of Good Hope, from whence she was sent to join the squadron employed in the blockade of Mauritius. On the 21st of Sept. 1809, she assisted in an attack upon St. Paul’s, Isle Bourbon, the result of which was the capture of la Caroline French frigate, of 46 guns and 360 men, a national brig pierced for 16 guns, and several merchant vessels; the recapture of two British East Indiamen, with cargoes valued at three millions of dollars, and other property to an immense amount, out of the hands of the French; and the destruction of all the defences of the only safe anchorage in the island[1].
Lieutenant Irby quitted the Sirius in May, 1810; returned home in the Leopard 50, Captain James Johnstone; and was appointed to his old ship, the Narcissus, commanded by Captain the Hon. Frederick William Aylmer, in the month of December following. After a cruise off the Canary Islands, we find him proceeding in that frigate to Newfoundland, and from thence, along “the bleak coast of snowy Labrador,” to the mouth of Hudson’s Bay.
The Narcissus was paid off in Mar. 1812; and Lieutenant Irby subsequently served under Captains Lord William Stuart, Clotworthy Upton, and Sir E. T. Troubridge, in the Conquestador 74, and Sybille and Armide frigates, on the Channel, Irish, and Halifax stations. Previous to his leaving the latter ship, he assisted in capturing an American privateer, of 17 guns and 100 men; and a French letter-of-marque, of 16 guns and 60 men. In Sept. 1814, he assumed the command of the Thames 32, armed en flûte, into which ship he had been promoted by the Admiralty on the 7th of June preceding.
The Thames was attached to the unfortunate expedition against New Orleans, and Captain Irby continued to command her till May, 1815, when, being in a bad state of health, he was superseded at his own request. In the summer of 1816, after having unsuccessfully endeavoured to obtain an appointment in the armament fitting out against Algiers, he left England, with the intention of making a tour
