distantly, the Achille on the starboard-quarter, and the Juste on the larboard bow. The Invincible here engaged the Juste on the opposite side, and soon brought down her foremast, and then her main and mizen masts. The Juste now lay abreast of the Queen Charlotte to windward, silenced in her fire, but with a French jack hoisted at her bowsprit end, and a spritsail set to carry her, if possible, out of action. Two hours afterwards, the Charlotte wore, and on passing to leeward of the Juste, finding that she gave no return to her fire, Lord Howe ordered the Invincible's boat, then alongside with an officer, to take possession of the French ship. This officer was Lieutenant Blackwood, whom Captain Pakenham, seeing the crippled state of the Charlotte, had sent to say to Lord Howe that the Invincible was in a state fit to bear his flag. Her fire it was that had conquered the Juste, for owing to that ship being painted similar to the Invincible, who lay at a short distance from her, but was concealed by the smoke, the Frenchman had not attracted the attention of the Charlotte, until, wearing round, he passed under her stern, and gave her a raking broadside-one of his 36-pound shot passing through the Charlotte's wing-transom. The Invincible had 14 killed, and 31 wounded-the Juste, 100 killed, and 145 wounded, her actual complement having been 877 men. For his conduct on this occasion, Lieutenant Blackwood was promoted to the rank of commander, and immediately appointed to the command of the Magæra fireship, to serve under Lord Howe's flag in the Channel fleet, where he remained until the 2d of June, in the following year, when Lord Spencer, then at the head of the Admiralty, promoted him to the rank of Post Captain in the Nonsuch, of 64 guns, destined to guard the mouth of the Humber. In April 1796 he was moved, at his own request, to more active service on board the Brilliant, of 28 guns, in which ship he served on the North Sea station nearly two years, under Lord Duncan, when he was moved, about March 1798, to that of Newfoundland, under Admiral Waldegrave, afterwards Lord Radstock; and in July of that year, he maintained a most unequal combat off the Island of Teneriffe, with two French 44-gun frigates, La Vertu and La Régénérée. The following is his modest account of that skilful and daring action : f Late in the day of the 26th of July after having chased a sail which, from the information I had, as well as the course she was steering, I suspected to be a French privateer, on her return to Santa Cruz; at night, leaving off chase, I bore up for the north-east end of Teneriffe, in order to intercept her; but the morning of the 27th being very hazy, and thinking she might have passed me in the night, I stood close into the bay of Santa Cruz, where (when well in), perceiving two large French frigates (the one of 40 guns, carrying a broad pendant, the other of 36) in the act of getting under weigh, and making preparations to set all sail, I judged it prudent (crowding everything I could) to steer to the southward. About 5 o'clock P.M., perceiving that the enemy had gained a good deal, and, as the wind failed us, was gaining still faster, I determined, if possible, to prolong the period of their bringing me into action, till after the close of day, and to manoeuvre in the interim, so as to prevent their engaging me both at once. In consequence of which, shifting my steering sails with expedition to the starboard side, and at the same time changing my course to the south-west, I increased my distance nearly a mile; I then reefed my topsails, keeping my steering sails set, in order that my intentions should not be suspected. When all was ready for hauling to the wind, and I had taken in my steering sails, unfortunately the wind shifted so far to the eastward, that I lay nearly along the south-east side of Teneriffe: in this situation, I had no other alternative but that of bearing up, and coming into immediate action with the headmost frigate. About 7 P.M., the second in command of the enemy had approached so near as to commence his fire, and which I returned with such success, from four stern-chasers, that he judged it prudent to alter his attack to my lee-quarter, where (by very superior sailing) he soon took his station, and engaged me about an hour, at the distance of two cables. Previous to this, the Commodore, from having hauled more to the wind, had gained my weather-quarter, and perceiving that he was now coming down with his people ready aloft for boarding me, I judged that if I continued in my present position, it would only depend on them to engage me with much advantage together; watching, therefore, most anxiously the moment the frigate to leeward had reached abreast of my mainmast, I bore up athwart his hawse, and raked him so effectually within pistol-shot, that in a few minutes I left him with his top-sails and top-gallant-sails down on the caps, and otherwise in such confusion, that I embraced the present as the most favourable moment to haul to the wind. The Commodore had now neared me so much, that I expected every instant he would engage me on my weather-quarter, but judging (I conclude) from the reception his consort had met with, that he should not be more successful, instead of choosing his situation and distance for engaging me with effect, he shortened sail and bore up into my wake. By this manœuvre, which was effected with wonderful promp titude, I gained so much to windward and ahead, that I was very soon out of gun-shot. Till 12 o'clock I continued my course, when, just as I was going to tack, a perfect calm succeeded, when the enemy, more fortunate, carrying the breeze up with them, were enabled to place themselves so as to annoy me, without a possibility of my bringing a gun to bear on them. In this mortifying predicament I remained exposed nearly an hour to a very galling fire, when a fresh of wind coming off shore, I weathered and fore-reached them so much, that very soon losing sight of both, I bore up one point every half-hour until 8 o'clock A.M., the 28th, when I hauled close to the wind on the starboard tack. From the enemy having directed their fire entirely at my rigging, I had but three men killed, and ten wounded slightly; my damage, therefore, consists in a few spars, sails, some standing and most of my running rigging, together with two bower-anchors and two boats I was obliged