1808	Light Squadrons and Single Ships	84

killed, and one first lieutenant of marines (Samuel John Payne, dangerously), one master's mate (Richard Gibbings, mortally), one midshipman (Lawford. Miles, severely), her boatswain (Leonard Taylor), captain's clerk (Thomas Gilson), 32 seamen, 12 marines, and two boys wounded ; total, 19 killed and 51 wounded. The Thétis (same force as Minerva, at Vol. iv., p. 232) was dreadfully shattered as well as dismasted ; and, out of a crew, including 106 French soldiers, of 436 men and boys, had her captain, and 134 officers, seamen, and soldiers killed, and 102 wounded.

Here stands another frigate action, in which the comparative statement, in every line of figures on the French side, exhibits a superiority of force, particularly in crew. There is, however, a circumstance or two, which, fairly considered, will be allowed to bring the odds a little nearer to an equality. The object of the Thétis, from the first, was to gain her destination, not to fight ; and even, had it been otherwise, an exchange of night-signals, at the commencement of the chase, must have informed her that a friend to her antagonist, and consequently a foe to her, was not many miles distant. Still the Thétis fought manfully, and did not surrender till every hope had fled.

The crew of the Amethyst, in the heavy loss and damage they inflicted upon the Thétis proved the high state of discipline to which they had been brought by their commander and his officers. If any thing can add to the merits of Captain Seymour on the occasion, it is the modesty of his published account, and the handsome eulogium he pays to the gallantry of Lieutenant Joseph Dedé the surviving commander of the Thétis who, he says, acted with singular firmness, and was the only Frenchman on the quarterdeck when the British boarded.

Unfortunately, Lieutenant Dedé lost the esteem of his generous captor, by uniting with the two officers who were next to himself in command on board the Thétis, in swearing before the prize-court, by way of making the thing go down better with the French government, that the Thétis was captured by a 74 and two frigates. This is easily disproved. When the Thétis had been, not only taken possession of by, but cut clear from, the Amethyst, the appearance of a large ship, coming down under a press of sail from the eastward, occasioned Captain Seymour to ask Lieutenant Dedé if he had previously seen any ship, or expected any other to sail from Lorient. The lieutenant

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