Vincent, “due to his meritorious and gallant conduct.” From this period, he served in the Zebra bomb, on the Boulogne station, until the peace of Amiens.
On the renewal of hostilities, Lieutenant Clement was appointed to the Tonnant 80, then commanded by Sir Edward Pellew, but subsequently by Captain (now Sir Charles) Tyler; in which ship he continued, off Ferrol, Carthagena, and Cadiz, till the commencement of 1806.
The Tonnant’s loss at the battle of Trafalgar amounted to 76 killed and wounded. Towards the close of that ever memorable conflict. Lieutenant Clement was sent in the jollyboat, with two hands, to take possession of the San-Juan Nepomuceno, Spanish 74. The boat, being damaged, swamped before she reached a quarter of the way, and soon afterwards a shot knocked off her quarter; she then turned bottom upwards, and Lieutenant Clement was obliged to hold fast by the keel until one of his men, who could swim, brought him a rope by which he was hauled on board again in a very exhausted state, some time having elapsed in consequence of the ship being still engaged with the enemy.
Lieutenant Clement’s next appointment was to be first of la Constance 22, Captain Alexander S. Burrowes; but he soon left that ship in order to join the Cerberus 32, Captain William Selby, then about to sail for the Jamaica station; where he was employed in cutting many vessels out of the enemy’s harbours, particularly about the Havannah. On one occasion he appears to have been placed in a most perilous situation, a gale of wind having blown the Cerberus, off the land whilst he was in a Spanish vessel that had been wrecked on the Colorados, where he remained two nights and a day without any prospect of succour.
On the 18th April, 1806, Lieutenant Clement was promoted to the command of the Goelan brig; but, owing to his Admiralty commission having been accidentally detained at Barbadoes, he did not join that vessel till the 21st October following. Shortly after he had done so, it was found necessary to heave her down, and while under repair she lost many men through sickness and desertion. In consequence
