Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 2).djvu/601

 well-appointed privateers, the Company's ships William Pitt, Britannia, and Houghton, under Commodore Mitchell (who was knighted for his services on this occasion), cruised in the Indian seas as men-of-war for the protection of commerce. They captured two large privateers, and defeated a French squadron of two frigates, a brig of war, and an armed ship, the Princess Royal.

When, in 1795, the great expedition was ordered for the West Indies, application was made to the Company for assistance, and fourteen of the Company's ships were fitted out immediately, and ten others sold to Government and equipped as line-of-battle ships.

In the same year an expedition was fitted out at St. Helena, consisting of the Company's ships Goddard, Mauship, Hawkesbury, Airly Castle, Asia, Essex, and Busbridge; which proceeded to cruise to windward of the island, where they intercepted and captured a valuable fleet of nine Dutch Indiamen. This undertaking involved in its consequences the annihilation of the Dutch East India Company.

The Company's ships Bombay Castle, Exeter, and Brunswick were fitted out as men-of-war at Bombay, and assisted in taking the Cape of Good Hope.

1797. When at the mutiny of the Nore, the Court of Directors called upon their officers to serve on board his Majesty's ships for the defence of the river, the request was promptly and zealously answered by the maritime service at large.

Commodore Farquharson, of the Company's service, with a fleet of their ships, fell in with the French Admiral De Sercey and a powerful squadron of men-of-war; the Indiamen immediately formed the line of battle, and gave chase to the enemy, who crowded all sail, and was soon out of sight. This bold manœuvre saved a valuable fleet to the Company and to the nation.

In 1797, on the expedition against Manilla, several of the Company's ships were fitted out to act as men-of-war, and in 1798 the Hughes was equipped at Bombay to protect the trade on the Malabar Coast. That year the Company's ships Royal Charlotte, Cuffnells, Phœnix, and Alligator assisted H.M. ships La Pomone, Argo, and Cormorant in convoying a large fleet of merchantmen and transports to Lisbon. On the 25th of September they fell in with a French fleet of nine sail, consisting of one eighty-gun ship and eight frigates. The signal was made for the Company's ships to form the line with those of his Majesty's, and the convoy were ordered to push for Lisbon.