526 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1805. 



fire upon this ship until we came up 

 ■with tho Arrow, who had put her 

 helm a- weather and was now r^kin^ 

 her ; we hauled our wind to clear the 

 Arrow, who appeared to be wear- 

 ing ; I hailed, and asked if hemeant 

 to again come to the wind on the 

 starboard Uck, but could not under- 

 stand what he said ; as soon as clear 

 of the Arrow, we again directed our 

 fire against the commodore's ship, 

 ■which we continued until eight, 

 when, with the greatest grief, I saw 

 the Arrow obliged to strike, being 

 no longer able to contend with the 

 great superiority of force opposed 

 to her. Siic had, I conceive, re- 

 ceived much damage in the act of 

 ■^vearing; the wind being liglit, she 

 lay a considerable time with her 

 head to the enemy. The Acheron 

 being now very m'ach disabled in 

 masts, sails, and rigging, and part 

 of her stern-post carried away, I 

 considered farther resistance on my 

 part could answer no good ; and, 

 unwilling to sacrifice the lives of 

 men who had given me the highest 

 proof of their courage, I deter- 

 mined to make what sail I could, 

 with little hopes of saving the ship, 

 but with a view of prolonging the 

 time of my being; captured, to give 

 the convoy the better ciiance of 

 escaping. The superiority in sail- 

 ing of the enemy's ship rendered the 

 chace but short; at three quarters 

 past eight, having received one broad- 

 side and part of another, and the 

 enemy now very near us, with the 

 greatest mortification and sorrow 1 

 ■wis obliged to surrender to the 

 French frigate li'IIortense, of 44 

 guns, commanded by Rlons. De la 

 Marre La Mellierie, who, finding 

 her much ifisabled, as soon as the 

 officers and chip's company were re« 

 Hiovcdj set hot on fire. 



jiccouni of the Capture of (he French 

 Ship La Fille de Milan, and Re- 

 capture of the Cleopatra, by his 

 JSlajestifs Ship Leaiider, Captain 

 J. Talbot, in a letter to Sir An. 

 drexo Mitchell, K. B. on the Hal- 

 l/fax station. 



Lcander, off St. David's Head, 



Bermuda, March 6. 

 Sir, 



I have the honour to inform you, 

 that I proceeded to sea, and cruized 

 in his majesty's ship under my com- 

 mand, according to your orders, 

 dated the 13th of last month. On 

 Saturday the 23d of February, at 

 VI o'clock at noon, a sail was seen 

 from the mast-head, bearing south 

 of us ; (he weather at this time was 

 hazy, with squalls of wind and rain 

 from the northward. All sail was 

 immediately made in chace : the 

 weather becoming still more hazy, 

 in a few moments we lost sight of 

 the chace ; at half-past two it cleared 

 away a little to the southward, anil 

 we again got sight of her. I found 

 Avc had considerably neared the 

 chace, and that it was a large ship 

 under jury-masts standing to the 

 south-east. At three o'clock we 

 saw another ship a short distance 

 from the chace, steering the same 

 coarse also under jury-masts, in ap- 

 pearance a much larger Tt»ssel. As 

 we closed them very fast, we soon 

 clearly saw they were both frigates; 

 on their making us out to be a man 

 of war, they closed to support each 

 other, firing a gun to leeward, and 

 hoisting French ensigns from their 

 main-stays ; at 4 o'clock we were 

 within gun-shot of them, they sepa- 

 rated, the frigate nearest to us put 

 before the wind, the other steered 

 with it on her larboard cjuarter. 



3y Jialf-past four we got within 



musket- 



