was effected by boarding, but not until the boats had been exposed, in consequence of a strong lee tide, to a heavy fire for 45 minutes, by which many men were killed and wounded.
In Jan. 1800, we find Mr. Arabin, who had previously passed his examination, serving as master’s-mate on board the Pompée 74, bearing the flag of Sir W. Sidney Smith, and about to sail for the Mediterranean, in consequence of the lamented Nelson having selected his chivalrous compeer to protect Sicily from a threatened invasion. Shortly after the arrival of the Pompée at Palermo, Mr. Arabin was appointed by his patron to command a Sicilian armed vessel, in which he conveyed the first supply of ammunition to Gaeta, at that time a post of the greatest importance, besieged by the French army, and resolutely defended by the Prince of Hesse-Philipsthal: he also assisted in disarming the coasts of Naples and Calabria, from the gulf of Salerno to Scylla; and was present at the capture of the latter fortress.
On the 1st August, 1806, Mr. Arabin was appointed acting lieutenant of the Pompée, in which capacity he passed and re-passed the Dardanelles, with the squadron under Sir John T. Duckworth, Feb. 19th and March 3d, 1807. On the first of these days, after assisting at the destruction of a Turkish 64, four frigates, and five smaller vessels, lying within the inner castles, he was sent to cut out a gun-boat, and ordered to employ her in covering the party despatched under Lieutenant (now Captain) William Fairbrother Carroll, to complete the demolition of a 31-gun battery, situated on Point Pesquies. For his conduct in the performance of this service he again received the public thanks of Sir W. Sidney Smith, and likewise had the distinguished honor of being one of the only two naval lieutenants named in Sir John T. Duckworth’s first official despatch.
Having thus contributed to the securing of an anchorage for the British squadron, on its return from Constantinople, Mr. Arabin followed the Pompée into the sea of Marmora; but having no pilot, and his prize being almost unmanageable, from the loss of rigging and other damages, added to
