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men, having on board 130 soldiers and three hundred tons of wheat, from Trieste bound to Corfu, Nov. 27th, 1811. At this period Captain Rowley was the senior officer in the Adriatic. On the 20th July 1812, the marines of the Eagle, and a military detachment under Captain Rutherford, of H.M. 35th regiment, stormed and destroyed the battery of Cape Ceste. On the 22d of the same month, her boats, commanded by Lieutenant Augustus Cannon, captured a FrancoVenetian gun-boat; and in Sept. following, that officer was mortally wounded while making a successful attack upon an enemy’s convoy, near the mouth of the River Po: two gunboats and fifteen armed merchant vessels, the latter laden with oil, were captured on this occasion.

In June, 1813, the boats of the Eagle, in conjunction with those of the Elizabeth 74, destroyed a two-gun battery at Omago, on the coast of Istria, and brought out four vessels laden with wine, which had been scuttled near that town. At the same time the marines of those ships obliged about 100 French soldiers to decamp. Captain Rowley’s gallant conduct at the capture of Fiume, July 3d, 1813, was highly conspicuous, as will be seen by the following copy of an official despatch, addressed to the commander-in-chief on the Mediterranean station:–

“H.M.S. Milford, off Porto Ré, July 6th, 1813.

“Sir,– I have the honor to acquaint you, that on the 28th ult. I left Melada, and on the 30th, assembled the Elizabeth and Eagle, off Promontorio. On the 1st inst. the squadron entered the Quarnier Channel, and on the 2d, in the evening, anchored about four miles from Fiume, which was defended by four batteries, mounting fifteen heavy guns. On the 3d, in the morning, the ships named in the margin^[1] weighed with a light breeze from the S.W. with the intention of attacking the sea line of batteries (for which the arrangement had been previously made and communicated), leaving a detachment of boats and marines with the Haughty, to storm the battery at the mole head, as soon as the guns were silenced: but the wind very light, shifting to the S.E., mth current from the river, broke the ships off, and the Eagle could only fetch the second battery, opposite to which she anchored. The enemy could not stand the well-directed fire of that ship. This being communicated by telegraph, I made the signal to storm, when Captain Rowley, leading in his gig the first detachment of marines, took possession of the fort, and hoisted the king’s

1. Milford 74, Elizabeth 74, Eagle 74, Bacchante 38, and Haughty gun-brig.