Page:Royal Naval Biography Marshall v2p1.djvu/319

  officer, a son of the late eminent Dr. Mudge of Plymouth, co. Devon, was made a Lieutenant about 1789; and in that capacity accompanied Captain Vancouver to Nootka Sound , from whence he was despatched to India in an open vessel, with a crew of only 14 men. In 1799, he commanded the Fly sloop of war, and captured la Gleneur French privateer of 6 guns and 32 men, off Portland.

During the ensuing year, the Fly was nearly lost on an immense island of ice, near the banks of Newfoundland, whilst on her passage from Halifax to England, with despatches from H.R.H. the late Duke of Kent. She also captured le Trompeur, a French cutter privateer, off la Hogue. Captain Mudge’s post commission bears date Nov. 15, 1800. His next appointment was to la Constance of 24 guns.

In the spring of 1801, Captain Mudge received the thanks of the British Consuls and Merchants at Lisbon and Oporto, for the services he had rendered them, by convoying a fleet from Falmouth to Portugal in safety, and for his very great activity in collecting some vessels at Viana, laden with brandy, without which the wines could not have been got ready in time to go home under his protection. About the same period he captured El Dduides, a Spanish national cutter of 8 guns and 69 men; a lugger privateer of 2 guns and 27 men; and a brig laden with West Indian produce.

Having seen eighty-two vessels deeply laden with port wine to their destination in safety, Captain Mudge again sailed for Oporto, and on the 27th July, 1801, Cape Ortegal bearing south four miles, he discovered a brig and a lugger rounding the point, within a quarter of a mile of the shore. Relying on the accuracy of the Spanish charts in his possession, he ran la Constance so close to the Firgu rocks, as to oblige the strangers to pass through the inner channel, each receiving a broadside as she passed. The Stork of 18 guns, which had hove in sight to leeward, now stood into the bay, and compelled the brig to run on shore directly under a high