Page:Royal Naval Biography Marshall v2p2.djvu/423

 experimental vessel, both designed by General Samuel Bentham, Inspector-General of his Majesty’s naval works, says:

Captain Vincent was re-appointed to the Arrow, Mar. 1, 1803; and every effort was immediately made by himself and his officers to complete her complement, but without effect. Finding that, from her novel appearance, she was not likely to attract volunteers, and as very few men were to be picked up along shore, or from the coasting traders and other small craft, Captain Vincent obtained permission from Lord Gardner, the Port-Admiral, to send a Custom House cutter into the offing, under the command of one of his Lieutenants, for the purpose of impressing from vessels passing up Channel. This being repeated several times, the Arrow was nearly completed with a choice crew of effective seamen, when the exigency of the service obliged his Lordship to cause the greatest part of them to be suddenly drafted into a troop-ship, under orders for the West Indies. In consequence of this mortifying event, the Arrow was obliged to sail for a foreign station nearly one-third short of complement, notwithstanding Captain Vincent had procured a few volunteer landsmen from his native town, at a considerable expense to himself.

From July 1803, till the end of that year, we find the Arrow escorting the trade to Portugal, Gibraltar, Malta, &c.; and in 1804, employed on various important services, affording Captain Vincent an opportunity of visiting the capitals of