Page:Royal Naval Biography Marshall sp4.djvu/210

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POST-CAPTAINS OF 1818.
195

ing and running rigging nearly all cut away: her loss consisted of two passengers killed, and ten or eleven other persons wounded. The Primrose had one man slain; her master (Mr. Andrew Leach), one petty-officer, and twelve men wounded: but, with the exception of a shot in the main-mast, and her sails being much cut by those fired at her during the chase, she sustained no other damage than what has been stated above.

In consequence of this unfortunate rencontre. Captain Phillott felt it necessary to apply for a court-martial on himself; but before his letter reached the Admiralty, an order had been issued to that effect, the report of a court of inquiry held at Lisbon, by order of Vice-admiral George Martin, having been previously received. The sentence was that he should be admonished for not making the private night signal. The above information has been collected from the minutes of the court-martial, held at Plymouth, on his return from Portugal.

The Primrose subsequently formed part of a squadron under Rear-Admiral Malcolm, employed in escorting a body of British troops from the river Garonne to Bermuda. On the 25th Aug. 1814, being then off the Savannah river, watching his Majesty’s late 18-gun brig Epervier, which had been commissioned and re-equipped by the Americans, Captain Phillott chased on shore and destroyed the privateer schooner Pike, mounting twelve 12-pounder carronades and one long nine, and having on board 85 men, of whom 47 were taken prisoners.

In Feb. 1815, Captain Phillott commanded a division of armed boats, sent up St. Mary’s river with a view to surprise an American detachment. The force employed on this occasion consisted of 186 officers, seamen, and marines, belonging to the squadron under Sir George Cockburn, then on the coast of Georgia. The boats had proceeded a considerable distance up the river, when they were unexpectedly attacked from the Spanish side: the enemy’s fire was silenced in less than half an hour; but a consideration of the narrowness of the river, it not being more than from thirty to forty yards wide for about fifty miles below, with a number of commanding heights and