In 1808, while in Jamaica, he was attacked by fever, which affected his eyesight, nearly producing blindness; and, on the advice of the doctor at Port Royal Hospital, Admiral Dacres gave him permission to exchange into the _Goelan_ sloop of war, which was shortly afterwards ordered to England with convoy. In 1810 he was appointed to command the _Apelles_ on the Downs station, and in this capacity he was actively employed until May, 1812, when, during the middle watch, and in a dense fog, the _Apelles_, with the _Skylark_, her leader, unfortunately grounded on the French coast, near Etaples, on “the infant ebb of a spring tide.” All efforts to float the sloop were vain, and, after being for three hours under the incessant fire of a French battery, which riddled her hull and cut away her masts, and having meanwhile sent away all the crew which the boats were capable of containing, the author and eighteen others were compelled to surrender. The following is the sentence of the Court Martial held at Portsmouth on the conduct of Captain Hoffman for the loss of H.M. sloop _Apelles_, Sir George Martin, Bart., President:— “That there is no blame whatever attached to the conduct of Captain Hoffman; that he is fully and honourably acquitted. “That great praise is due to him for remaining with his ship. “That the Court regrets he was under the painful necessity of becoming a prisoner, and that his services were lost to his country for the period of two years.” After reading the sentence Sir G. Martin spoke as follows:— “Captain Hoffman,—In the name of the Court and myself I present you the sword, which by your conduct you so well merit.” The author spent about two years in France, and during his captivity there did excellent service to his country by opening and superintending a school for the midshipmen who were also prisoners of war at Verdun. It appears that he wrote these records of his life while residing at Dover in 1838. He evidently intended to have them published, but for some reason or another they have never hitherto been printed. The Editors, in presenting them to the public more than sixty years after they were originally written, think that they will prove of general interest, not because they lay claim to literary excellence, but because they present a simple, unexaggerated picture of the everyday life in the navy a century ago, and give us an insight into the characters of the men who helped to build up the sea power of Great Britain, and to bring her to her present position of political and commercial greatness. _November, 1901._ CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. EARLY EXPERIENCES.