UK M OIK OF DB WRIGHT. ^. 99 



Km. rii Abercrombie, as laid a favourable founda- 

 tion for his subsequent intimacy with that able com- 

 mander. 



The fleet prepared for the embarkation of the ar- 

 mament, amounting altogether to 300 sail, was ap- 

 pointed to rendezvous at Portsmouth, which enabled 

 Dr Wright to pay a short visit to his friends in 

 Hampshire ; hut on his joining the fleet, his profes- 

 sional duties required his constant attendance on board 

 the hospital ship. They set sail, with a fair wind, on 

 the 15th of November ; but were scarcely four and 

 twenty hours at sea, when a violent storm arose, which 

 dispersed the fleet, and compelled them to run for 

 shelter to the various harbours of the Channel. The 

 ship in which Dr Wright had embarked, reached St 

 Helen's Roads in safety, on the 17th of November; 

 but such was the severity of the tempest, that the ad- 

 jacent coasts were covered with the wrecks of mcr-* 

 chantmen and transports ; and the loss of lives con- 

 nected with the armament alone amounted to 600 in 

 number. In a letter to his brother from St Helen's 

 Roads, on the 20th of November, Dr Wright ob- 

 serves : " It will be a fortnight before we can be ready 

 for sea again, as it will be necessary to refit. Our si- 

 tuation was rather uncomfortable, but I know too 

 much of the Channel service to apprehend any serious 



of a measure deemed by the ablest judges highly beneficial to the 

 military service of our country. In October, by the influence chief- 

 ly of Sir Ralph Abercrombie, Dr Wright was appointed a 

 physician to the armament, and shortly after went with it to tho 

 West Indies." 



2 c; 2 



