bore a share at the memorable battle of Trafalgar[1]. In consequence of that glorious victory, he was advanced to the rank of commander, Dec. 24, 1805.
About this period, Mr. T. Telford, civil engineer, was ordered by the Treasury to make a survey of the line of communication between the north of England and of Ireland. Previous to the commencement of his labours he requested to be assisted by a naval officer; and Captain M‘Kerlie, being then on the spot, and well acquainted with the country, as well as with the harbours and packets, was recommended by the Earl of Galloway to the Admiralty, as a proper person to be thus employed. After the completion of the survey, his report was given in to the Board, and much thought of by their lordships, as a fair and impartial statement of facts.
In 1808, Captain M‘Kerlie received an appointment to the Diligence, one of seven sloops that were ordered to be fitted with long 24-pounders, for the purpose of acting against the Algeziras flotilla, in the event of Gibraltar being attacked by the French and Spanish forces. When quite ready to sail for that place, his orders were countermanded; the great political change that had just taken place in Spain, having rendered it unnecessary for the Diligence and her consorts to proceed thither.
Captain M’Kerlie was immediately afterwards appointed to the Calliope, a new brig, mounting eight 18-pounder carronades and 2 long sixes; with a complement of 75 officers, men, and boys; fitting at Deptford, for the North Sea station. In that vessel he assisted at the capture of Flushing, and was subsequently entrusted with the command of a division of gun-brigs, &c. attached to the Walcheren expedition. His conduct while he remained in the Scheldt was so highly meritorious, that Sir Richard J. Strachan marked his sense of it by giving him the north coast of Holland and the neighbourhood of Heligoland, for a cruising ground; on which he soon captured several merchant vessels, chiefly Danes and Swedes. The manner in which he obtained possession of a
- ↑ See p. 181; and Vol. I. Part II. p. 449.
