Many of the people lay apparently lifeless on the decks from suffocation. The crisis was fast approaching, when human fortitude could do no more. Had not the officers been steady, all must have perished: the mizen mast was set on fire in the captain’s cabin, and the flames bursting from all the lee ports. At 5 o’clock they ran the ship on shore, about a mile from the beach, in the bay of Rosas. The Spanish boats came off to their assistance, but were afraid to approach near enough to be of any service. At 5-30 she was on fire fore and aft, when, with an heroic self-devotion, which can never be sufficiently extolled, they first sent away the women, the children, the sick, and the foreigners; after which, the good and gallant captain with his brave adherents, quitted the Hindostan, and had scarcely reached the shore when she blew up.”
In a letter to Earl St. Vincent, dated April 19, 1804, Lord Nelson, speaking of Captain Le Gros, says:–
“If his account be correct (he is now on his trial), he had great merit from the order in which his ship was kept. It must have arisen either from some of the medicine chests breaking, or from wet getting down, which caused things to heat. The preservation of the crew seems little short of a miracle. I never read such a journal of exertions in my life.”
By the sentence of the court-martial, the captain, officers, and crew of the Hindostan were all most honorably acquitted; and it is scarcely necessary to add, that much credit was given to them for fighting so long with the flames. Lieutenant Tailour was subsequently appointed second of the Excellent, 74, Captain (now Vice-admiral) Frank Sotheron, under whom he served at the defence of Gaata and capture of Capri, in 1806[1].
We next find him first of la Nereide frigate, Captain Robert Corbett, and accompanying the expedition under General Whitelocke to Buenos Ayres. In the following year, 1808, he joined the Tigre, 80, Captain Benjamin Hallowell, on the Mediterranean station.
The very gallant exploit for which Lieutenant Tailour was promoted to the rank of Commander has been briefly noticed at p. 483 of Vol. I. Part II., and is thus fully described by Lord Collingwood, in an official letter to the Admiralty, dated November 1, 1800:–
