358     LIGHT SQUADRONS AND SINGLE SHIPS     1815

by sailing-master George Ulick ; schooner Seahorse, of one 6-pounder and 14 men, sailing-master William Johnson ; and sloop Alligator, of one 4-pounder and eight men ; sailing-master Richard S. Sheppard. We have taken the number of men from the American official account ; but Captain Lockyer's letter makes the number greater. And, as Lieutenant Jones did certainly mistate the force of his little squadron in guns, there is every probability that he also underrated the number of his men.

On the 13th, at 10 a.m., from his anchorage at the Malheureux islands, Lieutenant Jones discovered the boats advancing towards Passe Christian, as he supposed, to disembark troops. He immediately detached the Seahorse to bay St.-Louis, to destroy the stores there ; and at 3 h. 30 m. p.m., when the floodtide made, got under way with the remaining vessels and stood towards the Petites-Coquilles. At about 3 h. 45 m. Captain Lockyer despatched some boats to cut out the Seahorse, who had moored herself advantageously under the protection of two 6-pounders mounted on a commanding point. It appears that, after sustaining a very destructive fire for nearly half an hour, the boats were repulsed ; considering his position untenable against a greater force, Mr. Johnson set fire to his vessel and the warehouses containing the stores, and the whole were consumed.

On the 14th, at 1 a.m., Lieutenant Jones moored his five principal gun-vessels with springs on their cables and boarding netting triced up, in a close line abreast, athwart the narrow channel called Malheureux-island passage, and made every preparation to give the British boats a warm reception. At about 9 h. 30 m. a.m., observing the Alligator trying to rejoin her five consorts at anchor, Captain Lockyer detached Captain Roberts with a few boats to take her. This was speedily accomplished without much opposition. Having arrived within long gun-shot of the enemy, and the men having pulled 36 miles, a great part of the way against a strong current, Captain Lockyer brought the boats to a grapnel and allowed the crews to take their breakfasts. This done, at about 10 h. 30 m. a.m. the boats weighed, and took again to their oars ; pulling against a strong current of at least three knots an hour, and being exposed all the while to a heavy and destructive fire of round and grape from the long guns of the American flotilla.

At about noon Captain Lockyer, and Lieutenant George Pratt, in the second barge of the Seahorse, closed with the gun-boat of the American commodore ; and, after an obstinate struggle, in which the greater part of the officers and men in the boat were either killed or wounded, including among the wounded the captain himself severely, and Lieutenant Pratt mortally, succeeded in boarding her. Seconded, then, by the Seahorse's first barge commanded by midshipman George Robert White, and by the boats of the Tonnant under Lieutenant James Barnwell Tattnall, the British soon carried the gun-boat. Lieutenant

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