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Naval history of Great Britain
by
William James
1805
LIGHT SQUADRONS AND SINGLE SHIPS
138


to Captain Maitland and his officers every refreshment which the place afforded.

Immediately on arriving home, Lieutenant Yeo received his well-earned reward in the commission of commander, and sailed upon his first cruise in the ship which he had been so instramental in capturing. On the 21st of December, 1807, Captain Yeo was promoted to post-rank, but retained the command of the Confiance, by her captain's elevation, now raised in rank from a sloop to a post-ship. It is singular that, although no increase was or could be made in her armament (22 carronades, 18-pounders, and two sixes), the Confiance had her complement increased from 121 to 140 men and boys.

On the 13th of June, in latitude 29° north, longitude 62° west, the British 18-pounder 40-gun frigate Cambrian, Captain John Poer Beresford, despatched her boats under the command of Lieutenant Robert Pigot, to attack the Spanish private schooner Maria, of 14 guns and 60 men. Lieutenant Pigot with the launch as the leading boat, gallantly boarded the privateer ; and, assisted by Lieutenant the Honourable George Alfred Crofton in the barge, gallantly carried the vessel in spite of a stout resistance. Just as this had been accomplished the other boats succeeded in getting up. The loss sustained by the British, in this very spirited enterprise, amounted to two seamen killed and two wounded.

On the 3d of July, after a chase of 22 hours, the Cambrian overtook and captured the French privateer schooner Matilda, of, according to Captain Beresford's public letter, "20 guns, 9-pounders ; " but, taking this to be a typographical error (not unfrequent case in the London Gazette, as we have already shown), we shall say, of 10 long 8-pounders, and 95 men. The schooner surrendered in very shoal water ; and, but for the exertions of Lieutenant Pigot with one of the boats, every soul in the privateer would in all probability have been lost.

Having placed Lieutenant Pigot and a party of officers and men on board the prize, Captain Beresford despatched her to St.-Mary's river, forming the southern boundary of the United States of America, in search of a Spanish schooner privateer and two captured merchant ships. On the 6th, Lieutenant Pigot arrived off the harbour of St.-Mary's, and on the 7th proceeded 12 miles up the river, through a continual fire from the militia and riflemen stationed on the bank. On arriving within gunshot of the three vessels, he found them lashed in a line across the river ; the privateer being armed with six guns and 70 men, the ship, which was the Golden-Grove, late of London, with eight 6-pounders, six swivels, and 50 men, and the brig, which was the Ceres, late of London, with swivels and small-arms the Matilda immediately opened her fire, and continued it far an hour until she grounded. Lieutenant Pigot then took to his boats ; and, in spite of an obstinate resistance, carried the ship.

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