out to be French frigates. The hostile vessels continued to approach each other till within a couple of miles' distance, when the enemy suddenly bore up, and made all sail, going away large on different tacks. Captain Cunningham, selecting the most formidable one, which proved to be the Vestale, of 36 guns and 235 men, crowded every stitch of canvass, and came up with her at 1. 30. P. M. The Clyde now hoisted her colours, and fired a gun, upon which the Vestale displayed her flag, and answered the gun with a broadside. The Clyde warmly returned the salute, and then shot ahead, when her antagonist, endeavouring to run her on board, received a full raking broadside through the starboard bow. After some skilful manœuvres on both sides, a running fight was continued for nearly an hour*, without intermission, when the Frenchman struck, though not till his ship was dismantled and unmanageable, had received several shot between wind and water, and had suffered a loss of 10 killed and 22 wounded. The casualties on board the English frigate amounted to only 2 killed and 3 wounded, which was fortunate, as the French fire was well directed: indeed, the conduct of Citoyen Michel Pierre Gaspard, the captain of the Vestale, who had his lady on board, was decidedly such as to stamp him a gallant and judicious officer. The prize was found to be the same ship which, under Captain Foucard, had engaged the Terpsichore of 32 guns, commanded by the lamented Captain Richard Bowen, who fell at Teneriffe. Those ships had a desperate night action on the 12th of December, 1796, when the Vestale struck to her opponent, and was taken possession of by two officers and

"The Naval Chro

* The duration of this fight has been variously stated. nicle," vol. ii. p. 351., calls it fifteen minutes; James says, one hour fifty minutes; Brenton merely mentions that it was a severe action; Schomberg, that it was maintained with great gallantry on both sides; and Marshall, that it continued for nearly two hours. Our statement is from the testimony of Captain Christopher Bell, one of the few officers of the Clyde now surviving. This gentleman also decides the contested question as to the class of the Sagesse, he having served on board her, after she was taken by the Theseus, in the West Indies she was frigate built, mounting 20 guns on the main-deck, and 8 on the quarter-deck and forecastle.

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seven men; but, seizing the advantage of squally weather, they treacherously re-hoisted her colours, and escaped into Cadiz.

Having secured his prize, Captain Cunningham now directed his attention towards her consort, which was afterwards known to be the Sagesse, of 28 guns and 175 men. But she, instead of assisting her companion, had taken to Falstaff's maxim, and prudently cracked on all sail for the Garonne, which was invitingly before her; and, by the time the action was over, had got so much the start of the Clyde, that any pursuit of her would have been unavailing.

This exploit was highly creditable to the professional spirit of Captain Cunningham; for, although an action between an 18 and a 12 pounder frigate did not quite merit Lord Keith's eulogium of being "one of the most brilliant transactions which had occurred during the war," it was a successful result of coolness and manner; for the determination of Cunningham, before the force of the enemy was known, was such as to inspire his officers and crew with the highest confidence. They knew they could trust to him; and it is a pity that the Sagesse did not stand by her consort, and take her chance of being also towed into Plymouth. It is said that George III. was at one of the theatres when he was informed that the Clyde had chased two frigates, one of which she took, and drove the other into port. His Majesty, pleased at the good fortune of a ship so lately attending upon him, immediately stood up in his box, and commanded the news to be communicated to the audience; when "Rule Britannia" was loudly called for from every part of the house, and performed with reiterated applause.

The Clyde afterwards joined Earl St. Vincent, and the persevering Admiral Cornwallis. In the summer of 1800 she was employed in a close reconnoitre of the coasts of France and Spain, in order to afford opportunities to Mr. Serres, the marine painter, of sketching the various ports and headlands for the Admiralty. Mr. Serres, whose name has since been remarkable from his wife's assuming the style

and title of Princess Olive, executed his duty with singular skill, and some of the drawings bear witness to the activity of the Clyde in cutting out. In this year she took the Deux Amis, a Spanish privateer, of 4 guns and 27 men; two French schooners, La Rose and La Magicienne, as well as El Belez, a fine Spanish packet, pierced for 16 guns. In October of the same year she chased the Franchise, a French frigate of equal force, for forty-eight hours, but the latter escaped by throwing some of her guns overboard, and changing her course in a hazy squall. This would have been a rich prize, as she was filled with treasure, and the plunder of several Portuguese Brazilmen. The Clyde also retook an English Guineaman, the Dick, of 16 guns and 45 men, commanded by Captain W. Grahme. This vessel had fought a desperate action of more than seven hours with "La Grande Decide," a French privateer of 18 guns and 160 men, to whom she did not surrender till she was reduced to a mere wreck, with Grahme mortally, and 11 of his crew severely, wounded. The privateer had 27 killed and wounded. This gallantry made the Dick's men objects of much commiseration in the frigate, and all their wants were carefully attended to. Captain Cunningham showed every kindness to the wounded men, and entered them as supernumeraries, by which humane conduct they were comfortably lodged in the Naval Hospital, where all care was taken of them.

