In a memorial presented in 1835 to the Lords of the Admiralty, the<br />author of the journals which form this volume details his various<br />services. He joined the Navy in October, 1793, his first ship being<br />H.M.S. Blonde. He was present at the siege of Martinique in 1794, and<br />returned to England the same year in H.M.S. Hannibal with<br />despatches and the colours of Martinique. For a few months the ship<br />was attached to the Channel Fleet, and then suddenly, in 1795, was<br />ordered to the West Indies again. Here he remained until 1802,<br />during which period he was twice attacked by yellow fever.<br />The author was engaged in upwards of eighteen boat actions, in one<br />of which, at Tiberoon Bay, St. Domingo, he was wounded in the<br />head, and entirely lost the hearing of his left ear.<br />As first lieutenant of H.M.S. Volage, while attempting to cut out an<br />enemy&rsquo;s vessel laden with tobacco from under the guns of the Moro<br />Castle, St. Jago de Cuba, after a running fight of two hours with three<br />Spanish privateers, he was obliged to surrender, and was carried<br />prisoner to St. Jago, where he remained for six weeks until<br />exchanged. In 1802 he returned to England in the Volage, which was<br />then paid off.<br />In 1803 he was appointed lieutenant of H.M.S. Minotaur on the<br />Channel Service, but in 1804, in consequence of a very severe attack<br />of rheumatic fever, which completely prostrated him and for several<br />months necessitated the use of crutches, he resigned his post.<br />On his recovery, in the summer of 1805, he was appointed to H.M.S.<br />Tonnant, and was senior lieutenant of her lower deck quarters in the<br />Battle of Trafalgar, concerning which he gives several new and<br />interesting details. During the battle he was slightly wounded in the<br />left hand.<br />His next ship was H.M.S. Diamond (to which he was appointed<br />March 8th, 1806), ordered for service on the West Coast of Africa. In<br />1807 he became commander of the Favourite sloop of war in<br />consequence of the death of her captain, and three months<br />afterwards took the last convoy of slave ships to the West Indies.<br />In 1808, while in Jamaica, he was attacked by fever, which affected<br />his eyesight, nearly producing blindness; and, on the advice of the<br />doctor at Port Royal Hospital, Admiral Dacres gave him permission<br />to exchange into the Goelan sloop of war, which was shortly<br />afterwards ordered to England with convoy.