Page:Royal Naval Biography Marshall sp2.djvu/417

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
POST-CAPTAINS OF 1811.
397

tion of his positive duty, he has never received the least remuneration.

The sickness still continuing on board his sloop, Captain Clement was obliged to return to Port Royal, where, on his anchoring, he could not muster hands enough to furl the sails. The Favorite was there re-manned by part of the crew of H.M. late ship Astraea[1], and in Jan. 1809 sent to the Curaçoa station, from whence Captain Clement went on a mission to the city of Caraccas. Returning from thence, he was ordered to take command of the naval department at Curafoa where he continued until ordered to Port Royal, where he took charge of the trade bound to England. On the passage home, Aug. 27, 1809, he encountered another dreadful hurricane, during which several of the convoy foundered, and most of the others were dismasted. The Favorite also lost her top-masts and sustained considerable injury. After the storm. Captain Clement had to perform the arduous task of erecting jury-masts in the disabled ships under his protection; with which, and part of four other convoys met with at sea, he arrived in the Downs on the 18th September.

During his continuance in the West Indies, Captain Clement had three attacks of the yellow fever, and was once nearly drowned in consequence of his boat striking, after dark, on some sunken rocks near the island of Aruba, from which viangerous situation he was rescued by the crew of an American schooner, who heard the shouts of his people, and hastened to their assistance.

Previous to his return home. Captain Clement captured the Esperance Spanish letter of marque, mounting 10 guns, with a complement of 40 men; which vessel he burnt by orders of Captain Micaiah Malbon, commanding the Adamant 50. Peace having been established between Great Britain and Spain, though no official intelligence of such an event had reached Jamaica at this period, an action was afterwards entered against Captain Clement in the Vice-Admiralty Court

  1. The Astraea 32, Captain Edmund Heywood, was wrecked near Anegada, May 24, 1808.