Page:Royal Naval Biography Marshall sp2.djvu/126

 In 1796, Mr. Willoughby assisted at the reduction of Amboyna and Banda, with their several dependencies; after which he appears to have been successively removed into the Heroine frigate and Suffolk 74; the former ship commanded by Captain Alan Hyde Gardner, the latter bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral Rainier, by whom he was made a Lieutenant, and appointed to the Victorious 74, Captain William Clark, Jan. 13, 1798.

Ou the 30th June following, Lieutenant Willoughby was suspended from his duty and placed in confinement, for asking his captain whether he should go into the waist himself, to see the mainsheet hauled aft, his orders to that effect not being promptly obeyed, and the captain finding fault with him for the remissness of others.

Conscious of having always obeyed Captain Clark’s orders with becoming alacrity, that he had never intentionally treated him with contempt or disrespect, and that by allowing himself to be released without a proper explanation he would subject himself to a repetition of such unmerited treatment. Lieutenant Willoughby declined returning to his duty, when an offer to that effect was made him, unless the captain would admit that he had placed him under arrest without any just cause.

This admission being withheld. Lieutenant Willoughby applied for an investigation of his conduct; but owing to the disposition of the ships composing Rear-Admiral Rainier’s squadron, nearly twelve months elapsed before his request could be complied with; “and by that time,” says an officer who was present, “his health was so much impaired, through want of exercise and the medicine he had been obliged to take in consequence, that he was more fit for an hospital than to stand the brunt of a court-martial. His tongue was so enlarged that articulation was painful to him, and those who were present at his trial declared, he was in such a state that he oniy appeared anxious to get through the business, seeming perfectly indifferent as to the result.”

The consequence was, the prosecutor had only to make his statement in his own way, and the court came to the 