only waited for a wind to carry him back through the Gut, when a valuable convoy arrived from England, which he received orders to escort past Carthagena, where nine sail of the line were lying ready for sea. The squadron actually sailed from Gibraltar for this latter purpose, the very day M. Villeneuve quitted Cadiz. As to the open manner[1] in which we have stated the Rear-Admiral to have been detached, we merely alluded to the impossibility of such a squadron reaching Gibraltar without being seen by the Spaniards at Algeziras; from whence notice of its arrival at the rock would of course be immediately transmitted to Cadiz.
Rear-Admiral Louis was subsequently employed watching the remnant of the combined fleets, under the orders of Sir John T. Duckworth, who left his station late in November to pursue a French squadron, which had chased the Lark sloop of war near Madeira. Gaining no information of the enemy at that island, nor off the Canaries, Sir John was returning towards Cadiz, when at day-break on the 25th Dec., six sail of the line and a frigate were discovered about four leagues distant to the eastward. The English squadron, consisting of the Superb, Canopus, Spencer, Donegal, Powerful, and Agamemnon, two deckers, Acasta and Amethyst frigates, chased the enemy till the following day at noon, when they effected their escape; and Sir John T. Duckworth, in consequence of his ships having been run so far to leeward, and being in general short of water, determined, after despatching the Powerful to the Cape of Good Hope and the East Indies, and the Amethyst to England, to proceed with the remainder to Barbadoes, where he arrived on the 10th Jan. 1806[2].
- ↑ See Vol. I. line 15 of note at p. 202.
- ↑ Having stated in our first volume, page 345, that Sir John T. Duckworth had been sent by Lord Collingwood in quest of a squadron which had sailed from France to relieve St. Domingo, and that the Powerful was despatched from the Leeward Islands to the East Indies, we lose no time in correcting those errors (into which Mr. James has likewise fallen). Neither Lord Collingwood nor Sir John T. Duckworth had heard of the sailing of any such squadron so destined; and the latter merely went to the West Indies, in consequence of the impossibility of regaining his station without previously procuring supplies. Lord Collingwood was much displeased when he heard of his departure from before Cadiz. The Powerful was detached from off the Cape de Verd Islands, as stated in the text above.
