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He told me, “he had for many years been commander of a ship; and in the sea fight at Actium had the good fortune to break through the enemy’s great line of battle, sink three of their capital ships, and take a fourth, which was the sole cause of Antony’s flight, and of the victory that ensued; that the youth standing by him, his only son, was killed in the action.” He added, “that upon the confidence of some merit, the war being at an end, he went to Rome, and solicited at the court of Augustus to be preferred to a greater ship, whose commander had been killed; but, without any regard to his pretensions, it was given to a boy who had never seen the sea, the son of Libertina, who waited on one of the emperor’s mistresses.
Daylight was breaking as we cleared the shore, when we saw a vessel which appeared like our ship standing towards us, but were with reason alarmed at seeing three more. I immediately concluded they were enemy’s privateers. My fears were soon confirmed by their hoisting Spanish colours, and the nearest began firing at us.
Although it has been most annoying remaining for so many years unemployed, I do not regret having served with Cochrane in the Speedy, the Pallas, and the Impérieuse, for indeed no three ships of their size ever inflicted such damage upon the enemy’s commerce, captured so many ships, or performed more gallant exploits.
The Spanish vessels, upon clearing the harbour, turned to the westward in column, increasing their speed to the full power of their engines. The heavy blockading vessels, which had closed in toward the Morro, at the instant of the enemy’s appearance, and at their best speed, delivered a rapid fire, well sustained and destructive, which speedily overwhelmed and silenced the Spanish fire.
“Just before midnight of this date the Massachusetts, which was in front of the port with her search-light up to the entrance, reported an enemy’s vessel coming out, and she and the Texas fired a number of shots in the direction of the harbour mouth. The batteries also opened, and a number of shell fell at various points, the attention paid by the batteries to the ships being general.
The battery gave us a parting salute without doing us injury, when, as the evening was closing, and the enemy’s vessels had run into the mouth of the river, I was obliged to haul off. After blockading the mouth of the river for ten days without the slightest prospect of success, I anchored at Montego Bay, and procured fresh beef for the crew.
I bought two pairs of the former, but they did not last long; the hair constantly came out on my clothes, and when once they are wet they become useless. On the fifth day after quitting the squadron we rejoined them in Cancale Bay. At daylight next morning our signal was made to chase an enemy’s lugger in shore.
It also rebukes “the singular malignity with which the Piedmontese government dared to call the Pontifical soldiers mercenaries, when so many of them, both Italians and foreigners, were of noble lineage, bearing illustrious names, and had resolved to serve in our troops without pay, and for the sole love of our holy religion.” The fact is established, to the disgrace of Piedmont, that the Papal government “could have had no intimation of the enemy’s purpose.
On Cayo Smith and at Blanco battery there are also four modern guns. The mines in the narrow, tortuous channel, and the elevation of the forts and batteries, which must increase the effectiveness of the enemy’s fire, and at the same time decrease that of our own, reinforced by the guns of the Spanish fleet inside, make the harbour, as it now appears, almost impregnable.
The ship’s company were, generally speaking, good and willing seamen, and I thought myself fortunate in being first lieutenant of such a ship and of having intellectual messmates. We were placed as one of the look-out frigates to watch the enemy’s vessels in Brest. The fleet was under the command of the brave and persevering Earl St.
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