Sapphire sloop, Captain Bertie Cornelius Cator (acting) ran between him and the shore, and opened her broadside, which soon had the effect of silencing the enemy’s fire: a party of men from the frigate then landed, under the command of Lieutenant Bingham, who made the French governor prisoner, spiked the guns (6 in number), burnt their carriages, and blew up a store of rockets. Lieutenant Bingham then laid a train for the purpose of destroying a bomb-proof magazine, containing 100 barrels of gunpowder; but, unfortunately, the explosion took place much sooner than he expected, and he was blown to a considerable distance, badly scorched and wounded. Having succeeded in making a descent on Bourbon, Captain Corbett lost no time in demanding the necessary supplies, and kept the French officer on board la Nereide, until his requisition was complied with: in the mean time the enemy’s guns were brought off, and sunk in deep water, by Captain Cator.
In the performance of the above service, the British had several men killed and wounded: one of la Nereide’s marines was slain on the quarter-deck, by a grape shot, just as Lieutenant Bingham was passing him to get into his boat. Captain Cator’s conduct, and that of the subject of this memoir, was highly spoken of by Captain Corbett, in his official letter to Vice-Admiral Bertie.
La Nereide formed part of the squadron under Captain, (now Sir Josias) Rowley, at the capture of St. Paul’s, Isle Bourbon, in Sept. 1809[1]. On that occasion. Lieutenant Bingham took possession of la Caroline French frigate, and conveyed her commander’s sword to Captain Corbett. Towards the close of the same year, he received an Admiralty commission, promoting him to the command of the Caledon, an old, rotten, iron-fastened ship, in which he shortly afterwards returned to England.
Captain Bingham’s next appointment was, about Nov. 1810, to the Little Belt, a Danish-built corvette, mounting eighteen 32-pounder carronades and 2 long nines, with a complement of 121 officers, men, and boys. In that vessel
