Page:Royal Naval Biography Marshall v3p2.djvu/107

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captains of 1829.
93

enemy we are unable to state, in consequence of there never having been any account of this dashing exploit published. We should here add, that whilst the Juno continued in the West Indies, Mr. Travers never returned into port from a cruise except in charge of a prize. On the 16th Mar. 1802, he followed Captain Dundas into the Elephant 74, the boats of which ship also captured many vessels, off Cape François and along the shores of St. Domingo, services in which he invariably participated. He also bore a part in a running fight between that ship and the French 74 Duguay Trouin, off Cape Picolet, July 25th, 1803.

In Oct. following, the Elephant was ordered to England; when Mr. Travers, having determined not to return home until promoted, applied to the commander-in-chief. Sir John T. Duckworth, and got removed to his flag-ship, the Hercule 74, commanded by Captain Richard Dalling Dunn. On the 30th of the ensuing month he witnessed the surrender of three French frigates, four other national ships and vessels, and twenty sail of merchantmen, at Cape François; from whence he assisted in bringing off the French army under General Rochambeau, who had surrendered by capitulation to the British blockading squadron, in order to escape the vengeance of Dessalines and his black adherents. He was also in the launch of the Hercule, under the command of Lieutenant (now Sir Nisbet J.) Willoughby, when that zealous officer rescued one of the frigates, la Clorinde 40, with 900 men, women, and children on board, from the desperately perilous situation in which she had been abandoned by all the other boats[1].

On the 31st Jan. 1804, Mr. Travers commanded a party of forty sailors, and nobly seconded Lieutenant Willoughby in

  1. See Suppl. Part II. p. 120 et seq., where we should likewise have stated that, after la Cloriade had been hove off, it was found absolutely necessary to get something to the rocks to cast her by; and as no boat was then near, Mr. Travers jumped overboard, at the imminent risk of his life, and swam to the shore with a line, by which he was enabled to haul thither a rope of sufficient strength for a spring. Until this was done, the ship could not be considered out of danger.