“And am, your very humble servant,
“Francis Wm. Austen.
“To Robert Dudley Oliver, Esq.,
“Captain of H.M. Ship Mermaid.
“Return of killed and wounded in an action between his Britannic Majesty’s sloop Peterel, Francis Wm. Austen, Esq., Commander, and the French national brig La Ligurienne, commanded by François Auguste Pelabon, lieutenant de vaisseau.
“Peterel: Killed, none; wounded, none.
“La Ligurienne: Killed, the captain and one seaman; wounded, one gardemarin and one seaman.
“(Signed) Francis Wm. Austen.”
The captures, “as per margin,” are of a French bark, name unknown, about two hundred and fifty tons, and of a French bombarde, La Vestic, about one hundred and fifty tons, both laden with wheat, and both abandoned by their crews on the Peterel’s attack.
PETEREL IN ACTION WITH LA LIGURIENNE NEAR MARSEILLES, MARCH 21, 1800
If, as is stated, La Ligurienne was intended to go to Egypt, it seems not improbable that the reason for her peculiar construction was that she might be taken to pieces, carried across the desert, and launched again in the Red Sea, there to take part in an attempt on India.