work was
properly executed. The amount of shot likely to be required was next
passed down into the boats and carefully stowed upon the bottom-boards,
every precaution being taken to provide against it breaking adrift with
the rolling and pitching of the boats. The chests containing cartridges
for the guns and ammunition for the small-arms were next passed in and
stowed, and finally a couple of beakers of water were placed in each
boat, together with a small quantity of spirits for use, if necessary,
in reviving the wounded. This completed the preparation of the boats
for the projected expedition, and was done by the ordinary crews of the
boats, the fighting crews meanwhile busying themselves in examining the
flints of their pistols, fitting new ones where necessary, loading the
pistols and sharpening their cutlasses.

At length the coxswains reported the boats ready, whereupon the officers
told off to command them went down the side and carefully inspected
them, satisfying themselves that nothing had been forgotten. Then the
members of the expedition were mustered on the quarter-deck and
inspected by the first lieutenant, who examined each man's weapons and
equipment before passing him for service. The officers appointed to
proceed upon the expedition were Mr Adair, the first lieutenant, in
charge of the launch and in supreme command of the entire expedition;
Mr Trimble, the master, in charge of the yawl; Mr Purvis, the gunner,
in the first cutter; and Mr O'Donnel, the boatswain, in the second. In
addition to these there also went Mr Burroughs, the assistant surgeon,
and myself in the launch, and a midshipman in each of the other boats.
As I anticipated the possibility of hot work before all was done, I took
the precaution to discard my dirk and to provide myself, in place
thereof, with a ship's cutlass and a pair of loaded pistols.

The inspection at length satisfactorily ended, the first lieutenant
reported to the Captain that all was ready; the Captain--who had already
arranged his plans with the officers commanding--gave the word to man
boats and shove off, and in another couple of minutes we had started,
and the frigate had filled away and was heading to seaward.

Not so the boats. The Captain and Mr Adair, discussing together the
plan of operations, had come to the conclusion that it would not be of
the slightest use to attempt to bring out the Indiaman in the face of
those two batteries which had already