Page:Royal Naval Biography Marshall v1p1.djvu/386

356 and Spain. On the 9th Nov. 1805, his long and active services were rewarded with an appointment to a Colonelcy of Royal Marines; and about the same period he was returned to Parliament as one of the members for Ipswich, in Suffolk.

Under the heads of, and , will be found an account of the action fought off St. Domingo, Feb. 6, 1806, in which the Spencer bore a conspicuous part. The loss she sustained on that occasion amounted to 18 killed and 50 wounded; in the latter list were Captain Stopford, Lieutenant Harris, one Subaltern of marines, and a Midshipman. After the battle she was sent with the prizes to Jamaica.

We next find Captain Stopford employed in the expedition against Copenhagen, which ended in the capture of the Danish fleet, and a vast quantity of naval stores. On the 28th April, 1808, he was advanced to the rank of Rear-Admiral, and appointed to a command in the Channel fleet. Early in the following year, a detachment under his orders obliged three French frigates to run ashore near the Sable d’Olonnes; in the execution of which service the British had 3 men killed and 31 wounded, besides being much cut up in the masts and rigging from the fire of the enemy’s batteries.

After the above affair Rear-Admiral Stopford blockaded a French squadron in Aix Roads; and previous to the arrival of Captain Lord Cochrane, who had been sent from England to conduct the enterprise, handsomely volunteered to undertake an attack upon the enemy with fire-ships; and, when the attempt was made, his judicious arrangement of the boats, afforded the greatest satisfaction to Lord Gambier, the Commander-in-Chief, who in his public despatches strongly testified to his zealous co-operation. The Rear-Admiral also received the thanks of parliament for his conduct on that occasion.

In the autumn of 1810, our officer was nominated to the command of the squadron employed at the Cape of Good Hope, and proceeded thither in the Scipion, of 74 guns. A few months after his arrival on that station, he received intelligence of the death of Vice-Admiral Drury, which took place