frayed by government. They conducted themselves invariably well, during the whole time they were employed, and shewed all the steadiness and intelligence that could he desired. Telegraphic messages and answers from Dublin to Galway were transmitted in the course of eight minutes, in a public experiment for the Lord Lieutenant; and his Excellency’s approbation was graciously expressed. Every one seemed perfectly convinced of the utility, and satisfied of the efficiency and success of he establishment. The Telegraphs being portable, they could be erected or taken down in a few minutes, and the whole line might thus be removed into any direction that the will of the commander-in-chief, or the exigency of the moment, should require. Two men could, with ease, carry the whole paraphernalia of each station upon their shoulders.
* * * * * The alarm of invasion gradually subsided, and the telegraphs were consigned to the care of the ordinary military established in the country. My father and his friend being diplomatically thanked for their exertions, the latter returned to the more active pursuits of his profession."
This was in the summer of 1805, at which period Captain Beaufort received a commission appointing him to the Woolwich 44, armed en flûte and then fitting for the conveyance of stores to our arsenals abroad. In that ship we find him proceeding first to the East Indies, and then to Rio de la Plata; of which river he made a very accurate survey, during the campaign of 1807. He was afterwards sent to the Cape of Good Hope, and lastly to the Mediterranean.
Captain Beaufort’s next appointment appears to have been, about June 1808, to the Blossom sloop, in which vessel he was employed on the north coast of Spain, at Quebec, and in affording protection to various fleets of merchantmen, until his promotion to post rank. May 30, 1810. At this period he was appointed to the Frederikssteen frigate; but previous to his joining that ship he escorted the outward bound trade to Portugal, Cadiz, and Gibraltar; accompanied two Spanish line-of-battle ships from the latter place to Minorca; and acted for some time as Captain of the Ville de Paris, a first rate, employed off Toulon. An highly interesting account of the manner in which the Frederikssteen was employed during the years 1811 and 1812, will be found in an elegantly written volume, entitled “Karamania,” containing “A brief description of the south coast of Asia-
