under a circular fort mounting three 24 pounders. The boats of the Majestic were sent in to destroy her, but failed in the attempt. The next day, however, the Transfer having anchored abreast of the fort to cover them, they succeeded in boarding and setting her on fire.
From this period Captain Mundy was constantly engaged in operations of no small difficulty and hazard, till the autumn of 1800, when he was appointed to the Swan sloop of war on the home station; in which vessel he remained until promoted to post rank, Feb. 10, 1801. His subsequent appointments were to the Vengeance 74, Carysfort 28, and Hydra of 38 guns. Captain Mundy obtained the command of the Hydra at a time when Napoleon Buonaparte was meditating the invasion of Great Britain; and that frigate was one of those selected to watch the French coast, on which anxious and fatiguing service she continued from July 1803, until the summer of 1804, but without any thing remarkable occurring except the capture of two or three small privateers. Captain Mundy afterwards convoyed a fleet of merchantmen to Malta, and then proceeded to join Lord Nelson off Cape St. Sebastian, on the coast of Spain.
In April 1805, when Nelson went down the Mediterranean in pursuit of the French squadron which had escaped from Toulon, the Hydra was left under the orders of the Hon. Captain Capel, to assist in protecting Sardinia, Sicily, &c. from the designs of the enemy. On Nelson’s return from the West Indies, his Lordship received a letter from Vice-Admiral Collingwood, in which we find the following mention made of the subject of this memoir – “I am exceedingly pleased with Captain Mundy of the Hydra. His vigilance and activity are exemplary; he is a clever young man.”
To the great mortification of Captain Mundy, who had been employed for some time blockading the port of Cadiz, he was detached to procure water, stores, and provisions, at Tetuan and Gibraltar, but a very few days before the sailing of the combined fleets, and thus prevented being present at a battle which gave the death blow to Buonaparte’s favourite scheme of obtaining the empire of the sea.
After this great event, Captain Mundy was directed by Nelson’s gallant successor to take a station off Cadiz light-
