obscuring all the marks, and totally bewildering the pilot:– the anchors were quickly cut away, and she brought up, but continued to strike until the cables snapped asunder, when she providentially drifted to sea, clear of the innumerable sunken rocks surrounding the Bermudas. For these services Mr. Williams, who had been promoted to the rank of lieutenant on the 13th Dec. 1804, received the thanks of Sir Andrew Mitchell, commander-in-chief on the Halifax station.
The Mackerel was afterwards employed in protecting the fisheries on the S.W. side of Newfoundland, where Lieutenant Williams seized the cargoes (whale oil) of two American vessels, and ordered them from the coast. She subsequently had the honor of twice receiving the flag of Sir Erasmus Gower.
We next find Lieutenant Williams serving under Captain Thomas White (b), in the Avenger sloop, employed in affording protection to the homeward bound Newfoundland trade. On his way up Channel, he assisted in destroying the French cutter privateer Hazard, of sixteen guns and fifty men, which vessel, mistaking the Avenger (a north-country built ship) for a merchantman, had run athwart hawse, and made an ineffectual attempt to board her. On this occasion, two British seamen and the whole of the French crew, with the exception of four persons, perished; le Hazard having sunk before boats could be sent to her assistance.
Soon after his arrival in England, Lieutenant Williams was appointed third of the Jupiter 50, Captain H. E. R. Baker, in which ship he visited India and China. During the voyage out, her officers and crew were much distressed for water, being for some weeks, within the tropics, on a pint each person per diem. On her return homeward, after experiencing tremendous gales off the Cape of Good Hope, she lost nearly twenty men by scurvy.
After refitting, the Jupiter was ordered to the coast of Spain, for the purpose of receiving on board part of the gallant army under Sir John Moore; but, unfortunately, she struck on a sunken rock, in Vigo Bay, and was totally
