Russell; Dover 44, armed en flûte, Lieutenant ____ Drummond; Vengeance 74, Captain Sir Thomas Rich, Bart.; Berwick 74, successively commanded by Captains Sir John Collins, Knt., William Shield, George Campbell, William Smith, and Adam Littlejohn; and the Britannia, first-rate, bearing the flag of Vice-Admiral (afterwards Lord) Hotham, by whom he was promoted into the Courageux 74, Captain Augustus Montgomery, shortly after the action between the British and French fleets, off Genoa, in March, 1795[1].
The Courageux was subsequently placed under the command of Captain Hallowell (now Sir Benjamin H. Carew), and Lieutenant Tucker was almost constantly employed in her boats, attacking the coasting trade to the westward of Toulon, skirmishing with gun-boats, and obtaining information from the shore. On several occasions we find him capturing and destroying vessels close to the enemy’s batteries.
The melancholy fate of the Courageux has been recorded in p. 467 et seq, of Vol. I. Part II. We have here to add, however, that at the period when she was wrecked, Captain Hallowell and Mr. Tucker (then third lieutenant) were absent on duty; the first and second lieutenants sick; and the ship and all on board under the charge of a very young and inexperienced officer.
Subsequent to this disaster. Lieutenant Tucker joined the flag-ship of Sir John Jervis, by whom he was ordered to assist in bringing home the San -Josef, a Spanish first-rate, captured off Cape St. Vincent, Feb. 14th, 1797. We afterwards find him first-lieutenant of the Saturn 74; from which ship he followed the late Rear-Admiral Totty into the Invincible, of similar force.
On the 16th Mar. 1801, the latter ship sailed from Yarmouth Roads, for the purpose of joining the expedition sent against the Northern Confederacy; and she was proceeding with a fair wind, at the rate of nine knots, when she unfortunately struck upon Hammond’s Knowl; both the master and the pilot having neglected to make allowance for a rapid