to cut away early in the chase. It was not customary at this time to gazette any action, however brilliant, unless a capture was effected; but Blackwood had the satisfaction to know that his heroism on this occasion, and the behaviour of his officers and crew, were the admiration of all those who were themselves most illustrious in the service. Admiral Waldegrave, in his letter to him, acknowledging his account of the action, expresses his "heartfelt satisfaction at his having beat off two large French frigates, each of which had been since clearly ascertained to be nearly double your own force." And adds, "I much doubt, sir, whether our naval annals can furnish so brilliant an action; at least, I can safely affirm a more brilliant one was never achieved. I confess that I am almost at a loss where to fix my admiration on this occasion; whether on your own gallant, skilful, and officer-like conduct throughout the whole, or on the cool, steady, and truly British courage displayed by the officers and men under your command. Suffice it to say, that I feel every part of your conduct relative to this glorious action as I ought; and I request you will be pleased to let those my sentiments be known to every individual in his Majesty's ship." In this public letter he says, "This gallant action speaks so forcibly for itself, as to render any further encomium on my part superfluous." And Lord St Vincent, whose praise was glory, in his letter to the Secretary of the Admiralty, from the Ville de Paris, off Cadiz, used these honourable words "An action in which Captain Blackwood has displayed great valour and judgment, and acquired great renown." On his return to England in March 1799, he found himself, in consequence of that action, appointed by Lord Spencer to the command of the Penelope of 36 guns, in which he continued to serve on the blockade of Havre-de-Grace and Cherbourg until September of the same year, when he was ordered to the Mediterranean, and served there till May 1802, on various services, and under the orders of Lords Keith and Nelson, Sir Sydney Smith, Sir George Martin, Sir Richard Bickerton, Sir Thomas Troubridge, Sir James Saumarez, Sir Charles Pole, and Sir Richard Keats; during which period, when on the blockade of Malta, he had the good fortune to be so instrumental in the capture of the Guillaume Tell of 80 guns, bearing the flag of Vice-Admiral Décrès, that Lord Spencer promoted the first Lieutenant of the Penelope, and him only (afterwards Captain Inglis), though Blackwood was only second in command, a circumstance which evinced in a very marked, and very flattering way, the high opinion which the Admiralty and the Admiral entertained of his conduct on that remarkable occasion. The Guillaume Tell, an 80-gun ship of great power, the capture of which completed the destruction of the French Fleet taken, burnt, and sunk at Aboukir, had been watched in the port of Valette by a British squadron blockading Malta, and on the night of the 30th of March, "taking advantage of a strong southerly gale, and the darkness that had succeeded the setting of the moon, weighed and put to sea." The everwatchful Blackwood in the Penelope, making the necessary signals to the other ships of the squadron, the Foudroyant, 80, Captain Sir Edward Berry, and the Lion, 64, Captain Manley Dixon (now Sir Manley Dixon), instantly made sail in pursuit, and having at half-past twelve closed with the chase, luffed up under her stern, and gave her the larboard broadside. The Penelope then bore up under her larboard quarter, and gave her the starboard broadside—a game which she kept playing till 5 o'clock, and with such effect, that just before the dawn of day, down came the Guillaume Tell's main and mizen topmasts and main-yard, while the little Penelope, whose manœuvres," says James in his Naval History, "were directed by a practised seaman," had sustained little or no damage. "A hundred times," says Décrès, the gallant French Admiral, in his letter to the Minister of Marine and the Colonies, “I VOL. VI. L 66 was tempted to manoeuvre, in order to cripple her from fighting; but as the wind blew fresh, and I observed, notwithstanding the darkness of the night, several ships at the extremity of the horizon, in full sail to support her, I was sensible that by lying to, I should be giving them all time to come up, and that my escape would be impossible. We were thus annoyed during the whole night by this frigate, whose fire brought down our main-topmast about 5 in the morning." True that Décrès durst not, without great peril, have attempted to manœuvre; but if he had, no doubt he would have been baffled by the matchless seamanship of Blackwood. The Lion, on coming up, ran close alongside of the enemy, who, as Captain Dixon said in his letter communicating the capture, "appeared of immense bulk and full of men, keeping up a prodigious fire of musketry;" and, after the Lion had been engaged with her for fifty minutes, from a judicious position in which she could endure that broadside so far superior in weight of metal to her own, the Foudroyant came up, and "after the hottest action that probably was ever maintained by an enemy's ship opposed to those of his Majesty, and being totally dismasted, the French Admiral's colours and flag were struck." Décrès, by his desperate defence so long sustained against such a force and such commanders, gained immortal renown, and none were louder in his praise than his gallant and generous captors. For Blackwood he ever afterwards cherished the warmest regard and the highest admiration, and the heroes were in their hearts friends for life. Captain Dixon, who had done in the Lion all that man could do against such overpowering superiority of force, said, in his letter to Sir Thomas Troubridge, "I have not language to express the high sense of obligation I feel myself under to Captain Blackwood, for his prompt and able conduct in leading the line-of-battle ships to the enemy, for the gallantry and spirit so highly conspicuous in him, and for his admirable management of the frigate. To your discriminating judgment it is unnecessary to remark of what real value and importance such an officer must ever be considered to his Majesty's service." In that service Captain Blackwood had now gained an enviable name; and his noble heart must have indeed burned within him, on receiving the most enthusiastic congratulations |