Page:Royal Naval Biography Marshall v1p2.djvu/108

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532
VICE-ADMIRALS OF THE BLUE.

assisting at the capture of eleven more of those marauders, whose united force amounted to 90 guns, and 648 men.

Our officer returned to England in the autumn of 1799; and during the remainder of the war was employed on the Lisbon station, and at Newfoundland. On the 26th Jan., 1801, being off Cape Finisterre, he fell in with a French squadron, under M. Ganteaume, and was chased by one of his frigates; the Concorde at this time having a Swedish ship in tow, cast her off, ?nd bore away large. At day-light on the 27th, Captain Barton having drawn his pursuer a considerable distance from her consorts, was enabled to bring her to elose action, which continued for forty minutes, when the enemy’s fire was completely silenced; but the rest of the squadron had by this time approached so near to her assistance, that it was impossible for our officer to think of taking possession of his prize, especially as the Concorde had sustained considerable damage in her rigging and sails; he therefore judged it most prudent to bear up for Plymouth, to communicate the intelligence of his having fallen in with an enemy’s squadron, and its probable destination, from the course it steered. In this contest the Concorde had 5 men slain and 24 wounded. The enemy’s frigate was la Bravoure, of 42 guns and 293 men, 10 of whom, including a Lieutenant, were killed, and her Captain and 24 wounded.

In the ensuing autumn, we find Captain Barton acting as Governor of Newfoundland, from whence he returned to Portsmouth on the 29th Dec. following, after a passage of only eleven days from St. John’s.

On the renewal of hostilities in 1803, our officer was appointed to the superintendence of the Sea Fencibles, in the Isle of Wight. In the summer of the following year, he obtained the command of the Raisonable, 64; and from that ship removed into the Goliath, a third rate, in which, on the 11th and 18th Aug., 1805, he captured le Faune a French brig, of 16, and la Torche corvette, of 18 guns. On board these vessels were found 74 men, who had been wrecked some time previous in the Blanche frigate, commanded by the late Sir Thomas Lavie.

Captain Barton left the Goliath about the latter end of 1805; and from that period we find no further mention of him till