64-gun ships, one frigate, and a corvette, in the Mona Passage, on the 19th of the same month[1].
On the arrival of the victorious fleet at Jamaica, Lieutenant Monke was appointed first of le Jason 64[2], Captain John Aylmer, with whom he returned home in the month of October following; that ship having miraculously weathered the tremendous hurricane which proved so fatal to the Centaur, Ramillies, Ville de Paris, Glorieux, and Hector, as well as to numerous merchant vessels which had sailed for England under the protection of Rear-Admiral Graves[3].
In 1790, Lieutenant Monke was appointed to command the Speedwell cutter, and employed on various services, under the orders of Lord Howe. In 1792, while cruising on the Yorkshire coast, he captured the Hell-afloat, a very fine smuggling cutter of 14 guns, the exact number mounted by his own vessel.
A short time previous to the commencement of the French revolutionary war. Lieutenant Monke proceeded to Hamburgh, for the purpose of bringing over a number of British sailors, who had recently been wrecked in different vessels on the coast of Jutland; and he succeeded in prevailing on a hundred of them to embark with him in the Speedwell. During the passage home, a very stormy one, and prolonged by contrary winds, he found himself obliged to keep the deck, night and day, in order to secure these men for the navy, it being known that they intended, if possible, to seize the cutter, run her ashore, and thus avoid impressment. In consequence of the fatigue he endured on this occasion, his health was so seriously injured as to render it necessary for him to resign his desirable command, in Aug. 1798.
Lieutenant Monke’s subsequent appointments were to the Maidstone frigate, and Ville de Paris of 110 guns, from which latter ship he was promoted to the rank of Commander, in Mar. 1797.
- ↑ See Vol. II, Part I, note † at p. 52; and Vol. I, Part I, note at pp. 36–39.
- ↑ Now the Argonaut hospital-ship, stationed at Chatham.
- ↑ See Vol. II, Part I, p. 65 et seq., and the notes at p. 69.
