Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 44.djvu/280

 wind blowing dead on shore, and a very heavy sea rolling in. By great exertions and remarkable seamanship, the Indefatigable succeeded in beating out of the bay; the Amazon, which had sustained more damage, struck, and became a total wreck, though with very little loss of life [see ]. The Droits de l'Homme was less fortunate. She struck almost at the same time as the Amazon, on the morning of the 14th, but the boats which were hoisted out were almost immediately broken to pieces. Many men were crushed or drowned; many died of cold, of hunger, of thirst. It was the 18th before the miserable survivors were landed. The loss of life has been very differently stated; but, according to the best French accounts, she had on board 1,280 men in all, of whom 580 were soldiers and fifty were prisoners. Of these, 960 were saved, 103 had been killed by the frigates' fire, and 217 were lost in the wreck. It is not improbable that these numbers are too small; but it is certain that the numbers reported in England—1,350 lost out of a total of 1,750 on board—are much exaggerated (, ii. 303;, iii. 59; , i. 219).

During 1797 and 1798 Pellew, still in the Indefatigable, continued in command of a frigate squadron to the westward; and in March 1799 he was moved to the Impétueux, a remarkably fine 74-gun ship, but with a ship's company known to be on the verge of mutiny. Pellew's personal influence and stern decision had prevented any outbreak on board the Indefatigable, even in 1797; and it was generally believed that he was appointed to the Impétueux in the hope that he might be equally successful with her. The men, perhaps, felt that they were ‘dared;’ and, when the fleet drew back to Bantry Bay towards the end of May 1799, a general mutiny seems to have been projected. On 30 May it broke out on board the Impétueux. Pellew threw himself among the men, seized one of the ringleaders, and dragged him on deck. The officers, following his example, secured others. The mutiny was at an end, and the Impétueux went out to the Mediterranean with Rear-admiral Cotton. At Port Mahon the ringleaders were tried by court-martial, sentenced to death, and executed. St. Vincent, speaking of the incident afterwards, said that Pellew was ‘an excellent and valuable officer, but the most important service he ever rendered to his country was saving the British fleet in Bantry Bay. We know that it was the intention to burn the ships and join the rebels on shore.’ The Impétueux returned to the Channel with Lord Keith, and remained with the fleet under Lord Bridport, and afterwards Lord St. Vincent. In June 1800 Pellew was sent with a strong squadron to Quiberon Bay, where it was proposed to land a force of five thousand men to co-operate with the French royalists. It was, however, found that the royalists were not able to rise, as they had intended, and, beyond destroying a small battery, and bringing away or burning the shipping in the inner bay [see ], nothing was done. Pellew was afterwards at Ferrol under Warren; and, having rejoined the fleet, remained with it till the peace of Amiens, when the ship was paid off.

In July 1802 he was returned to parliament for Barnstaple; but, as soon as the renewal of the war appeared certain, he applied for active employment. In March 1803 he was appointed to the 80-gun ship Tonnant, in which he joined the fleet off Brest under Cornwallis, and early in the summer was detached as commodore of a strong squadron to watch the port of Ferrol, which the French had practically appropriated, and where, during the autumn and winter, they had a squadron of six or seven ships of the line. To blockade this, Pellew's force was little, if at all, superior in numbers, and he had no certainty that some additional ships, escaping from Brest, might not overpower him; but the blockade was efficiently maintained throughout the winter. In March he was recalled to England, in reality, it would seem, to speak in support of the admiralty against Mr. Pitt's motion on 15 March 1804 for an inquiry into Lord St. Vincent's policy. In Parliament Pellew had supported Mr. Pitt, but on this occasion he spoke strongly in support of Lord St. Vincent, and especially against the idea that the enemy's gunboats ought to be met by gunboats. He agreed with St. Vincent that the true defence was in the fleet; the gunboats he thought a most contemptible force, and he was not disposed to concur in ‘the probability of the enemy being able, in a narrow sea, to pass through our blockading and protecting squadrons with all that secrecy and dexterity and by those hidden means that some worthy people expect’ (, pp. 204, 223).

On 23 April 1804 Pellew was promoted to the rank of rear-admiral, and was at the same time appointed commander-in-chief in the East Indies. He went out with his flag in the Culloden, but he expected that, for his speech and vote of 15 March, he would be shortly superseded. The new admiralty did not venture quite so far, but they sent out Sir Thomas Troubridge [q. v.], with a