The Life of the Right Honourable Horatio Lord Viscount Nelson, Volume 1Harrison, James
History
The Life of the Right Honourable Horatio Lord Viscount Nelson, Volume 1
Harrison, James
Admirals -- Great Britain -- Biography; Great Britain. Royal Navy -- Biography; Nelson, Horatio Nelson, Viscount, 1758-1805
After anchoring for a few hours at St. Fiorenzo, with the fleet, Captain
Nelson was again dispatched, in the Agamemnon, with orders to sail as
before directed, when he had been chased back. Accordingly, with a light
squadron under his command, consisting of the Inconstant, Meleager,
Southampton, Tartar, Ariadne, and Speedy, he proceeded to co-operate
with the Austrian General De Vins: and, being informed by the general,
that a convoy of provisions and ammunition was arrived at Alassio, a
place in the possession of the French army, he proceeded thither on the
25th of August; where, within an hour, he took nine vessels, burnt a
tenth, and drove another on shore. Some of the enemy's cavalry fired on
the boats when boarding the vessels near shore, but not a single man was
killed or wounded. The French had two thousand horse and foot soldiers
in the town, which prevented his landing and destroying their magazines
of provisions and ammunition.
Captain Freemantle of the Inconstant, was sent, in the mean time, with
the Tartar, to Languelia, a town on the west side of the Bay of Alassio;
where, Captain Nelson observes, in his dispatches to Admiral Hotham,
published October 3,1795, in the London Gazette, that commander executed
his orders in a most officer-like manner. "I am indebted," he concludes,
"to every officer in the squadron, for their activity: but, most
particularly so, to Lieutenant George Andrews, first-lieutenant of the
Agamemnon; who, by his spirited and officer-like conduct, saved the
French corvette from going on shore."
The vessels taken were--a French corvette of ten guns, four swivels, and
eighty-seven men; a French gun-boat of one brass gun, four swivels, and
forty-nine men; a French galley of one brass gun, four swivels, and
thirty men; a like galley, with twenty-nine men; a French brig, in
ballast, burden a hundred tons; a French bark, burden seventy tons,
laden with powder and shells; a French brig, burden a hundred tons,
laden with wine; a galley, burden fifty tons, in ballast; and a tartane,
burden thirty-five tons, laden with wine: those destroyed--a bark, laden
with powder, drove on shore; and a ditto, laden with provisions, burnt.
Though this enterprise called for no particular exertion of great
ability, it was executed with very complete success; and the result was
both advantageous to the captors and their allies, and distressful to
the common enemy.
Admiral Hotham, in his dispatches to government, inclosing the account
of this business which he had received from Captain Nelson, handsomely
remarks that "his officer-like conduct upon this, and indeed upon every
occasion, where his services are called forth, reflects on him the
highest credit."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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