76 THE SEA. 



were sent to Tralee gaol. So, when he conceived the bold idea of burning the shipping 

 in Leith harbour, a gale blew his ship to sea. It is said that laying off Kirkaldy, Jones 

 sent a summons to the townspeople to make up a ransom, or he would fire the town. A 

 number of the inhabitants had collected on the beach, among whom was a venerable minister, 

 who offered up a prayer to the Almighty, and exhorted the people to courage and trust- 

 fulness. Soon after the wind increased to the gale above-mentioned, and the privateer 

 had to be let go before the wind. Not long previous to this, however, Jones had cap- 

 tured several prizes, all of which were sent to French ports. 



But off Scarborough Jones and his squadron fell in with a British convoy of merchant- 

 men from the Baltic, under escort of H.M.S. Serapis (forty-four guns), in the command 

 of Captain Pearson, and the Countess of Scarborough (twenty guns), Captain Piercy. The 

 result was a brilliant engagement, in which the British captains behaved most gallantly, 

 although the privateer force was in excess of their own. Captain Pearson, while a prisoner 

 on the Pallas, communicated a full account to the Lords of the Admiralty, of which the 

 following narrative contains some verbatim extracts : 



On the 23rd September, 1799, the privateer squadron and the two English ships 

 were in sight of each other. Captain Pearson's first anxiety was to get between the 

 merchant-ships he was convoying and the privateers, which he successfully accomplished. 

 Shortly after the action commenced the muzzles of the guns of the Serapis and Alliance 

 actually touched each other. " In this position," wrote Captain Pearson, " we engaged from 

 half-past eight till half-past ten, during which time, from the great quantity and variety 

 of combustible matter which they threw upon our decks, cabins, and, in short, into 

 every part of the ship, we were on fire no less than ten or twelve times in different 

 parts of the ship, and it was with the greatest difficulty and exertion imaginable, at 

 times, that we were able to get it extinguished. At the same time the largest of the 

 two frigates kept sailing round us during the whole action, and raking us fore and aft, 

 by which means she killed or wounded almost every man on the quarter and main decks. 

 At half-past nine, either from a hand-grenade being thrown in at one of our lower deck 

 ports or from some other accident, a cartridge of powder was set on fire, the flames of 

 which, running from cartridge to cartridge all the way aft, blew up the whole of the officers 

 and crew that were quartered abaft the mainmast; from which unfortunate circumstance 

 all those guns were rendered useless for the remainder of the action. 



"At ten o'clock they called for quarter from the ship alongside, and said they had 

 struck. Hearing this, I called upon the captain to say if they had struck, or if he asked 

 for quarter, but receiving no answer after repeating my words two or three times, I called 

 for the boarders,- and ordered them to board, which they did ; but the moment they were 

 on board her they discovered a superior number lying under cover, with pikes in their 

 hands, ready to receive them, on which our people retreated instantly into our own ship, 

 and returned to their guns again until half-past ten, when the frigate coming across our 

 stern, and pouring her broadside into us again without our being able to bring a gun 

 to bear on her, I found it in vain, and in short impracticable, from the situation we were 

 in, to stand out any longer with any prospect of success. I therefore struck ; our main- 

 mast at the same time went by the board. 



