"I arrived here, in company with the Ceres and Penelope, last evening. On the 8th instant, at 7 a.m., seeing a strange sail and a suspicious one (being commodore), I made a signal for an enemy, and to haul our wind on the larboard tack to meet her. At nine we met; she kept English colours flying till after firing two broadsides. Seeing him attempt to lay us alongside to leeward, thought it better to have him to windward, so wore ship on the other tack. He was then on our quarter, and lashed himself to our mizzen chains; the contest then became desperate for one hour. They set us on fire twice on the quarter-deck with stink-pots and other combustibles, and made four very daring attempts to board, with at least eighty men, out of their rigging, foretop, and bowsprit, but were most boldly repulsed by every man and boy in the ship. At the conclusion, a double-headed shot, from our aftermost gun, carried away his foremast by the board; that took away his bowsprit and maintopgallant-mast. He then thought it was time to cast us off. No less than fifty men fell with the wreck. We then hauled our wind as well as we could, to knot, splice, and repair our rigging for the time, which gave the other ships an opportunity to play upon the enemy; but, being a little to leeward, had not so good an effect. A short time afterwards wore ship for him again, with the other ships, and engaged him for about an hour more; but, finding it impossible to take him, owing to his number of men, and no surgeon to dress our wounded, I thought it best to steer our course for this island. Her name is the Bonaparte, of 20 9-pounders and upwards of 200 men. I had 18 6-pounders and 45 men, 19 never at sea before, boys and landsmen. As to the behaviour of my whole crew, to a man they were steady, and determined to defend the ship whilst there was one left alive. I had two killed and nine wounded. On our arrival Commodore Hood paid us every attention, sent the surgeon and mate to dress the wounded, also men to assist the ship to anchor, and gave me a written protection for my crew.[21] I cannot conclude without mentioning the gallant and spirited conduct of Mr. Dobbs, a midshipman (passenger with me), who acted as Captain of Marines, and during the action fought like a brave fellow, as well as exciting in the minds of the crew unconquerable zeal. We are much shattered in our hull, sails, and rigging; it will take us two days before we can be ready for sea."
"I remain, in haste, gentlemen,
"Your very obedient servant,
"John Charnley."
In another letter to a friend, a day or two later, Charnley says:
"The Bonaparte privateer is the completest ship in these seas. She made too certain of us. Freers, my first mate, behaved most gallantly, and fought like a lion; so did Lambert, my second mate. Indeed, I cannot say enough for every man and boy in the ship. The greatest part of them stripped and fought naked, and I am sure would have died sooner than have been carried. There was one hour's hard work, I assure you. I was near going frequently, as they fired several musket-balls through my clothes."
This appears to be a straightforward account, and though it differs from the others, in respect of the parts played by them in the action, Captain Charnley does not attach any blame to them for lack of zeal or enterprise.
The Barbadoes Mercury headed the account of the action—"Defeat of Bonaparte! not the Great, but celebrated privateer of Guadaloupe!"
Four months later Captain Charnley deemed it necessary to publish, in the Bristol Journal of March 16th, 1805, the following justification of himself:
"On our arrival in this port, observing a paragraph in the London papers respecting a late action between the Bonaparte, French privateer, and the ships Thetis, Ceres, and Penelope, off Barbadoes, which makes it appear to the public that the two latter did wonders, and the Thetis little or nothing; I now think it incumbent on me, and a duty I owe to my crew, as commander of the Thetis, to state a few facts, and confute any reports that have been made of the action; which would have been passed over in silence by me, had they not resorted to the means they have of obtaining unmerited credit at the expense of others. The three ships sailed in company from Cork, the Thetis to act as commodore. Nothing material occurred till November 8th, when at 7 a.m. the man at our masthead called out, 'A sail!' It soon appearing a suspicious one, I made a signal for an enemy, and to haul our wind on the larboard tack to meet her; which was answered by our consorts. At nine the privateer and the Thetis met; the other ships not sailing so fast, were at this time about one mile astern in her wake. The privateer hailed us in English twice, with English colours flying; the latter we answered with a broadside from our larboard guns. Seeing him determined to board us, we wore ship and sailed large; in the act of doing which she raked us twice, ran up alongside under a press of sail, and made herself fast to our mizzen-chains. By this time the other ships were nearly up; but, instead of coming into action on the enemy's quarter, which ought to have been their station, bore up before they reached us, fired five or six guns (the contents of which we shared with the enemy); and during the whole time (upwards of one hour) we were lashed together they were sailing ahead of us at about half a mile distance, although the crew of the Penelope went aft to their commander and told him it was a shame to see the Thetis so mauled and render no assistance: this was their report on board his Majesty's ship Centaur. At the conclusion of the fight a fortunate double-headed shot from our aftermost gun carried away the enemy's foremast, bowsprit, and maintopgallant-mast; upon which he cut us adrift, when we hauled our wind to the northward, with an intention to gain so far to windward as to get on his weather-side, where all the wreck was lying. On examining my crew, I found two killed and seven wounded, our sails and rigging so much cut that the ship was ungovernable; however, by uncommon exertions, we got her wore on the other tack, but only fetched under the enemy's lee, when we passed almost shaving her, and gave her two broadsides, at the same time receiving one from her which wounded two more men and disabled four guns. Afterwards spoke the Ceres, whose commander inquired into the state of our ship and men; he and his passengers drank my health, and he expressed himself more than once (through his trumpet), that he was very sorry it was not in his power to give us any assistance. I then urged a wish to further annoy the enemy, as she would be an easy capture. His answer was, "It is impossible; she has too many men." During this time, for about half an hour, the enemy was lying a complete log, while our consorts had received no damage. However, at length all three of us made sail together for her again, and engaged her at a distance for about an hour. My wounded being in great agony, I shaped a course for Barbadoes, where we all arrived next evening.