During the operations against St. Fiorenzo, Lieutenant Shepheard was employed in the land batteries, under the orders of Captain Edward Cooke; and he appears to have assisted at the storming of the Convention redoubt, Feb. 17, 1794.[1] On the 11th April following, the boats of the Alcide, under the command of Lieutenant Shepheard, succeeded in rescuing the crew of la Proselyte 24, which ship had been set in flames by hot shot from the garrison of Bastia: this service was performed in the most exemplary manner, under a very heavy fire from the enemy’s batteries.
After the reduction of Corsica, Lieutenant Shepheard successively followed his patron (then a flag-officer) into the Windsor Castle a second rate, Victory of 100 guns. Superb 74, and Princess Royal 98: the former ship had 6 men killed and 31 wounded, in Vice-Admiral Hotham’s action, off Genoa, Mar. 14, 1795[2]. She also bore a part in the skirmish near Frejus, July 13th following. On one of those occasions Lieutenant Shepheard was struck in the forehead by a piece of langridge, but his name does not appear in the list of wounded.
Lieutenant Shepheard’s next appointment was, Jan. 1797, to the command of the Pigmy cutter, in which vessel he captured la Rancune French privateer, and re-took two English brigs, laden with bar iron, on the Channel station, Jan. 8, 1799. In the course of the same year, he was most actively employed in Quiberon bay, keeping up a constant communication with the French royalists, and supplying them with arms and money.
The Pigmy formed part of the squadron under Lord Keith during the blockade of Genoa, in 1800 ; and after the reduction of that city[3] we find her proceeding to the attack of Cesenatico, in company with El Corso brig, the result of which expedition has been stated in our memoir of Captain William Ricketts[4]. She subsequently captured la Bataglia di Marengo French privateer, and three vessels laden with
