struction of a French convoy, lying in the Mole at Palamos, on the coast of Catalonia; the particulars of which affair, in which she had about 70 men killed, wounded, and missing, will be given under the head of Captain Francis William Fane, in our next volume.
On the 31st March, 1811, Captain Otway being off Elba, in company with the Unite frigate, fell in with a squadron of French frigates; and after a most arduous chace captured la Dromedaire, a new ship of 800 tons, but mounting only 20 guns, with a complement of 150 men, having on board a cargo consisting of 15,000 shot and shells of different sizes, and 90 tons of gunpowder, intended as a present from Buonaparte to the Bey of Tunis. Her companions, the Emily and Adrian, of 40 guns each, were enabled from their proximity to the shore to effect their escape into Porto Ferrajo.
Captain Otway’s health had now become so much impaired through the fatigues of long and indefatigable service, as to compel him to retire for a time from the active duties of his profession. He accordingly obtained permission to exchange into the Cumberland, of 74 guns, the command of which ship he resigned on his arrival in England at the latter end of 1811. From that period he remained on shore until May 1813, when he was again appointed to the Ajax, and in her joined the Channel fleet. During the ensuing winter, we find him employed covering the siege of St. Sebastian, and making several captures, among which was l’Alcyon, a French corvette of 16 guns and 120 men, taken after a long chase off Scilly, March 17, 1814.
In the month of June following, our officer was sent from Bordeaux to Quebec with a squadron, having under its escort a body of 5000 troops destined to reinforce our army in Canada. Previous to his return to England, he visited Lake Champlain, and assisted in equipping the flotilla there. His advancement to the rank of Rear-Admiral took place June 4, 1814, but we presume that event was not known to him until his arrival in the St. Lawrence. He succeeded Sir William Johnstone Hope as Commander-in-Chief on the coast of Scotland, in 1818, and remained on that station during the customary period of three years[1].
- ↑ It is rather a singular coincidence, that the Phaeton frigate was the first ship that Rear-Admiral Otway went to sea in, and the first that received his
