Page:Royal Naval Biography Marshall v4p2.djvu/299

 easily tripped up, disarmed, and put down the forecastle, from whence the old Englishman, who had cautiously refrained from drink, was at the same time liberated. Thus checked at the outset, the whole party were easily overawed and placed in confinement.

On the surrender of the Danish navy, Mr. Woollnough was ordered to assist the Agamemnon’s first lieutenant in equipping and taking to England the Princess Caroline 74. This ship was loaded with an immense quantity of knee-timber, oak-plank, and iron, some cables, between sixty and seventy anchor-stocks, and twenty-four spars, most of which were calculated for line-of-battle ships’ lower masts. She also brought home 665 officers and men of H.M. 95th regiment.

In Dec. 1807, the Agamemnon formed part of the squadron employed in blockading the Tagus; and on the 28th of that month Mr. Woollnough was put in charge of the Portuguese ship Commerciante, of 900 tons, from South America bound to Lisbon. This ship he found in a most miserable state: her cargo had shifted in a gale of wind, and she heeled three streaks to port; her waist bulwarks had been washed away, her rudder pintles were loose, and she was so leaky as to require constant pumping. Notwithstanding the bad weather she had met with, her topsails had never been reefed, but, when it blew hard, merely lowered on the cap: in consequence thereof, the reef-points were all fagged out, merely with knocking against the canvas. The only instrument found on board her was a mutilated quadrant; there was not a hole to shelter the crew from the weather, though in the midst of winter; even the cabin was filled with cocoa: added to all this she had but one cable, and was as heavily rigged as an English frigate. Mr. Woollnough’s prize crew consisted of three tolerable seamen, nine other blue jackets, and four marines. The Portuguese remaining on board were eleven in number, principally officers.

On the 4th Jan. 1808, being then about twelve leagues west of Cape Finisterre, at 6, Mr. Woollnough found himself in the midst of a strange squadron, but, as the