sight. As this battery was also commanded by Lieutenant Travers on the first day it opened upon the French garrison, we shall here add an extract of a letter from an officer of H.M. 81st regiment.
“Of the batteries which chiefly distinguished themselves in the bombardment, one of them, commanded by Captain Richardson, of the Caesar, astonished us all. It consisted of six 24-pounders, and played on the enemy incessantly. Every discharge seemed to be followed by a vast crash and ruin in the town. I must observe by the way, that the seamen are all engineers, and manage the batteries as well, I had almost said better, than any of our artillery officers. They fire their batteries by broadsides, and the reports of the individual pieces are seldom distinguishable. They always play, moreover, against a certain point till they have demolished it. Their six-gun battery invariably went off as if only one gun.”
Mr. Travers continued to serve on shore, as naval aid-de-camp to Sir Eyre Coote and his successor, Lieutenant-General Don, until the final evacuation of Walcheren, when he rejoined the Imperieuse, as first lieutenant. “In Feb. 1810,” says Captain Garth, “H.M.S. under my command, in company with the Implacable 74, Commodore Cockburn, was employed in Quiberon Bay, to endeavour to rescue King Ferdinand VII. from the hands of the French[1]. Lieutenant Travers was continually employed on that service, in boats, every night, during two months: he afterwards, in a most gallant manner, in a six-oared cutter, cut out a French merchant vessel, lying within twenty yards of a battery to which she was made fast, and brought her out under a heavy fire[2]. He was subsequently employed on the coast of Spain, in assisting the patriots, landing stores, &c.; at the fort of Morbella, which was nearly surrounded by French troops; and in destroying a large martello tower. I beg to offer this testimonial, as a proof of the high opinion I entertain of the gallantry and good conduct of Lieutenant Eaton Travers during the time he sailed under my command.”
The martello tower alluded to by Captain Garth, was des-
- ↑ See Sir George Augustus Westphal.
- ↑ With the loss of only one man.
