brought le Scipion, a French 74, to close action, which was maintained with very great bravery and skill by the French commander, Monsieur de Grimoire, who to avoid capture ran his ship on shore in Serrena Bay, where she was totally wrecked. The brunt of this action was borne by the London, whose loss amounted to 9 men killed, and 75, including the Lieutenants Burgess, Hankey, and Trigge, wounded.
After his return to England at the peace in 1783, Lieutenant Walker spent some years in France, Italy, and Germany; and in 1788, when the war broke out between Russia and Turkey, he was offered the command of a ship belonging to the former power, but could not obtain leave from his own government to accept it. He was subsequently appointed in succession to the Champion, Winchelsea, Boyne, and Niger. The latter was one of the repeating frigates to the fleet under Earl Howe, in the battle of June 1, 1794; and Mr. Walker was soon after advanced to the rank of Commander, for his conduct as first Lieutenant and signal officer on that glorious day.
In the summer of 1797, while the mutiny raged at the Nore[1], he suggested a plan for attacking the Sandwich by means of the smasher guns, invented by his relative, the late General Melville[2], and volunteered to conduct the enterprise in person. It so happened, that a plan exactly similar had been adopted by the Board of Admiralty not an hour before, and Captain Walker was immediately appointed to the command of a division of gun-boats, fitted at Woolwich for the purpose of acting against the mutineers; but before he reached Gravesend they had been induced to surrender at discretion. He was then ordered to act as Captain of the Garland frigate, and to escort the trade bound to the Baltic as far as Elsineur; on his return from that service, he removed into the Monmouth, of 64 guns, employed in the North Sea, under the orders of Admiral Duncan.
On the memorable 11th Oct. 1797, when that excellent commander attacked and defeated the Dutch fleet under the brave de Winter, the Monmouth was closely engaged for an
- ↑ See p. 160, et seq.
- ↑ An interesting memoir of General Melville will be found in a Work entitled Public Characters, vol. i, p. 149, et seq.
