The line-of-battle ship being close in with the Havannah, succeeded in effecting her escape. Captain Vansittart on this occasion exhibited a noble spirit of disinterestedness, by destroying the whole of those valuable prizes, in order that the convoy might not be detained, although the Spaniards offered to bring off from the shore in the course of twelve hours a sum sufficient to ransom them. A few days after this event, he obtained intelligence that six French ships of the line were cruising to intercept the homeward bound fleet; this squadron was subsequently seen, but successfully avoided through the able management of Captain Bligh and his brother officers.
Among the vessels taken by the Fortunée during her various cruises in the West Indies, we find le Vautour, French privateer; a Spanish brig laden with cocoa; le Grand Juge Bertolio, French schooner, of 7 guns and 51 men; and two Spanish feluccas laden with beef and flour: the latter were destroyed.
In 1807, and the three succeeding years, Captain Vansittart was employed on Channel service, and the Irish station. Towards the latter end of 1810 he conveyed Rear-Admiral Freemantle to the Mediterranean; and after serving for some weeks with the inshore squadron off Toulon, was ordered to Algiers, where he embarked an ambassador, with presents from the Dey to our late Sovereign. Whilst there he was presented with a sword, some other trifling articles, and a bag of dollars; the latter he instantly returned to the Dey, at the same time informing him that a British officer would never receive money for his own use from any foreign power, but that the sword he should retain, and ever value as a mark of the honor conferred on him by his Highness.
On the llth Oct. 1811, Captain Vansittart, being on a cruise to the westward, with the Saldanha frigate under his orders, fell in with and captured the famous French ship privateer le Vice-Amiral Martin, of 18 guns and 140 men; a vessel which, by the superiority of her sailing, and the dexterity of her manoeuvres, had often escaped from other British cruisers, and committed great depredations on our commerce. In the spring of 1812 he was appointed to the Clarence 74; and from that period till the conclusion of the war he appears to have been employed blockading the Texel, Brest, and Rochefort.
