Page:Royal Naval Biography Marshall v3p1.djvu/311

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POST CAPTAINS OF 1827.
293

under Captain Taylor and Lieutenant-Colonel Robertson; and on the 3d of the following month, the island of Curzola was obliged to capitulate after three hours’ firing, during which the Apollo had her main-mast much injured by shot from the sea-batteries, her yawl sunk, and a quantity of rigging cut, one man killed, one drowned, and one slightly wounded. The ordnance and vessels taken on these occasions consisted of one mortar, seven long 18-pounders, two 8-pounders, and eight smaller guns, all mounted in battery; a despatch boat, a privateer which had greatly molested the trade of the Adriatic, two of her prizes, and seven trabacolos, &c. principally laden with grain for the garrisons of Ragusa and Cattaro; the captors had also the satisfaction of rescuing a quantity of church-plate and other valuable property, which the French were about to send away from Augusta and Curzola[1].

On the 11th of April, Captain Taylor took temporary possession of a small island near Corfu, thereby enabling his boats, in conjunction with those of the Cerberus frigate, to surprise and capture two vessels laden with grain. On the 14th, he reduced the island of Malero, where the enemy had scuttled eight vessels with similar cargoes; and on the 24th, a felucca was cut out from St. Cataldo, after the French troops had been dislodged from a strong position, with the loss of 26 men taken prisoners, one killed, and several wounded. On the 28th of May, the Apollo intercepted part of a convoy under Turkish colours, bound with supplies to Corfu; and on the 10th of the following month, her boats captured a gun-vessel mounting one long twelve and a six-pounder, with an engineer officer on board, who had been employed in improving the defences of Parga and Pado[2].

Early in Feb. 1814, Captain Taylor proposed measures “for commencing hostilities against Corfu, and, as a preliminary, to take the island of Paxo. On the 13th,” says he, “we landed, under the lee of the island, in a hard southerly