to wear six times under fore stay-sails only; the hazard ran in happily effecting the above, induces me to wish the commander-in-chief may be acquainted with it; and besides Lieutenant Croker, I beg you will have the goodness to mention the men whose names are in the margin, for their great humanity on this occasion[1].
“In accomplishing the above we got so far to leeward, that, on the following morning, it was only by the great mercy of Providence we escaped being wrecked near Ancona; we weathered it by carrying a press of sail without topsails, and were driven along a lee shore as far as Manfredonia, off which place we anchored to gammon the bowsprit, which had given way in the gale. I have the honor to be,
“To Captain Campbell, H.M.S. Unité.”
On this occasion the officers of the Thames were all consulted, and, with the exception of Lieutenant Croker, they were unanimously of opinion, that no boat could possibly live in the tremendous sea then running. Even the gallant fellows who accompanied him began to give way to despair, long before the trabaccolo could be closely approached, but were again rallied by the animating example and exhortations of their humane and intrepid officer, whose conduct on the 25th Feb. 1808 was truly deserving of a civic crown. The time spent in saving the lives of so many people, under such extremely dangerous circumstances, was at least three hours and a half, during which the main-stay-sail of the Thames, although scarcely ever before set, was actually blown out of its bolt-rope.
Some time after this event, the Thames and a sloop of war (Minstrel, Commander John Hollinworth) were employed in blockading two French frigates, lying in the harbour of Corfu. During a heavy gale, the sloop telegraphed, that her hanging ports were stove in, and that she must bear up. The storm being very violent, Captain Taylor, suggested thereto by Lieutenant Croker, resolved to seek shelter at the mouth of the harbour of Cephalonia, the only anchorage which he could pos-
- ↑ Samuel Baker and William Brown, boatswain’s mates; J. Fordyce, captain of the forecastle; J. Clarke and Benjamin M‘Clean, captains of tops; and George Brown, fore-castle-man.
