Page:Biographia Hibernica volume 2.djvu/401

 MACBRIDE. 397 of fifty-four guns, the ship he had lately taken from the enemy, and esteemed the finest vessel existing of her class; but, as a temporary arrangement, he was again removed into the Princess Amelia, of eighty guns, as successor to captain Macartney, who had fallen in the action. On the return of the squadron into port, he was employed as a cruiser on the same station, and in the month of December, captured two very large Dutch pri vateers. (Captain Macbride, in his official account of this action, informs us, that “The Hercules had one hundred and sixty-four men on board; thirteen were killed, and twenty wounded. The Mars, one hundred and forty-six men; nine were killed, and fifteen wounded. We had one man killed, and six wounded.”) Early in the ensuing year he was ordered into the Channel, and, in April, attended the squadron, under admiral Barrington, to inter cept a small French squadron intended to proceed from Brest to the East Indies. Captain Macbride, who was at the head of the fleet, first discovered the enemy, and in the course of that or the following day, nearly half the vessels, consisting of ships of war and transports, were captured by the different ships of the British squadron. After the cessation of hostilities, he quitted the Artois, and in July, 1783, was appointed to the Druid frigate of thirty-two guns, employed as a cruiser in the Irish Channel. Having quitted her about the year 1784, he held no naval commission for some years. In the same year he was chosen member of parliament for Plymouth. In 1788, he was appointed to the Cumberland of seventy four guns, a guard-ship stationed at Plymouth; and, in February 1793, soon after the commencement of the rupture with France, he was made rear-admiral of the blue. He was afterwards more than once occupied in cruising in the Channel, but found no opportunity of adding to that reputation he had before so deservedly acquired. He was indeed, for a con siderable space of time, unable to act in the line of his profession, having unfortunately broken his leg in attempt ing to mount a horse. In April he was raised to the rank