Page:Royal Naval Biography Marshall v1p1.djvu/136

106  with incredible vehemence during the whole day; but the weather, about midnight, became more moderate, and by the next morning the wind was totally abated. The direction of the hurricane was from N.N.E. to E.S.E., and it lasted twenty-nine hours.

The Laurel, Andromeda, and Blanche frigates, Scarborough, of 20 guns, and four sloops of war, were entirely lost, and of their crews not more than 48 men were saved. Of the remainder of the squadron on that station not one escaped without considerable damage; and the French ships suffered in equal proportion.

The Vengeance sailed for England in the spring of 1781, with another line-of-battle ship, and three frigates, as convoy to a fleet of thirty-four ships, richly laden, chiefly Dutch, which had been captured at St. Eustatia; and on the 2d May, falling in with a French squadron of six sail of the line besides frigates, under the command of M. de la Mothe Piquet, the utmost skill and dexterity were necessary, to effect an escape. Owing, however, to the judicious measures which Commodore Hotham immediately adopted, and to the able assistance of Captain Holloway, he preserved his own squadron, and saved the greater part of the merchant vessels; the remainder, of considerable value, fell into the hands of the enemy. On the 29th June, the Vengeance arrived at Spithead, and was immediately put out of commission.

After a short relaxation from the fatigues of service, Captain Holloway was appointed to the command of the Cambridge, of 80 guns, and went off the Texel with Lord Howe. He was next removed into the Buffalo, of 60 guns, attached to the fleet under the same Admiral, which, on the 11th Sept. 1782, sailed for the relief of Gibraltar. On the 11th Oct. the convoy entered the Gut; but the wind blowing strong from W.N.W. only four of the transports, under the care of the Latona frigate, reached their destined anchorage that day; the rest passed into the Mediterranean. The combined fleets of France and Spain, consisting of eighty sail of pendants, standing out of the bay, on the 13th, Lord Howe, then off Marbella, ordered Captain Holloway to take the store-ships under his protection, and proceed with them to the Zaffarine