From 1784 to 1790, the subject of this memoir served as a Midshipman in various ships; but it being a period of profound peace, we meet with no occurrence worth mentioning. In the latter year he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant, and soon after appointed to the Spitfire fire-ship, in which he remained till she was paid off.
In 1793, Lieutenant Brisbane proceeded to the Mediterranean, with Captain (now Sir Charles) Tyler, in the Meleager frigate. On that station, from the arrival of Lord Hood at Toulon, to the period of its evacuation, and subsequently, during the whole of the operations against the French in Corsica, he was very actively employed, as will appear by the following outline of his services in that quarter.
At midnight, on the 27th Aug. when Captain Elphinstone, now Viscount Keith, had been authorised by the Commander-in-Chief to take the command at Fort la Malgue, Lieutenant Brisbane assisted at the disembarkation of the troops; and in the succeeding month, when it was found necessary to erect a battery upon the Hauteur de Grasse, for the better protection of the outer road and naval hospital, it was owing, in part, to his active zeal and great exertion, that three 24-pounders were expeditiously dragged up a very steep ascent. Lieutenant Brisbane’s conduct on these and other occasions of a similar nature, attracted the notice of Lord Hood, by whom he was shortly afterwards appointed to the command of Fort Pomet, one of the most dangerous out-posts in the neighbourhood of Toulon, about five miles from the city.
This was an appointment extremely suitable to the display of his talents. He assisted in repulsing the French at Fort Mulgrave, in November; and, after several other skir-
to assign him a station on the quarter-deck, in the event of coming to action, he placed him with the officer who commanded on the lower-deck. During the engagement with the French fleet under Count de Grasse, a shot came through the Hercules’ counter, and carried away the rudder case, one of the boards of which knocked Mr. Charles Brisbane down. One of the seamen took him up in his arms and carried him in a state of insensibility to the cockpit. He soon afterwards came to himself, and on the Surgeon asking him where he was hurt, he pointed to his breast, but said he was well enough to return to his quarters. The wound, however, proved of a very serious nature, and kept him in a crippled state, bent almost double, for nine months.
