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her by boarding ; but that a well-directed broadside from the Herald sent the felucca and all that were in her to the bottom. On his arrival at Naples shortly afterwards, Captain Pistock received from all ranks, for his spirited behaviour, the highest marks of attention and respect. The Duke of Sussex, who was then at Naples, is said to have twice honoured Captain Pistock with an invitation to breakfast, and to have presented him with a hanger of considerable value, marked with the initials of his royal highness's name ; and one of the prince's suite, a Mr. Veers, gave a pair of pistols to the gallant privateer's-man. The latter was also received with great attention by Sir William Hamilton, the British envoy. The brave crew of the Herald did not pass unnoticed ; as the British merchants at Naples raised by subscription, and distributed between them, the sum of 200 dollars. On the 7th, of December, as the British 22-gun ship Perdrix, Captain William Charles Fahie, mounting 20 French 6-pounders and two English 12-pounder carronades, was cruising to leeward of the island of St.-Thomas, an American master gave information that his vessel, the preceding evening, had been boarded by a French ship of war, seven leagues to the eastward of Virgin-Gorda. Captain Fahie used every exertion to get to windward of the last-named island ; but, owing to the prevailing strong gales, accompanied at times by heavy squalls, the Perdrix did not, until the 10th, effect that object. On the 11th, at day light, a ship was discovered from the mast-head in the south-east quarter, and soon ascertained to be a cruiser. Not a moment was lost in pursuing her ; and, after a 16 hours' chase, the Perdrix brought to close action the French privateer-ship Armée-d'Italie, Captain Colachy, mounting 18 guns, four of them long 12, and the remainder long 8 pounders. An animated fire was kept up for 42 minutes ; when the latter, being reduced to an unmanageable wreck, struck her colours. The damages of the Perdrix were confined to her rigging and sails, and, out of a crew of 153 men and boys, she escaped with only one man wounded ; while the loss on board the Armée-d'Italie, whose crew numbered 117, amounted to six men killed and five wounded. Captain Fahie, in his official letter, highly commends the conduct of the two lieutenants of the Perdrix, Edward Ottley and James Smith ; also of Mr. Moses Crawford, the master, and Mr. Samuel Piguenet, the purser, the latter of whom volunteered to serve on deck. On the 5th of December the British 12-pounder 32-gun frigate Ambuscade, mounting eight. 24-pounder carronades beyond her 32 long guns, or 40 guns in all, Captain Henry Jenkins, leaving some of her men in charge of a prize with which she had just arrived at Portsmouth, again set sail on a cruise off the French coast. In a few days afterwards the ^ back to top ^ |