Israel) Pellew, as a step towards promotion; hut unfortunately that ship was destroyed by fire, in Hamoaze, whilst he was on his passage to join her. We subsequently find him commanding the Rambler brig, of two hundred tons, mounting 14 long six-pounders, with a complement of 86 men. In July 1797 while cruising on the Dogger Bank, he captured the French brig privateer Prospére, of 26 guns and 73 men.
In April 1798, this officer was promoted to the rank of commander, and sent in the Rambler, then registered as a sloop-of-war, to join the squadron under Vice-Admiral Waldegrave (the late Lord Radstock), on the Newfoundland station. Returning from thence, as convoy to the trade bound to Portugal, he encountered, on the Great Bank, a tremendous gale of wind, in which the Rambler was thrown on her beam-ends, and nearly foundered. After getting her before the wind, he succeeded, though not without great exertions, in throwing twelve of her guns overboard, reserving two for signals; and she was subsequently armed, at his request, with 18-pounder carronades, thereby reducing the dead-weight on deck, and rendering her a more formidable vessel in action. Some time afterwards she pitched away her bowsprit and foremast, during another violent storm, whilst in the Race of Alderney.
Captain Schomberg obtained post rank on the 1st Jan. 1801; and was appointed to the temporary command of the Windsor Castle 98, off Brest, in 1804. From Oct. 1807 until Aug. 1812, he commanded the Loire frigate, of 48 guns and 300 men.
Early in the spring of 1808, Captain Schomberg was sent, with the Success frigate under his orders, to the Greenland seas, for the protection of the fishery; and although the Loire and her consort were only fitted for common Channel service, he persevered until they got to the northward of Spitzbergen, and reached the main ice of that hemisphere. On the 4th June, the ships were in lat. 77° 30' N., long. 3° 00' E. The Success was then commanded by Captain John Ayscough, late Commissioner at Jamaica and Bermuda.
