contributed to the defence of Nieuport, by anchoring close in-shore, and firing into the enemy’s camp over the sand-hills.
In July, 1794, Captain Fraser was appointed to the Proserpine frigate, attached to the North Sea fleet, under the orders of Admiral Duncan, on which service he continued until Dec. 1795, and then removed into the Shannon, a new frigate of 32 guns, stationed on the coast of Ireland, where he captured the following French privateers; le Duguay Trouin, of 24 guns and 150 men; le Grand Indien, 20 guns, 125 men; la Julie, 18 guns, 120 men; and la Mouche, 16 guns, 122 men.
In 1799, our officer obtained the command of the Diana a 38-gun frigate, in which he escorted a large fleet to the West Indies, where he intercepted several privateers. Having been in the course of one year twice attacked by the yellow fever, he was most reluctantly obliged to resign his ship, and return to England as a passenger in the Invincible.
Captain Fraser’s next appointment was to the Berschermer, of 54 guns, employed as a guard-ship in the Swin, until the end of the war. He then joined the Amphion frigate, and conveyed H.R.H. the Duke of Cambridge and suite to Cuxhaven. In 1804, he was appointed to the Weymouth, another frigate; and soon after to the Hindostan, of 54 guns. In her he visited the East Indies, from whence he returned in the summer of 1806, and commanded in succession the Prince, a second rate, and Vanguard, of 74 guns. The latter vessel, commissioned by him in Jan. 1807, formed part of the fleet under Lord Gambier in the expedition against Copenhagen.
When the Commander-in-Chief returned to England with the Danish prizes, Captain Fraser was ordered to remain with the Vanguard, and a considerable number of frigates and sloops, for the blockade of Zealand, and the protection of the trade still remaining in the Baltic. This proved to be a service of much greater anxiety and difficulty than had been foreseen or provided for; not only did the Danes refuse all offers made of reciprocal forbearance, which had been reckoned upon, but fitted out a great number of gun-boats in all quarters, which much annoyed the merchant-ships coming through the grounds, and also the vessels which arrived from England bound up. He succeeded, however, in sending safe through the Sound about 300 sail, giving them ample protection from thence to
