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 of the French squadron cut, and stood down the inner channel, within the Braak sand; on the following morning, they regained their anchorage, without our ships being able to molest or cut them off.

Captain Campbell’s prize proved to be la Desirée, mounting 40 guns, long 24-pounders on the main-deck, with a complement of 350 men, some of whom were on shore. Captain Inman, in his official letter to the Admiralty, says, “the handsome and intrepid manner of his completely carrying her in less than a quarter of an hour, and bringing her out, must convince their Lordships of his unparalleled bravery, and the very gallant conduct of his officers and ship’s company, as the enemy’s frigate was so much superior in force ; and had it not been so instantly done, the ship could not have been got over the banks, as the water had begun to fall.” The Dart’s loss on this occasion amounted to no more than 1 man slain, and her first Lieutenant and 10 men wounded; la Desirée is said to have had nearly 100 killed and wounded, including among the former every officer on board, with the exception of one Midshipman. Only 6 men were wounded on board the other vessels of Captain Inman’s squadron. The Earl of St. Vincent pronounced this to have been one of the finest instances of gallantry on record.

Three days after the capture of la Desirée, the subject of this memoir was advanced to post rank in the Ariadne, a 20-gun ship. His next appointment was about Sept. 1803, to the Doris frigate, stationed in the Channel.

On the 12th Jan. 1805, as the Doris was proceeding to Quiberon bay, she struck upon a sunken rock, called the