Page:Royal Naval Biography Marshall v4p2.djvu/171

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purpose of attempting the rescue of some of his late consorts. On the 6th Feb 1806, she bore a conspicuous part at the defeat of a French squadron off St. Domingo, on which occasion she sustained a loss of forty-five men killed and wounded[1].

After the latter victory, Mr. Morris was appointed acting lieutenant of the Shark 16, on the Jamaica station; and in the course of the same year removed to the Stork 18, Captain George Le Geyt, under whom he served in an expedition against Batabano, on the south side of Cuba, the result of which has been stated in Suppl. Part III, p. 100, et seq. His promotion to the rank of lieutenant did not take place, however, until Sept. 22d, 1807.

This officer’s next appointment was, in 1808, to the Achille 74, Captain Sir Richard King, then employed in the blockade of Ferrol, and subsequently in the expedition to Walcheren. During the occupation of that island, he was entrusted with the command of five gun-boats, and frequently engaged with the enemy. We afterwards find him proceeding in the Achille to Cadiz, where he arrived on the 28th Feb. 1810; and commanded a Spanish gun-vessel, manned by British seamen, and employed in the defence of La-Isla-de-Leon, from Mar. 22d until July 17th following. Previous to his quitting the Achille for that purpose, he witnessed the destruction of four Spanish and one Portuguese line-of-battle ships, three other men of war belonging to the former nation, and twenty-four sail of merchantmen, driven on shore in a terrific gale, and the greater part burnt to prevent the wrecks becoming serviceable to the enemy. Whilst employed in the flotilla service he was thirty-eight times engaged with the enemy’s batteries, and on every occasion conducted himself with the utmost zeal and bravery.

On the 5th Aug. 1810, Lieutenant Morris was sent, with 100 men under his command, to assist in navigating the Glorioso, an old and wretchedly equipped Spanish 74, to Minorca,

  1. See Vol. I. Part II. pp. 589–594.