Page:Royal Naval Biography Marshall v4p2.djvu/49

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commanders.

be seen by the copy of an official letter given in Suppl. Part I. p. 384, et seq. We next find him most actively employed, during the whole of a long and tempestuous night, in embarking and bringing off the remains of Sir John Moore’s gallant army, at Corunna.

In June and July, 1810, the Cossack formed part of a squadron under Captain (afterwards Sir Robert) Mends, whose active operations on the north coast of Spain, between St. Sebastian and St. Andero, have been noticed in Vol. II. Part I. p. 272 et seq. and Part II. p. 949 et seq. She was afterwards ordered to the Mediterranean, where Lieutenant Herbert continued to serve in her, latterly under Captain Francis Stanfell, until June, 1812, when he applied to be superseded, and was accordingly put on half-pay.

In April 1813, he joined the Antelope 50, Captain Samuel Butcher, attached to the Baltic station; and during the summer of that year, he commanded her boats at the capture of several Danish privateers, which attempted by night-time to molest the British trade going through the Great Belt. On one of these occasions, he received a blow of a sword on the head, and was only saved by having a silk handkerchief in his hat, which was cut down to the very brim.

On the 1st Mar. 1814, the Antelope, then under the orders of Admiral William Young, commanding the North Sea fleet, forced the channel between Flushing and Cadsand, accompanied by a Russian frigate and the Resolution hired cutter, under a heavy fire from all parts of the extensive chain of works which, since the Walcheren expedition, had been thrown up on both sides of the Hondt. Whilst thus running the gauntlet, the Antelope received several shot in the hull, and had a few men badly wounded, one of whom was a Dutch pilot, whose comrade, on witnessing his misfortune, lost no time in concealing himself below. The Russian frigate lost no men, nor had she any wounded; but, unfortunately, the Resolution’s gaff-top-sail sheet was shot away, which occasioned her to fall astern of the ships, instead of continuing a-head, and directing their course by her