Transcriber's Note:
Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully as possible, including inconsistent hyphenation and discrepancies in numbers of guns. Some errors in the table of contents and chapter summaries have been corrected. Some other changes have been made. They are listed at the end of the text.
PERSONAL NARRATIVE
OF EVENTS,
From 1799 to 1815,
WITH ANECDOTES.
BY THE LATE
VICE-ADML. WM. STANHOPE LOVELL, R.N., K.H.
SECOND EDITION.
London:
WM. ALLEN & CO., 13, WATERLOO PLACE, W.
1879.
WITHERBY AND CO., PRINTERS,
74, CORNHILL; NEWMAN’S COURT, CORNHILL; AND 325A, HIGH HOLBORN, W.C.
To Rear-Admiral Sir Robert Barrie, C.B., K.C.H.
My dear Sir Robert,
In dedicating the following pages to you, under whose command I had the honour of serving in the Chesapeake, &c., I do it with the greatest respect, esteem, and admiration of your conduct.
I must ever consider you as one of those officers upon whom the country may safely rely in the hour of peril, and in whose hands it may entrust its honour in the day of battle. Like the celebrated Bayard of old, your career has obtained for you a character, “sans peur et sans reproche.”
Your faithful friend,
THE AUTHOR.
CONTENTS.
| [CHAPTER I]. | PAGE |
| First Trip to Sea—Shipmates—Admiral Sir John Borlase Warren, Bart, K.B. | 1 |
| [CHAPTER II]. | |
| Channel Cruising—Boat Expeditions—Anecdote of a Gallant Mid—Ditto of Two Dandy Guardsmen—Expedition to Ferrol—Sir James Pulteney, Sir Edward Pellew and the Donkey—The Unlucky Cruise | 7 |
| [CHAPTER III]. | |
| Cruise off Cadiz—Proceed up the Mediterranean to Egypt after a French Squadron under Rear-Admiral Ganteaume, 1801 | 16 |
| [CHAPTER IV]. | |
| From the Peace of Amiens (1802) until the Commencement of the Second Gallic War—Gambling | 26 |
| [CHAPTER V]. | |
| From the Commencement of Second Gallic War until the Battle of Trafalgar, 1805; with Anecdotes | 30 |
| [CHAPTER VI]. | |
| The Battle of Trafalgar, and Extracts from the Log of His Majesty’s Ship Neptune, on the 21st, 22nd, and 23rd October, 1805 | 43 |
| [CHAPTER VII]. | |
| Joined the Melpomene—Sent up the Mediterranean—Tremendous Weather, with Thunder, Lightning, and Water-spouts—Ship loses her Rudder and Main-topmast—Proceed to Malta | 57 |
| [CHAPTER VIII]. | |
| Siege of Gaeta by the French—Boat Affairs—My Capture—Leghorn | 62 |
| [CHAPTER IX]. | |
| Malta—Dreadful Accident by the Explosion of a Magazine in the Town, on the Bermola side—Nearly get into a Scrape about Breaking Quarantine—Kind Answer of the gallant Admiral Sir Sidney Smith to the Complaint—Rejoin the Melpomene—Mutiny in Fribourg’s Regiment—Cruise in the Adriatic | 73 |
| [CHAPTER X]. | |
| North American Station, from 1808 to 1811—Bermuda—Anecdote—Death of Captain Conn | 87 |
| [CHAPTER XI]. | |
| Lisbon—Trip to the Army of Lord Wellington—Montemor Novo, O’Rodondo, Villa Vicosa, Elvas, Fort le Lippe | 101 |
| [CHAPTER XII]. | |
| Lisbon, Cintra, Mafra, etc., 1811, 1812—Second Trip to the Army—Taking of Badajoz | 113 |
| [CHAPTER XIII]. | |
| Cadiz, Minorca, Majorca, Alicant, Carthagena, Algiers, Oran, Altea Bay—Drive a French Privateer on Shore near Denia | 124 |
| [CHAPTER XIV]. | |
| Siege of the Col de Balaguer—A Reconnoitering Party—Raising of the Siege of Tarragona—Lieutenant-General Sir John and Lady Murray—Rear-Admiral Benjamin Hallowell—Viscount and Viscountess Mahon—Palermo, Veniros; Upset in a Boat—Valencia—Holland | 136 |
| [CHAPTER XV]. | |
| 1814—Sent to Bermuda—Operations in the Chesapeake—The River Patuxent—Expedition to Washington—Town of Rappahannock—River Rappahannock—Commodore Robert Barrie, etc. | 150 |
| [CHAPTER XVI]. | |
| Operations in South Carolina—Capture of Cumberland Island and the Fort of Point-à-Petre—An Affair with the American Riflemen in the Woods—An Abattis—Anecdotes of the 2nd West India Regiment—A Rattlesnake—Capture of the Town of St. Mary’s—Destruction of the Forts and Barracks—Nassau, New Providence—Compliment to the Royal Marines—Return Home | 173 |