Page:Royal Naval Biography Marshall sp1.djvu/295

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POST-CAPTAINS OF 1807.
277

important service of rescuing a Spanish army, commanded by that patriotic nobleman the late Marquis de la Romana; an interesting account of which will be found in “Southey’s History of the Peninsular War,” Vol. I. pp. 651–666.

During the ensuing winter the Superb was frozen up at Gottenburgh, from whence she returned to England in the spring of 1809; at which period, a report being current that Lord Keith was about to be invested with a command, and the Superb then in a very defective state, Captain Jackson made a tender of his services to that distinguished officer, whose reply to his offer we here insert:

Harley Street, May 5, 1809.

Dear Jackson,– I am favored with your letter, and obliged by its contents: I hardly think my services will ever again be called for; but, in case of such an event, nothing could be more acceptable than to have a man like yourself near me; for, without flattery, your services command respect, and I am much grieved they have not met that reward which is due to them. It is true, applications are numerous and opportunities rare; but I did hope you would have been brought forward ere now. I am, very sincerely, your obliged and faithful humble servant,

(Signed)Keith.”

In the following summer the Superb formed part of the fleet under Sir Richard Strachan at the reduction of Walcheren, from whence she returned in so bad a state as to render it necessary for her to undergo an extensive repair. She was consequently put out of commission at Portsmouth, the subject of this memoir hauling down the same pendant as a Post-Captain, which he had hoisted as a junior Lieutenant twelve years previously.

From this period Captain Jackson remained unemployed till the commencement of 1812, when he received an appointment to act in the Poictiers 74, then on Channel service, but subsequently attached to the North Sea fleet under Admiral William Young. In Dec. following, he obtained the command of the Lacedemonian, a new 38-gun frigate fitting for the North American station, where he continued during the nnnainder of the war between Great Britain and the United States.

On the 5th Oct. 1814, the boats of the Lacedemonian, under