the Hon. G. G. Waldegrave (now Lord Radstock), and Lieutenant Croker was soon afterwards sent out to the West Indies, on the Admiralty list for promotion. He there served in the Melampus frigate, under the command of Captain Edward Hawker; and was with that officer when he captured le Beauharnois of 16 guns and 109 men, laden with flour and warlike stores, from Bayonne bound to Guadaloupe. The commander of this French ship, Mons, Mont-Bazon, was a truly gallant fellow, and did not surrender until it became utterly impossible for him to effect his escape: during a close running fight of twenty minutes he kept up a most spirited fire from his stern-chasers; occasionally yawing his vessel and giving the Melampus a broadside of grape. On surrendering his sword he said, partly in his own language and partly in broken English, “If my scoundrels had done their duty, you would not get this from me.”
After assisting at the reduction of Guadaloupe, Mr. Croker was appointed first lieutenant of the Papillon sloop, Captain James Hay, by which vessel some important despatches were subsequently brought to England. We next find him proceeding to the East Indies, as second of the Leda frigate, Captain (afterwards Rear-Admiral) George Sayer; from which station he returned, in ill-health, first of the Diomede 50, Captain Hugh Cook. In the beginning of Nov. 1811, he was appointed senior lieutenant of the Furieuse frigate, Captain William Mounsey, who spoke highly of his conduct at the reduction of Ponza, an island near the Neapolitan coast, Feb. 26th, 1813[1]. He had previously assisted in capturing two French privateers, each mounting four guns; and the subjoined documents will shew, that he afterwards commanded the boats of the Furieuse, at the capture and destruction of a national xebec, two gun-boats, a land battery of two long 24-pounders, an armed merchant vessel, and thirteen settees deeply laden with valuable cargoes.
