Page:Royal Naval Biography Marshall v3p2.djvu/384

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364
commanders.

of eight guns and sixty men, was captured among the Tremiti islands, by a detachment of boats belonging to the Mercury and El Corso, the whole under the command of Lieutenant Mather; whom we next find serving under Captain William Bolton, in l’Aimable frigate, stationed off Ostend; where he was wounded in an action with the Gallo-Batavian flotilla, May 16th, 1804. His promotion to the rank of commander took place on the 23d Feb. 1807 ; and he appears to have been afterwards successively appointed to the Combatant, Rapid, and Tweed; which latter sloop he had the misfortune to lose, in Shoal Bay, Newfoundland, Nov, 5th, 1813.



SAMUEL JEFFERY, Esq.
[Commander.]

Was made a lieutenant on the 13th Feb. 1805, and advanced to his present rank Feb. 23d, 1807.



WILLIAM COOTE, Esq.
[Commander.]

Served as midshipman of the Edgar 74, Captain George Murray, at the battle of Copenhagen, April 2d, 1801; obtained a lieutenant’s commission in 1802; and was promoted to the rank of commander. May 6th, 1807, for an exploit thus officially recorded:

H.M.S. Cerberus, off Martinique, Jan. 3d, 1807.

“Sir,– I beg leave to acquaint you, that in pursuance of your orders to me by Captain Pigot, of the Circe, I reconnoitred the ports of Guadaloupe and the Saintes: after having so done, and perceiving no force of any consequence, except a brig of sixteen guns, lying in the Saintes, I left Captain Pigot off that port, and was proceeding to my former station in further pursuance of your directions, when on the 2d instant, as I was beating to windward between Martinique and Dominica, I observed a privateer schooner, with a schooner and a sloop in company, standing for St. Pierre’s with French colours flying: I gave chase, and prevented them from reaching that port, upon which they all three anchored under a battery to the northward, near the Pearl Rock, and very close to the shore.

“It, however, appeared to me practicable to cut them out in the night. I consulted Lieutenant Coote on the occasion, who, with Lieutenant Bligh, volunteered the attack; and, about eight o’clock, they very gallantly