the war with France, in 1793, we find him serving as a Lieutenant on board the Quebec of 32 guns; from which ship he was promoted to the command of the Vesuvius bomb; and on the 1st Nov. in the same year, he obtained post rank in the Boyne, a second rate, bearing the flag of Sir John Jervis; with whom he served during the memorable West India campaign[1]. At the siege of Guadaloupe he commanded a detachment of 500 seamen and marines, landed to co-operate with the army.
At 11 A.M. on the 1st May, 1795, soon after Captain Grey’s return to England, and whilst he was attending a court-martial in Portsmouth harbour, a fire broke out on board the Boyne, then at Spithead. The flames burst through the poop-deck before the fire was discovered, and spread so rapidly, that in less than half an hour the ship was in a blaze fore and aft; every exertion on the part of the officers and crew to save her proved abortive. All her guns being loaded, went off as they became heated, the shot falling among the shipping; and some even reached the shore in Stokes Bay. Two men on board the Queen Charlotte were killed, and one wounded.
About lh 30' P.M. she burnt from her cables, and drifted slowly to the eastward, till she struck on the Spit opposite Southsea castle, where she continued to burn until near 6 o’clock, when she blew up with a dreadful explosion. Fortunately, on the fire being first observed by the rest of the fleet, all the boats were sent to the assistance of her crew; the whole of whom, eleven only excepted, were happily rescued from the impending destruction. All the other ships were promptly removed to St. Helen’s out of the reach of danger.
This unfortunate accident has, by some, been attributed to the funnel of the ward-room stove being overheated, and setting fire to some combustible matter in the Admiral’s cabin; but the evidence given by Lieutenant, now Rear-Admiral, Winthrop, who was the commanding officer at the time, completely contradicts this assertion, as he proved that the funnel, instead of passing through the Admiral’s cabin towards the poop, led upwards through the lobby on the outside of the bulk-head, and, consequently, could not have oc-
- ↑ See Vol. I. pp. 19, 710 et seq., and 840 et seq.
