58     LIGHT SQUADRONS AND SINGLE SHIPS     1812

Duncombe Pleydell Bouverie, of the 18-pounder 32-gun frigate Medusa, sent the boats of the frigate, under the orders of Lieutenant Josiah Thompson, to cut out the French store-ship Dorado, of 14 guns and 86 men, commanded by a lieutenant de vaisseau, lying at an anchor in the harbour of Arcasson. In spite of the rapidity of the tide and the intricacy of the navigation, and although discovered and hailed before they arrived within musket-shot, the boats succeeded in getting alongside the ship. The Frenchmen were found at their quarters, and perfectly prepared to defend their vessel ; but nothing could resist the impetuosity of Lieutenant Thompson and his men, who rushed on board and carried Dorado after a desperate struggle in which the whole of her crew, except 23 men, were either killed or compelled to jump overboard : among the latter was the French commander, severely wounded.

The ship had on board a full cargo of ship-timber, and had been since April, 1811, watching an opportunity to escape. At daylight on the 5th the prize was got under way ; but, after proceeding about a league down the harbour, the ship grounded on a sandbank. As the tide was then running out with great violence, Lieutenant Thompson was obliged, after taking out the wounded of her crew, to set the Dorado on fire ; and the ship soon afterwards blew up. This done, the boats returned to the Medusa, having sustained, in performing their gallant exploit, no greater loss than five men wounded.

Here is another of the abstracted cases. How justly proud might every lieutenant, master's mate, and midshipman have been who assisted in capturing the Dorado; and yet not one is named except the officer who commanded the party. " Captain Bouverie, " says the abstract, " highly commends the conduct of Lieutenant Thompson and the other officers and men employed on this occasion." To " the other officers," this recommendation could be of no avail, as they were not named ; not at least in the Gazette, the only record preserved. And, even had they been named, what could they expect, when their commanding officer, he who so gallantly led them up the side of the enemy's ship, bears still the same rank he bore then ?

The manner in which the British 74-gun ship Magnificent, Captain John Hayes, on the night of the 16th of December in the present year, was saved in a gale of wind on the coast of France is so extraordinary, and at the same time so creditable to the nautical skill and presence of mind of her captain, and to the expertness, alacrity, and good discipline of British seamen, that we shall be doing, not merely an act of justice to the officers and crew of the Magnificent, but a service to the whole profession, by giving all the publicity in our power to an account of the circumstance, which has already appeared in a popular periodical work devoted to naval subjects. " The ship was anchored in the evening between the reef of Chasseron, and the reef of

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