s crew were unfortunately drowned. Towards the close of 1812, he was appointed to the Pomone of 46 guns, then on the North Sea station, but subsequently employed as a cruiser in the Channel.
The following is a narrative of all the circumstances connected with a court-martial which sat on board the Salvador del Mundo, at Plymouth, Dec. 31, 1813, to investigate the conduct of Captain Carteret, for not having brought an enemy’s frigate to action, on the 21st Oct. preceding; and which court-martial was ordered to assemble by the Board of Admiralty, at Captain Carteret’s own urgent request:–
The Pomone had encountered a heavy gale of wind in the Bay of Biscay, whereby she lost her fore-yard, and her main-yard was badly sprung in two places. While repairing these damages, early on the morning of Oct. 21, 1813, she fell in with a ship under jury-masts, which soon proved to he a French frigate. Immediate preparations were made to attack her; and Captain Carteret was about to do so, when another ship hove in sight (which every body on board considered to be a frigate), with a brig under French colours, both steering the same way with that first seen. Soon afterwards, three other ships were seen astern of these last, and nobody now doubted that it was a French squadron. The utmost caution, therefore was necessary, especially in the Pomone’s nearly disabled state; but Captain Carteret, thinking that he might still keep company with them until he could obtain a reinforcement, resolved to get well to windward of them, so as to reconnoitre them accurately, and yet not hazard the safety of his ship: the disabled frigate was not quite a secondary object. The weather being remarkably hazy and deceptive, rendered all objects so very indistinct, that many hours were lost in reconnoitring. When the weather cleared away in the afternoon, it was discovered that all the ships were merchantmen, excepting the disabled French frigate, and the ship which every body had considered to be a frigate also, and which they still deemed to be such. The brig under French colours, on seeing the Pomone wear the first time to stand towards them, ran away down to the disabled frigate, as if with some message from one to the other. As the weather ultimately became quite clear, and as only the supposed frigate was to be seen. Captain Carteret bore up to attack her; but, alas! she proved, on near approach, to be nothing more than a large Portuguese East Indiaman, which had been taken by the enemy, and recaptured by some British cruisers. Grieved and mortified, at having thus let the disabled Frenchman slip
