Page:Royal Naval Biography Marshall v1p2.djvu/370

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786
REAR-ADMIRALS OF THE BLUE.

in the department de l’Eure, from which we extract the following passage; –

“The interest you take in my misfortunes, merits my sincere acknowledgements, and for which I shall entertain the most lasting rememhrance. I am, I thank you, in want of nothing but health; would but the Great Bestower of it grant me that, I should be happy, and to assure you personally how much I am,

“Your grateful humble servant,
(Signed)James Cotes.”

“Lieut. Wood, Rûe Fauxbourg St. Honoré,
No. 64, à Paris.”

Soon after his return to England, Lieutenant Wood was advanced to the rank of Commander, and appointed to the Favorite, sloop of war, in which, after cruising for some time in the Channel, he proceeded to the West Indies, where he arrived in time to assist in quelling the insurrections which had long raged in the islands of St. Vincent and Grenada, and threatened the total destruction of those colonies. Among the many instances of his activity and zeal while on that service, was the capture and destruction of three formidable French privateers in the course of one day. These vessels, which he fell in with in the Gulf of Paria, had been long and but too successfully employed in carrying provisions to the insurgents of the latter island. Subsequent to this event, Captain Otway, the senior officer on that station, ordered the Favorite to cruise to windward of Grenada, where she fell in with three other armed vessels, chased them during a whole day in light variable winds, and at length came up with a ship mounting 16 guns, formerly a Liverpool letter of marque, but then an enemy’s cruiser, which struck without firing a shot; and Captain Wood by this means obtaining a knowledge of the private night signal, was fortunate enough to get possession of her consorts before day-light. From this period no supplies were ever received by the brigands, for the only vessel that ever afterwards attempted to come over was taken in a most gallant manner by the boats of the Zebra sloop of war, under the directions of Lieutenant Senhouse.

The sheet containing our memoir of Rear-Admiral Otway had passed through the press previous to the publication of a pamphlet entitled “A Narrative of the Insurrection in the Island of Grenada;” we therefore avail ourselves of