Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 2).djvu/600

 and "pointed out to admiring nations a new track to China, founded on philosophic principles."

1758. At the recapture of Fort William many of the Company's ships were employed, and in some instances the crews were engaged on shore.

1759. When the Dutch, with four frigates of thirty-six guns each, two frigates of twenty-six guns each, and another ship mounting sixteen guns, with crews of fifteen hundred men on board, attempted to capture the British possessions of Bengal, they were driven back, and captured by the Company's ships Calcutta, Duke of Dorset, and Hardwicke. In the same year the Company's ship Hardwicke fought an action with a French frigate. 1760. The Company's ships Royal George and Oxford intercepted and captured three Dutch ships and three sloops off Culpec. In 1761 the Company's ship Shaftesbury stood into Madras Roads, in defiance of two French ships there blockading the town, who attacked her, but, succeeding in beating them off, she then embarked a detachment of troops, and proceeded to St. Thomas, where she engaged and beat off a French frigate. The captain, officers, and crew of the Shaftesbury were warmly commended for their gallant conduct on this occasion, and received a reward of 2,000l.

The Company's ship Winchelsea fought a French frigate single handed and beat her off. The Court in this case also distributed the sum of 2,000l. among the crew for their gallant conduct.

1779. The Company's ship Bridgewater fought an American privateer of superior force, and beat her off, for which the crew received a reward of 2,000l. from the Court of Directors.

1782. The Company's ships, under Commodore Johnstone, fought a gallant action at Port Praya, in which the enemy were defeated.

1786. The Princess Royal, Captain Horncastle, fought an action in the Straits of Malacca.

1793. The Company's ships Triton, Royal Charlotte, and Warley, in company with H.M.S. Minerva, were employed in the blockade of Pondicherry, and assisted at the capture of that place.

1794. The Company's ship Pigott fought a gallant action at Bencoolen with three French frigates. In this year, there not being a single English man-of-war in the Indian Seas, or to the eastward of the Cape, and while the port of Calcutta was blockaded, and the whole trade of India a prey to large and