Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 35.djvu/360

Rh disobedience of the men, the Penelope was captured by the Spaniards and taken into Cadiz. The Spanish admiral, Mazaredo, learning that her commander was the flag-lieutenant of Lord St. Vincent, to whom he was under some obligation of courtesy, sent Maitland back to Gibraltar, free, without exchange (, Memoirs of Earl St. Vincent, i. 406–7 n.) He was promoted by St. Vincent to be commander of the Cameleon sloop, the promotion to date from 14 June; went out to join his new ship, then on the coast of Egypt, under Sir W. Sidney Smith [q. v.], and after the signing of the convention of El Arish was sent home overland with despatches. He returned almost immediately, and continued in the Cameleon to the end of the year. On 10 Dec. he was appointed by Keith to be acting captain of the Wassenaar store-ship. As she was then lying in Malta unfit for service, he obtained permission to accompany the expedition to Egypt, where his good service in command of the boats appointed to cover the landing of the army, and to support the right flank in the actions of 13 and 21 March 1801, was specially acknowledged by the commanders-in-chief, on the report of Sir Sidney Smith (, iii. 386, iv. 852), and won for him his promotion to post rank, dated 21 March. He was then appointed temporarily to the Dragon of 74 guns, but in August was moved into the Carrère, a recent prize from the French, which he took to England and paid off in October 1802.

St. Vincent, then first lord of the admiralty, immediately appointed him to the Loire, a large 46-gun frigate, which, on the renewal of the war, was employed on the west coast of France and the north coast of Spain. During the next three years he captured or destroyed many large privateers and coasting batteries, more especially in Muros Bay, to the southward of Cape Finisterre, on 4 June 1805, where his gallantry and success won for him the thanks of the city of London, the freedom of the city of Cork, and the presentation of a sword from the Patriotic Fund. He also assisted in the capture of the French frigate Libre on 24 Dec. 1805. In November 1806 Maitland was moved into the Emerald of 36 guns, employed on the same service as the Loire, and with similar success. In April 1809 she was with the fleet outside Aix roads, under Lord Gambier, and on the 12th was one of the few ships so tardily sent in to support the Impérieuse [see, tenth ].

In 1813–14 Maitland commanded the Goliath on the Halifax and West India stations, and in November 1814 was appointed to the Boyne, under orders for North America. In the beginning of 1815 he was collecting a fleet of transports and merchant ships in Cork harbour, but a succession of strong westerly winds prevented his sailing, till, on the news of Bonaparte's return from Elba, his orders were countermanded, and he was appointed to the Bellerophon of 74 guns, in which he sailed from Plymouth on 24 May, under the immediate orders of Sir Henry Hotham [q. v.] Maitland, as well as Hotham, had a long experience of the Bay of Biscay, and the Bellerophon was stationed off Rochefort to keep watch on the ships of war there. On 28 June the news of the battle of Waterloo reached Maitland, and on the 30th a letter from Bordeaux warned him that Napoleon would attempt to escape thence to America. Maitland, however, adhered to the opinion that Napoleon would more likely make for Rochefort; and though he sent the two small craft in company, one to Bordeaux and the other to Arcachon, he himself, in the Bellerophon, remained off Rochefort. Hotham, in the Superb, was in Quiberon Bay, and frigates, corvettes, brigs kept watch along the whole extent of the coast. On 6 July Hotham wrote to Maitland that ‘it was believed Bonaparte had taken his road from Paris for Rochefort.’ On the 8th Hotham forwarded Maitland orders to keep the most vigilant look-out—‘to make the strictest search of any vessel you may fall in with; and if you should be so fortunate as to intercept him, you are to transfer him and his family to the ship you command and, there keeping him in careful custody, return to the nearest port in England, going into Torbay in preference to Plymouth, with all possible expedition.’

On 10 July negotiations with Maitland were opened on behalf of Napoleon, who had then reached Rochefort. Maitland was unable to agree to the proposal that he should be allowed to sail to the United States, but offered to carry him to England. After four anxious days, Napoleon, with his staff and servants, embarked on board the Bellerophon on the morning of the 15th. The ship at once sailed for England. On the 24th she arrived in Torbay; thence she was ordered round to Plymouth to await the decision of the government; and, putting to sea again on 4 Aug., Napoleon was on the 7th, off Berry Head, removed to the Northumberland [see, 1772–1853]. To counteract misrepresentation, Maitland wrote a detailed account of what took place for the perusal of his friends, and subsequently published it as ‘Narrative of the Surrender of Buonaparte and of his Re-