Page:Biographia Hibernica volume 2.djvu/27

 COSBY. 23. desire of that officer, appointed his marine aid-de-camp, and in this capacity he served with General Wolfe the year following, at the siege of Quebec, and remained with him. until September 18, 1759, the fatal day of his death. Shortly after that lamented event Mr. Cosby returned to England, and on the 2nd of June, 1760, was appointed commander of the Laurel sloop. From this ship, on the 19th of May, 1761, he was promoted to the rank of post-captain in the Hind frigate of twenty guns. In 1767, he was appointed to the Montreal frigate of thirty-two guns, and ordered to the Mediterranean, from which station he returned in the September of that year, by order of Commodore Spring (the then commander-in-chief) on the melancholy occasion of bringing to England the corpse of the Duke of York. Having performed this service, Captain Cosby resumed his station in the Mediterranean, where he continued during the three succeeding years: he then returned to England, and was unemployed until the year 1778, when he was appointed to the Centaur, of seventy-four guns, and was in the action off Brest, with Lord Keppel, on the 27th of July in that year. - Towards the commencement of the year 1779, Captain Cosby changed into the Robust, of seventy-four guns; and in May, sailed under the command of the late Ad miral Arbuthnot, for North America. After much skilful manoeuvring on both sides, on the 16th of March, 1781, being about fourteen leagues distant from Cape Henry, the French were discovered steering for the Capes of Vir ginia; and about two P.M. Captain Cosby had the satisfac tion of leading the British squadron into action. “Cap tain Cosby (as Admiral Arbuthnot expressed himself in h i s official dispatches) behaved i n the most gallant manner i n his engagement with the van o f the enemy.” The Robust had far more than her proportion o f killed and wounded; and, b y having a t one time three ships upon her, her masts, rigging, sails, and boats, were torn t o pieces. But the French commodore and his ships were unable t o withstand the animated attack that was made