frigate; under Captains Richard Henry A. Bennett[1], Alexander Frazer, and Thomas Masterman Hardy, until the renewal of hostilities with France, in 1803. He was then removed to the Hussar 38, Captain Philip Wilkinson (now Vice-Admiral Stephens); the destruction of which ship has been noticed at p. 577 of Vol. I. Part II. The circumstances attending her loss are thus detailed in a “Narrative” published by the subject of this memoir, in 1814, containing “An Account of his Shipwreck, Captivity, and Escape from France, after undergoing a series of sufferings which lasted for nearly five years[2].”
“On the 6th February, 1804, the Hussar made sail from Ayres bay, in Spain, with despatches from Sir Edward Pellew, for England, with a fresh breeze from the S.W. – Wednesday, 8th, wind and weather the same, steering (as near as I can recollect) N.E.b.E. running nine knots an hour. At about 10-45, steering the same course, and running about seven knots, in dark hazy weather, we struck on the southernmost part of the Saints, beat over an immense reef of rocks, carried away our tiller, unshipped the rudder, and, from the violence of beating over, damaged the ship’s bottom considerably, so that she made a great deal of water. At length we got into deep water, and let go our bower anchors to prevent being dashed to pieces on immense rocks a-head, on which we were fore-reaching. Sent top-gallant-yards and masts upon deck, and used every possible means to ease and lighten the ship; the major part of the crew were at the pumps; the remainder, with the officers, employed as most expedient, staving the water casks in the hold, and shoring the ship up, as the ebb tide had now made, and she was inclining to starboard. The carpenter reported her to be bilged, and we could distinctly hear the rocks grinding and working through her, as the tide fell.
“At day-light, Mr. Weymouth (master) was sent to sound for a passage amongst the rocks, imagining we might be able to buoy the ship through: but he returned without success, though had he accomplished it, from the state the ship was in, there could have been little hope of getting her out. A division of the seamen and marines, with their respective officers, was then ordered to go and take possession of the island, that in the last extremity there might be an asylum secured for the crew and officers. The- ↑ Captain Bennett died at North Court, in the Isle of Wight, Oct. 11, 1818, aged 48 years.
- ↑ The publication of the papers entitled “Naval Bulletins,” which appeared in the Naval Chronicle for 1812, 1813, and 1814, was not sanctioned by Captain O’Brien: the pamphlet now before us is the only production he acknowledges as his own.
