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Naval History of Great Britain - Vol II
1798 Light Squadrons and Single Ships 230

already appeared, from shot-holes received in action. Of the Dorade, as a British cruiser, we never heard. The Trompeuse and Railleur were privateers ; and the Gentille was a frigate, captured in 1795 and broken up in 1802. What can be alleged against such "flush-decked corvettes" in the British service as the Arab, Cormorant, Gaieté, Constance, and, above all, Bonne-Citoyenne ?

On the 12th of August, at noon, latitude 46° 12' north, longitude 18° 23' west, the British 18-gun ship-sloop Hazard, mounting 24 or 26 guns, long sixes and 12-pounder carronades, Captain William Butterfield, gave chase to, and at 4 p.m. came within gun-shot of, the French armed ship, Neptune, mounting 10, but pierced for 20 guns ; those 10 guns believed to have been 6-pounders, and which, Captain Butterfield in his letter says, were all fought on one side. The Neptune hauled up her courses, hoisted French colours, and fired a shot at the Hazard. Immediately an action ensued, during which the Neptune, having on board, exclusive of 53 seamen, 270 troops, made several attempts under cover of a heavy fire of musketry, to board the Hazard ; but the crew of the latter repulsed the assailants with considerable loss, and, at the end of one hour and 50 minutes, compelled the French ship to strike her colours.

The Hazard received a few shot in her hull, and had her rigging slightly injured. Her loss amounted to only six men wounded. The Neptune, on the other hand, was a good deal cut up in hull, masts, and rigging, and lost, according to the representation of her officer, between 20 and 30 in killed and wounded together. A privateer, with French colours flying, was in sight to leeward during the whole of the action. Captain Butterfield's situation, even after he had made the French ship his prize, could not have been the most comfortable ; as he had nearly 300 prisoners to keep in subjection, with a crew, owing to a prize which the Hazard had manned and sent away, of scarcely 100 men and boys.

At the close of our account of the Battle of the Nile, it was stated that the British 50-gun ship Leander, Captain Thomas Boulden Thompson, had sailed on the 6th of August, from before Alexandria, with Rear-admiral Sir Horatio Nelson's despatches, addressed to the commander-in-chief on the Mediterranean station.

On the 18th, at daybreak, being within five or six miles of the west end of Goza di Candia, the Leander discovered in the south-east quarter, standing directly for her, a large sail, evidently a ship of the line ; and which, although the Leander lay becalmed, was bringing up a fine breeze from the southward. The Leander being upwards of 80 men short of complement, and having on board several that were wounded in the Nile action, Captain Thompson did not feel himself justified in seeking a contest with a ship so superior in point of size and force ; and

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