was received with becoming thankfulness on the part of the Governor, and with the strongest expressions of gratitude by the whole country.
The Euryalus soon after returned to England, and her commander had the melancholy satisfaction of taking a part in the procession at the public funeral of his late noble friend. On this occasion he acted as train-bearer to the chief-mourner, Sir Peter Parker, Bart., Admiral of the Fleet.
At the commencement of the ensuing year, Captain Blackwood was appointed to the Ajax, of 80 guns; in which ship he accompanied Sir John T. Duckworth on the expedition against Constantinople[1].
At 9h P.M. on the 14th Feb. 1807, the squadron being then at anchor off the Dardanelles waiting for a fair wind to run up, the Ajax was discovered to be on fire; and in ten minutes from the first alarm, the smoke had gained so much upon those who were endeavouring to stifle it, that several men fell down with buckets in their hands, from suffocation; and though it was bright moon-light, those on deck could only distinguish each other by speaking or feeling; consequently all attempts to hoist the boats out were ineffectual, and the destruction of the ship became inevitable.
On the flames bursting up the main hatchway, thereby dividing the fore from the after part of the ship, Captain Blackwood called to the people to go forward and save themselves as fast as they could. He had no sooner reached the forecastle himself, than all parts of the vessel abaft the centre of the booms appeared in a raging flame. After exhorting the officers and men, to the number of 400, who were assembled about him, to be cool, and depend on the boats of the squadron, and finding that he could no longer be of service to them, he jumped overboard from the sprit-sail yard; and, after being about half an hour in the water, was picked up by one of the boats of the Canopus, and taken on board that ship much exhausted.
The Ajax burnt all night, and drifted on the island of Tenedos, where she blew up at five o’clock next morning, with a most awful explosion. The unhappy sufferers of her ward-
