Page:Royal Naval Biography Marshall v2p1.djvu/488

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476
POST-CAPTAINS OF 1802.

tain thought proper to withdraw from it. If you should not consider my answer satisfactory, I request you will address yourself to my government. I have the honor to be, &c.

(No signature.)

To M. the Commandant of the Amphion
frigate, at Lissa.

H.B.M.S. Amphion, Lissa, March 19, 1811.

“Sir,– The letter I had the honor of receiving to day was neither signed nor dated (I presume through mistake); I return it for its signature.

“As Captain of the Danaé, you will not admit that the Flore struck her colours in the late action, nor did I call on you to do so. No, Sir, I call on Mons. Peridier, the commander of that ship, as a man of honor, to declare whether she struck her colours or not; and if M. Peridier was so severely wounded as not to have charge of the ship at that time, I look to his next in command for an answer to my letter of the 15th; but I again assert, and ever shall maintain, that, by the laws of war, his frigate belongs to my Sovereign, and his sword to me; the world will judge between us. I have the honor to be, &c.

(Signed)W. Hoste.”

To the Captain, commanding the frigate Danaé

The Amphion and Volage having refitted at Malta, escorted the captured frigates from thence to Portsmouth, where the former ship was paid off on the 12th Aug. 1811. About Nov. in the same year, Captain Hoste was appointed to the Bacchante, a new 38-gun frigate, in which ship he returned to the Mediterranean[1]; and on the 26th July, 1812, captured la Victoire French privateer of 3 guns and 35 men. The capture of two valuable convoys on the coasts of Istria and Apulia in September following, will be fully detailed in another part of this volume[2].

On the 13th Nov. 1812, the marines of the Eagle and Bacchante were lauded on the beach near Fesano, a small town about 8 miles from Pola, where a large quantity of timber had been discovered; part of which was brought off without opposition. Next day they re-landed, in company with those of the Achille, brought away as much as could be stowed, and burnt the remainder. Captain Hoste subsequently cap-

  1. Captains Hoste, Gordon, Whitby, and Hornby, were presented by the Admiralty with gold medals, descriptive of the action off Lissa, to be worn by them with their uniforms in the usual manner. Their first Lieutenants were made Commanders.
  2. See Memoir of Captain Donat Henchy O’brien.