followed, though at a great distance astern, by his friend Captain Brace.
The weather being very thick and squally, Captain Newman lost sight of the Revolutionnaire at 7 P.M., and shortly after of his chase. He then hauled to the wind, and was soon joined by the Kangaroo. On the following morning, he again fell in with one of the enemy’s ships, and lost no time in making sail after her. “At 3 P.M. the Kangaroo came up with, and engaged the enemy, in a most gallant manner; but unfortunately her fore-top-mast was shot away by the enemy’s stern-chasers, and Captain Brace was rendered incapable of pursuit[1].” Captain Newman continued the chase during the night; and at day-light on the 17th, perceived the Frenchman preparing to give him battle, as no other vessel was in sight. Despising his superiority both in guns and men, the British commander ran alongside, and commenced a warm action, which lasted from 6h 45' till 9h 30' A.M.; when the Mermaid, having lost her mizen-mast and main-top-mast, and being in other respects so much damaged as to be a mere wreck, was compelled to haul off, and her opponent thus obtained a few hours’ respite from her destined fate[2].
The Anson, a cut down 64, mounting 46 guns, and commanded by Captain Philip Charles Durham, having lost her mizen-mast, and main-lower and top-sail-yards, during the chase of M. Bompard’s squadron, and received very considerable damage in her other masts, yards, sails, and rigging, whilst engaged with five of the French frigates on the 12th Oct., had parted from her consorts during a gale of wind; and in this situation, with 15 of her officers and men wounded, 4 of the latter mortally, and her complement still further reduced by the absence of others in a re-captured vessel[3], on the morning of the 18th she discovered a large frigate to
- ↑ See Captain. Newman’s letter to Vice-Admiral Kingsmill, in the Nav. Chron. vol. iii. p. 43.
- ↑ For a memoir of Captain Newman, see Nav. Chron. vol. xxx. p. 361, et seq. At pp. 369 and 370, will be found a full account of his action with la Loire, and the very distressed state in which his little frigate reached Lough Swilly.
- ↑ See Nav. Chron. vol. iii. note † at p. 396.
