Norway, had the good fortune to save H.M. sloop Snake from being captured by eight Danish nations) brigs; which vessels, however, taking advantage of a sudden calm, effected their escape by sweeping.
During the remainder of that season, the Loire was employed in the Gulf of Finland, watching the Russian fleet; and she subsequently cruised at the entrance of the Cattegat, until obliged by tempestuous weather to bear up for England, having previously parted company with her consorts, the Cruiser and Erebus sloops. After refitting, she accompanied the outward bound West India convoy to the latitude of Madeira.
In 1811, Captain Schomberg commanded a squadron of two frigates and four sloops, stationed in the Sleeve, where he rendered most effectual protection to the Baltic trade. Returning from thence, in December, the Loire providentially escaped the melancholy fate of the Minotaur 74, with which ship she had sailed from Wingo Sound, on the 15th of that month, and kept company until the 19th; when, observing the high land of Camperdown on the lee-bow, and fearing that the wind would not keep to the northward of west, Captain Schomberg prudently resolved to continue no longer on the starboard tack, although the master and pilot of the Loire were decidedly bent upon doing so. The Minotaur, then about seven miles on the weather-quarter of the Loire, persisted in endeavouring to weather the coast of Holland, got embayed, and was wrecked near the Texel, on the night of the 22d; the wind having shifted to S.W. very soon after Captain Schomberg had wore, in order to keep the North Sea open. According to the Dutch official account, only 110 of the Minotaur’s officers and men succeeded in reaching the shore: the remainder, including her captain, perished[1].
In the spring of 1812, Captain Schomberg once more returned to the Baltic station, and again commanded a light squadron; with which he kept the Danish cruisers so completely blockaded that a single sloop-of-war was sufficient
- ↑ See Nav. Chron. vol. xxv., p. 56; and vol. xxxvii. p. 181.
