Page:Biographia Hibernica volume 2.djvu/607

 TUCKEY. 603 was stationed in a brig to cruise off the island, and on firing a gun at a party in arms assembled on the beach, it burst, and a piece striking him on the wrist, broke his right arm. Having no surgeon on board, he was obliged to officiate for himself, and set it in so sailor-like a fashion, that in about a week after it was again obliged to be broken by the advice of the surgeons. This arm he never completely recovered the use o f . From the intense heat and the suffocating smell o f a n active volcano, t o which they were exposed i n Amboyna roads, for fourteen months, where they experienced the evils o f famine and sickness, i n addition t o that o f rebellion, they were glad t o escape t o Maçao, where, i n January 1797, they found the weather s o intolerably cold, a s several times t o have snow. From hence they proceeded t o Ceylon, and when a t Columbo, o n the 15th o f January, 1798, a serious mutiny broke out o n board the Suffolk, i n the quelling o f which Mr. Tuckey exerted himself with s o much success, that, although wanting eighteen months for the completion o f his servi tude t o qualify him for a lieutenant's commission, the rear-admiral, Rainer, appointed him the following day acting lieutenant o f the ship. From her h e was removed t o the Fox frigate; and when belonging t o that frigate, being a t Madras, intelligence was there received, that L a Forte, a French frigate, was cruising i n the Bay o f Bengal. His majesty's ship L a Sybille immediately prepared for sea, and Mr. Tuckey, with a small party o f seamen belonging t o the Fox, volunteered their services i n her. They fell i n with her, and after a desperate action she struck t o the Sybille. I n this affray Lieutenant Tuckey commanded on the forecastle. After this action, Lieutenant Tuckey returned t o the Suffolk, and received from the admiral a new active commission for his meritorious conduct. I n August 1799, h e was sent b y the admiral i n the Brave with dispatches for Admiral Blankett, then com manding a squadron i n the Red sea. At the Leychelles islands, they captured a ship proceeding t o Europe with a n embassy from Tippoo Sultaun t o the French directory;