he received a very severe wound in the head, from a heavy oak splinter, which cut through the skull to the thin membrane that covers the brain, and passing on, took off the thigh of a Spanish bombardier. He was at the same time slightly wounded in several places by smaller splinters[1]. In 1794, we find Mr. Vansittart employed for several weeks in an open boat belonging to l’Aigle, at the siege of Calvi; on which service he was also a volunteer. For his zealous conduct and severe sufferings at this early period of life, he was rewarded with a Lieutenant’s commission, and appointed to the Stately of 64 guns, in Feb. 1795.
The Stately formed part of the squadron under Sir George Keith Elphinstone, at the capture of the Cape of Good Hope, in Sept. 1795. During the operations carried on against that colony, Lieutenant Vansittart commanded a company of seamen belonging to the second naval battalion, landed to assist the army. The Stately was subsequently ordered to assist in reducing Columbo; but that place appears to have surrendered whilst she was at Trincomalee. Previous to her quitting the Indian seas, the scurvy made such ravages among her crew, as obliged her to put into St. Augustin’s bay, Madagascar, where Lieutenant Vansittart had the charge of preparing tenta for the use of the sick, more than 100 of whom were unable to move from their hammocks. The disease being at length subdued, she returned to the Cape of Good Hope in time to assist at the capture of a Dutch squadron in Saldanha bay; after which the subject of this memoir returned to England as signal Lieutenant of the Monarch 74, bearing the flag of Sir George K. Elphinstone, under whom he continued to serve in that ship and the Queen Charlotte, a first rate^ till the commencement of 1798, when he was appointed first Lieutenant of the Maidstone frigate, commanded by Captain (now Rear-Admiral) Donnelly.
- ↑ The floating battery mounted four heavy guns and two brass mortars, the latter of which were worked by Spanish bombardiers. She was commanded by Lieutenant Moriencourt of the Princess Royal, who had 2 midshipman and 48 men under his orders. The first of the enemy’s batteries to which she was opposed, was soon effectually silenced; but the fire from a second, erected on a rising ground, proved so destructive that only 9 men were left fit for duty ou board the float.
