Page:Royal Naval Biography Marshall v1p2.djvu/55

Rh for a long time, yet she was obliged to retrace her steps to the Egyptian coast without receiving the repairs she stood in need of. At length Lord Keith sent her with a convoy of cartels and light transports, from the Bay of Aboukir to Malta. Captain Hallowell on the passage received intelligence of a strong squadron of the enemy being in those seas. Prompted by a laudable zeal for the service, and considering the comparative insignificance of his charge, he formed the resolution to quit it, and make the best of his way to reinforce Sir John B. Warren, then lying at the latter place. Unhappily, on his passage he fell in with the hostile squadron on the 24th June, 1801. Perceiving the very superior force of the enemy, he endeavoured to escape from them; but the leaky and foul condition of the Swiftsure was ill-matched for the fast sailing Frenchmen. Captain Hallowell, finding there was no prospect of getting away from them by keeping on a wind, determined to bear down and engage the ships to leeward, consisting of two sail of the line and a frigate, in hopes that if he crippled them he might obtain his object; but in this he was disappointed. The Indivisible, of 80 guns, bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral Ganteaume, and the Dix-Aout, 74, being in close order, and within half gun-shot of the Swiftsure, opened their fire; this was instantly returned, and a severe action took place, and continued, notwithstanding the great disproportion of force, for an hour and seven minutes, during which Captain Hallowell made several efforts to get to leeward of his opponents, but their superior sailing baffled every attempt.

The other two line-of-battle ships, the Jean Bart and Constitution, of 74 guns each, now tacked in order to fetch into the Swiftsure’s wake, and were ranging up on her quarter within gun-shot, reserving their fire till they closed, when, her masts, yards, and rigging being cut to pieces, the decks lumbered with the wreck, all hopes of escape cut off, and no prospect of succour presenting itself, Captain Hallowell, to avoid further useless effusion of blood, determined to surrender to superior numbers; and with pain, as he truly expressed himself, he ordered the colours, which he could no longer defend, to be hauled down.

The Frenchman’s principal object having been to dismantle the Swiftsure, her loss in killed and wounded was not so great