Page:Royal Naval Biography Marshall sp2.djvu/448

 Tucker next addressed himself to the ship’s company in terms nearly as follow:

This firmness on the part of Captain Tucker was productive of the desired effect: next day the beef was demanded by every mess, immediately after piping to dinner, and the men continued to eat it until their arrival at the Sandwich Islands, where a stock of excellent pork was procured for general use. It must be allowed by all who have any knowledge in these matters, that prompt, determined, and decisive conduct is absolutely necessary in such cases; but justice demands that we should not attribute the conduct of the Cherub’s crew, on the above occasion, to a mutinous spirit, but merely to the disgust occasioned by the beef’s intolerable smell when moistened by the rain. Their attachment to Captain Tucker may be fairly inferred from what we have stated in.

Captain Tucker was severely wounded in both legs at the commencement of the action with the United States’ frigate Essex, off Valparaiso, Mar. 28, 1814, the official account of which will be found. On that occasion he returned upon deck the moment his wounds were dressed, and continued there, “using every exertion against the baffling winds and occasional calms, to close near