Cumberlaiul and Vanguard took a schooner, from Cuba, with 100 blood-hounds, intended to accompany the French army serving against the Blacks.
On his return from the Jamaica station, Captain Bayntun was appointed to the Leviathan, another 74-gun ship, and ordered to the Mediterranean, where he joined the fleet under Lord Nelson, with whom he went in pursuit of the combined squadrons of France and Spain[1]. On the glorious 21st Oct., 1805, the Leviathan passed through the enemy’s line, and had assisted in disabling and silencing the French Admiral’s ship, as also the huge Santissima Trinidada, when Captain Bayntun found himself much galled by a distant cannonade from several other of the enemy’s ships; at length, the Saint Augustin, of 74 g uns ? bearing the broad pendant of Commodore Cazigal, gave him an opportunity of closing with her, which was immediately embraced, and she was soon compelled to surrender. The loss sustained by the Leviathan was very trifling, considering how warmly she had been engaged; it amounted to only 4 men killed and 22 wounded. After the battle, her prize was set on fire and destroyed[2]. At the funeral of his lamented chief, in Jan. 1806, Captain Bayntun bore the Guidon, in the procession by water from Greenwich Hospital.
Towards the latter end of the same year, our officer accompanied the expedition under Rear-Admiral Murray and Bri-
- ↑ See Vice-Admiral Sir Pulteney Malcolm.
- ↑ The following anecdote is related of a seaman, named Thomas Main, belonging to the Leviathan in the battle of Trafalgar: Whilst engaged with the Saint Augustin, a shot took off his arm; his shipmates offered to assist him in going to the Surgeon; but he bluntly said, “I thank you, stay where you are; you will do more good there.” He then went down by himself to the cockpit. The Surgeon, who respected him, would willingly have attended him in preference to others, whose wounds were less alarming; but Main would not admit of it, saying, “Avast, not until it comes to my turn, if you please.” The Surgeon soon after amputated the shattered part of the arm, near the shoulder; during which operation, with great composure, smiling, and with a steady clear voice, he sang the whole of “Rule Britannia.” The cheerfulness of this brave man was of infinite use in keeping up the spirits of his wounded comrades; but the fine fellow died at Gibraltar Hospital, of a fever he caught, when the stump of his arm was nearly well.
