In Oct. 1800, the Weazle captured le Veloce French letter of marque, of 4 guns and 83 men. On the 25th Dec. in the same year, l’Eole, a polacre-rigged privateer, pierced for 20 guns, but mounting only 14, with a complement of 140 men, surrendered to her after a gallant resistance of one hour and thirty minutes, during which the enemy sustained a loss of 5 men killed and 9 wounded; the Weazle only one man slain and one wounded.
Between this period and June, 1810, Captain Prescott waa employed cruizing off Sardinia, on which station he made seventeen prizes and recaptures: among the former was l’Ippolite, French schooner privateer, of 5 guns and 78 men. We next find him assisting in the defence of Sicily, and whilst on that service repeatedly engaged with the flotilla equipped by Napoleon’s brother-in-law for the invasion of the island. The capture and destruction of a large convoy from Naples, at which Captain Prescott acted a prominent part, is fully described in our memoir of the present Lord Radstock[1].
Two days subsequent to that enterprise, Captain Prescott again landed at Amanthea, supported by a detachment of marines from the Cumberland 74; and after destroying several vessels, succeeded in bringing off a gun, under a heavy fire of musketry, by which 3 of his men were wounded. In the course of the following months he was twice engaged with convoys passing along shore, and captured six vessels, two of which (an armed xebec and a gun-boat) he was obliged to abandon in consequence of a sudden shift of wind, and the Weazle’s main-yard being shot away, which rendered it impossible to tow them out from under a battery, where a large body of French troops had assembled for their protection. On this occasion the Weazle had 6 men wounded, one of whom mortally.
The British naval force employed on the coast of Calabria being subsequently dispersed, in consequence of Murat breaking up his camp and retiring to Naples, Captain Prescott was then sent to Smyrna, where he was superseded, in Feb. 1811, having been promoted for his bravery at Amanthea, and his
