private adventures of the masters should be restored. The prizes were calculated to be worth 600,000l. The judge. Sir W. Scott, now Lord Stowell, asserted upon this occasion:
1st, That the right of visiting and searching merchantmen upon the high seas, whatever be the ships, cargoes, or destination, is an incontestable right of the lawfully commissioned cruizers of a belligerent nation.
2nd, That the authority of the sovereign of the neutral country being interposed in any manner of mere force, cannot legally vary the rights of a lawfully commissioned belligerent cruizer; and
3rd, That the penalty for the contravention of this right is the confiscation of the property so with-held from visitation and search.
In the autumn of 1799, the Romney formed part of the expedition sent against the Helder, and was with Vice-Admiral Mitchell, at the surrender of the Dutch squadron commanded by Rear-Admiral Storey[1]. Captain Lawford subsequently removed into the Polyphemus of 64 guns, which ship was attached to Lord Nelson’s division at the attack upon the Danish line of defence before Copenhagen, April 2, 1801, and sustained a loss of 5 men killed, and 24 wounded[2].
On the 7th Dec. 1804, our officer being on a cruize off Cape St. Mary, fell in with and captured the Santa Gertruyda, a Spanish frigate of 36 guns, from Peru and Mexico, bound to Corunna, with a cargo consisting of cocoa, coffee, hides, platina, drugs, cochineal, cotton, and several rich private ventures, together with 1,215,000 dollars in specie[3]. This valuable prize parted company in a violent gale of wind on the 16th, and on Christmas day carried away her mainmast, and had her rudder choked. Fortunately she was fallen in with by the Harriet armed ship, which took her in tow, and after beating about the Channel for several days, brought her safe to Plymouth on the 10th Jan. 1805.
In the ensuing summer, Captain Lawford was appointed to the Audacious of 74 guns; and from her removed, towards the close of the year, into the Impetueux, another third rate, in which ship he continued on Channel service until the 1st Aug. 1811. He was then advanced to the rank of Rear-Admiral.
- ↑ See p. 414, et seq.
- ↑ See Sir T. Foley.
- ↑ The Lively frigate, Captain G. E. Hamond, was in sight at the time of the above capture.
