station, where Lieutenant Stamp was, in 1809, successively appointed, by Lord Collingwood, to act as commander of the Scout, Redwing, and Halcyon brigs. In one of these vessels, and while serving under the orders of Captain Francis William Fane, he assisted at the capture of a French convoy, near Cette; but we have not been able to obtain the particulars of that service. When superseded in the command of the two former, he lived with his lordship, and received from him many marks of kind attention. His commission as commander was confirmed by the Admiralty, Dec. 23, 1809, exactly 13 years after his promotion to the rank of lieutenant. The Halcyon was stationed in the Faro of Messina, during the greater part of the time that Sicily was threatened with an invasion. While thus employed, she had several smart affairs with the enemy on the coast of Calabria, where she sunk a privateer, and destroyed a fort under which the marauder had run for protection. On the 24th July, 1810, she assisted at the destruction of two armed feluccas, near Cape del Arme, where they were for a long time defended by their crews, some soldiers, and the neighbouring peasantry[1].
Captain Stamp subsequently went up the Adriatic, and was there chased a day and a night by the French frigates afterwards taken off Lissa. On this occasion, finding the Halcyon hard pressed, he took in her studding-sails, let fly the royal, top-gallant, and top-sail sheets, fired a complete round of great guns, and luffed up, all the same moment. This manoeuvre had the desired effect. The Frenchmen, who until then had been gaining upon him, immediately hauled to the wind likewise, and were followed by the little brig alone for several hours.
On the 7th Oct. 1813, Captain Stamp was appointed to the Pandora brig, of 18 guns, in which vessel, after cruising for some time on the Channel station, he escorted a fleet of merchantmen to Oporto, Lisbon, and the Mediterranean. At the close of the war with France, in 1814, he sailed from Gibraltar for Bermuda, in company with a squadron under
- ↑ See Suppl. Part II. p. 912.
