“Dear Sir,– I have received your letter, and am extremely happy to have it in my power to hear testimony to your meritorious conduct during the time you served as lieutenant in H.M. sloop Rambler, when under my command, in 1803 and 1804, particularly the gallantry you displayed in cutting out two vessels belonging to a small convoy, which took shelter in the harbour of St. Gillies, under a heavy fire of field-pieces and musketry from the shore; and I remember the readiness with which you volunteered your services in all times of danger.
“Admiral Cornwallis mentioned to me your offer to join in an attempt to destroy the French fleet by fire-ships; for which purpose arrangements were made: but the removal of the fleet into the inner harbour prevented the admiral from putting his design into execution. I am, dear Sir, yours very sincerely,
“To Commander Walter Forman.”
In 1805, the Rambler, then commanded by the present Captain Henry E. P. Sturt Grindall, engaged three Frencn national vessels, each mounting fourteen guns, and drove them and the vessels under their protection into the harbour of Conquet. Her log will prove, that she was several other times engaged in skirmishes with coasting convoys, under the enemy’s batteries.
Lieutenant Forman’s next appointment was, shortly after the battle of Trafalgar, to the Queen 98, in which ship, successively bearing the flags of Lord Collingwood, the late Admiral John Child Purvis, and the present Sir George Martin, he served nearly two years, off Cadiz and in the Archipelago. In 1806, being then at Gibraltar, the boats of the Euryalus frigate were placed under his command, and sent to rescue an English gun-vessel which had drifted close to the shore, in the neighbourhood of St Roque:– although exposed to a heavy fire from the Spanish batteries, he succeeded in warping her clear of all danger, and that without losing a man. “His removal from the Queen,” says Lord Collingwopd, “was at his own request. He preferred a small ship; and I thought it proper to gratify an active and zealous officer with a situation which he considered was likely to afford him an opportunity of distinguishing himself. I accordingly appointed him first lieutenant of the Herald
