the Diligente would have perished, as the wind had by that time increased to a gale.
After the capture of Curaçoa, in Sept. 1800[1], the Crescent was selected by Lord Hugh Seymour to convey reinforcements thither; and she appears to have hoisted that officer’s flag when he first visited the newly-acquired colony[2].
In June, 1801, Lieutenant Dillon assisted at the destruction of the Meleager 32, which ship had grounded on the Triangles, in the gulf of Mexico, and was there burnt by order of Captain Peter Halkett, commanding the Apollo frigate.
We should here state, that when the Meleager first struck upon these shoals, her Captain, the Hon. T. B. Capel, directed a number of the officers and men to proceed to Vera Cruz, and there to deliver themselves up, as prisoners of war, to the Spaniards: himself and the remainder of his officers and crew were preparing to follow, when the Apollo and Crescent fortunately arrived from an adjacent cruising ground, brought them off, destroyed their ship, and conveyed them to Jamaica. The exchange of the whole was afterwards effected by Lieutenant Dillon, whom we find employed as a negociator both at Vera Cruz and the Havannah.
The subject of this memoir subsequently proceeded in a small prize felucca, with 23 other volunteers under his command, to attack a large schooner, supposed to be a Spanish privateer belonging to St. Jago de Cuba; but after rowing all night he had the mortification to find that she was an American trader. In the mean time, the Crescent had departed from her cruising ground, and Lieutenant Dillon, having used every endeavour to rejoin her without success, was obliged to beat up to Jamaica, where he arrived after being upwards of three weeks on bread and water only. At the close of that anxious cruise, he appears to have had a very
- ↑ See Vol. II. Part I. p. 12.
- ↑ Lieutenant Dillon was warmly recommended to Lord Hugh Seymour, who marked his kind intentions towards him, by allowing him to remain first of an active frigate, whilst he kept a vacancy for him in his flag-ship. Unfortunately, however, the noble Admiral was suddenly cut off in the midst of his honorable career [see p. 158]; and Mr. Dillon’s prospects were consequently blighted.
