On June 23, 1799, the French and Spanish fleets effected a junction at Cartagena, and in the following month they retired from the Mediterranean and took refuge in Brest. They passed the Straits of Gibraltar on July 7, when Maitland had an adventure which is described in Tucker's _Memoirs of Earl St Vincent_. "It is," he says, "an as yet untold anecdote of the presence of mind and courage of one of the highest-minded characters that ever adorned the British Navy, the late Rear-Admiral Sir Frederick Maitland. "At this period that gallant officer was Lord St Vincent's flag-lieutenant; and when the fleets were first descried, Johnny Gilpin, as his lordship used to call him, was sent to order the _Penelope_, a little hired cutter, to go, count, and dodge them. The lieutenant commanding the cutter was found too ill to utter an order. But Mr Maitland, well knowing his Chief, and that this was service which must be done, at once assumed the command, and got the vessel under weigh. He stood over to Ceuta. The night was so pitchy dark and so calm that the cutter was unperceived by the enemy, and yet so close among them that the words of command in French and Spanish could be distinctly heard. At daybreak she was about gunshot distance from the whole Spanish fleet. When they saw her their admiral signalled a number of launches to tow a brig of 14 guns to attack her, but on their arrival within shot from the little _Penelope_, the reception she astonished them with was so spirited that the enemy dropped astern again and retired; and a faint hope of escape appeared, for, there being no wind, the cutter's boats were kept ahead all the forenoon, towing to the southward. Then every ship in that mighty fleet, except one frigate, actually turned their heads to the southward to give chase to the cutter. But the frigate stood to the northward, and as the afternoon's westerly breeze got up, it brought her down under studding-sails near the _Penelope_, before the air had reached her. When she was within cable's length, the frigate opened her broadside fire. Mr Maitland told the cutter's crew to lie down upon the deck till the frigate had discharged all her guns. The men lay down very smartly; but when ordered to rise, splice the top-sail braces, and get the vessel's head about, not a man of them would stir. 'Fighting,' they said, 'was not their employ; they were not hired for it, and, should they lose a limb, there was no provision for them;' and thus the frigate now renewing her fire, the little _Penelope_ was taken. "To the honour of the Spanish admiral it must be added, that, having witnessed this bravery and heard that it was Lord St Vincent's flag-lieutenant that had displayed it, he sent Mr Maitland in a cartel to Gibraltar, declaring him free without exchange."