she blew up. Her name was l’Intrepide, a polacre ship, fitted out at Malaga, commanded by Mons. Barbastro, mounting 18 long 12-pounders, with 180 men on board. I am happy to inform you that this enterprise has been performed without a person being hurt, and the damage the brig has sustained is inconsiderable.
On the 1st Mar. 1812, Lieutenant Bartholomew drove on shore and destroyed another French privateer, of 8 guns and between 50 and 60 men, from Algiers bound to Malaga, with a cargo of flour for the use of the enemy’s garrison. His promotion to the rank of commander took place on the 21st of the same month.
From this period, Captain Bartholomew remained on half pay till April 4, 1814, when he was appointed to the Erebus rocket-ship, fitting at Woolwich for the North American station. His gallant and judicious conduct while employed in the brilliant expedition against Alexandria, under the orders of Captain (now Sir James A.) Gordon, has been noticed at p. 944 of Vol. II. Part II. During the operations of that officer’s squadron, in the Potowmac river, the Erebus had 3 men killed and mortally wounded, her boatswain and 7 men severely wounded, and her commander, first lieutenant (Reuben Paine), and 4 other persons slightly hurt. She shortly afterwards ascended the Patapsco, anchored close off Fort M‘Henry, and threw a number of rockets into that and the other works commanding the water approach to Baltimore, without sustaining any loss or damage.
It has already been stated, at p. 196, that the subject of this memoir was wounded in Feb. 1815, when accompanying Captain Phillott, of the Primrose sloop, in a boat expedition up the St. Mary’s river, for the purpose of surprising an American military detachment posted about 120 miles from the sea. Captain Bartholomew, it appears, was first wounded in the head, and on putting his hand up to feel the injured part, his middle finger and thumb were hit by a second ball: the injury he received, however, was not of a serious nature.
The Erebus returned home from Halifax, April 28, 1815; and Captain Bartholomew was advanced to post rank on the 13th June following, but did not give up the command of
