sion that Lieutenant Willoughby, in turning round when spoken to, and asking whether he should go into the waist, &c., “did behave to Captain Clark in a contemptuous and disrespectful manner; but in consideration of his long confinement, and his health having been apparently injured by it,” his judges did “only” sentence him to be dismissed his ship.
On the 14th June 1799, the very next day after his dismissal from the Victorious, Lieutenant Willoughby was appointed to command the Amboyna, a beautiful brig, Vice-Admiral Rainier considering that his punishment had already been more than adequate to the alleged offence. Scarcely had he joined that vessel, however, when his indisposition increased so much that he was obliged to invalid, and remove to the Sceptre 64, for a passage to the Cape of Good Hope.
On the 19th Sept. 1799, the boats of that ship were sent to attack a French brig, moored within a reef of rocks, close to the island of Rodriguez; but after being absent a very considerable time, they returned with the information that no passage could be found through the heavy surf by which she was protected. Lieutenant Willoughby, having been there before, no sooner heard this report than he volunteered to conduct them over the reef; and they were accordingly ordered to renew the attempt, under his pilotage, and the command of another Lieutenant, the present Captain Thomas Tudor Tucker.
In the mean time the brig’s broadside had been brought to bear on the passage; and when the boats got within range of grape she began firing upon them: immediately afterwards she appeared in flames, and on boarding her it was found that a pile of hand grenades on the deck had exploded, killing two of her crew, wounding several others, and throwing the remainder into such confusion that she was carried without much resistance. She proved to be l’Eclair privateer, of 10 guns, 4 swivels, and 83 men, some of whom effected their escape to the shore.
Night now approaching, and the Sceptre having a valuable fleet under her convoy, the prize was necessarily destroyed,
