dangerously: Captain J. T. Wood (aide-de-camp to Major-General Hislop); Mr. Batty Robinson, master; Lieutenant David Davies, R.M.; Messrs. Charles Keele, Martin Burke, Frederick Morton, and William Brown, midshipmen; and forty-five sailors, marines, and boys, severely: Captain John Marshall, Lieutenants Henry Ducie Chads and James Saunders; Mr. James West, midshipman; and thirty-nine men and boys, slightly: – total 103, – Grand total 124.
Lieutenant Chads, in his official report to the Admiralty, written two days after the action, says, “I cannot conclude this letter without expressing my grateful acknowledgments, thus publicly, for the generous treatment Captain Lambert, and his officers have experienced from our gallant enemy.” But, in a subsequent despatch, he informs their lordships, that the crew of the Java “were pillaged of almost every thing, and kept in irons.” Speaking of those who were either dangerously or severely wounded, Mr. Jones, the surgeon, observes, – “Their removal to the Constitution, the deprivations they there experienced as to food, and the repeated disturbances they suffered by being carried below, and kept there for several hours three different times, on the report of an enemy heaving in sight; when these, I say, are considered, and the results contrasted with those of the American wounded, who were placed in the most healthy part of the ship, provided with every little luxury from competent and attentive nurses, and not allowed to be removed when ours were thrust into the hold with the other prisoners, the hatches at once shutting out light and fresh air, and this too in the latitude of St. Salvador, the recovery of our seamen appears as miraculous as it has already proved happy; and truly evinced both resignation and courage, in patiently submitting without a complaint to the cruelties of their situation, and firmly contending with every obstacle which chance or oppression could present or inflict. The unfortunate visitation of contagious diseases among the crew, on our passage home, proved a melancholy addition to our late disasters; they mended exceedingly, however, when we obtained supplies at the Western Islands; and on our arrival at Portsmouth, only two inefficient men remained on my list.”