In the summer of 1801 Captain Cunningham was selected to command a squadron of frigates and smaller vessels in Concale Bay, for the protection of Guernsey, Jersey, and Alderney, from a threatened descent of the enemy. The extent of his station was from Havre de Grace to Bas Islet, a space of difficult and, in bad weather, perilous navigation. Except those who have commanded, few can judge of the anxious days and sleepless nights which such a charge occasions to its chief. On the 21st of July the Jason of 36 guns, one of the best ships of the squadron, struck on a sunken rock in the bay of St. Maloes, and was totally wrecked:

Captain the Honourable J. Murray and his people were saved, but made prisoners. No sooner did Commodore Cunningham receive intelligence of this disaster, than he sent in a flag of truce, and procured the liberation of the officers and ship's company by exchange. After this, finding that the enemy were preparing to float the wreck of the Jason, he resolved to deprive them of the advantage which might have resulted from the accident. Accordingly, on the 5th of August, seeing that they had succeeded in hauling her under the protection of two of their batteries, the boats of the squadron, under the orders of Lieutenant Mounsey, boarded the wreck, notwithstanding the formidable opposition presented by the batteries, a gun-brig, and seven flats, besides the rowing craft with which she was surrounded. But owing to the rising tide, all efforts to set her on fire proved abortive, and she was abandoned. It was afterwards resolved to blow her up; and on the following day the boats again proceeded to the wreck, while a diversion was made on the enemy's shipping in their favour. At half-past twelve o'clock she was boarded under a heavy fire from the batteries; at one, having made the requisite arrangements, and set fire to the train, they left the ship, and in thirty-five minutes after she was blown to atoms. The French were astonished at the explosion, for they thought the Commodore's object had been defeated, and it is not creditable that they suffered it, for they then had ready for sea two large frigates, three brigs, three cutters, and eight gun-boats, while our force was only one frigate, three brigs, and two luggers. The Jason was the second unlucky frigate of that name, and wrecked nearly in the same place, in less than three years.

Commodore Cunningham continued his duties, under the marked approbation of the Admiralty, till the treaty of Amiens; and the Clyde was paid off at the Great Nore on the 24th of June, 1802. On the recommencement of hostilities, the active services of our officer recommended him to immediate employment; he was therefore commissioned to the Princess.

of Orange, of 74 guns, and appointed to command a squadron off the Texel. Being relieved by Sir Sidney Smith, he was appointed for a particular duty to the Leopard, a fourth-rate ship. This was the termination of his career afloat, for, in September, 1803, the Hon. Captain J. Rodney, who had procured a lucrative post in Ceylon, resigned a seat at the Victualling Board, which was, without any solicitation on his part, offered to Cunningham by Earl St. Vincent, who had had good opportunities for observing his merit. In 1806 he became the resident commissioner of Deptford and Woolwich Dock-yards, and filled that arduous situation for a period of nearly seventeen years, during which his spirit and activity were manifested in all the various departments under his direction. In 1823, the establishments of Deptford and Woolwich being reduced, the commissioner was removed to Chatham Yard, from the superintendence of which he retired on the 4th of May, 1829, with the rank of Rear-Admiral, having thus almost incessantly served the public for fifty-four years. He was treated with the greatest attention by the authorities; and on the 24th of October, 1832, his Majesty conferred upon him the honour of English knighthood, and decorated him with all the insignia of Commander of the Royal Hanoverian Guelphic order. The loss of his son, a promising youth, who died while serving as a midshipman in 1822, was a severe blow to the Admiral's connection with the Navy; and he latterly resided with his daughters in retirement till, on the 11th of March, 1834, he closed a useful and exemplary life, in the eightieth year of his age, at his seat, Oak Lawn House, near Eye, in Suffolk.

Admiral Cunningham was a spare, well-built man, with hard but good features; of an active disposition, of firm principles and correct conduct. It certainly was not impossible to ruffle his temper; but his good sense and singleness of heart prevented its ebullitions from lasting. He enjoyed society, in which his conversation was various and animated: his attachments were warm and steady; whilst