I and a few others of his old hands lived on shore, keeping a look-out
for when he should get another command. We were afraid of being
pressed, and made to serve somewhere away from him. One and all of us
were ready enough to fight for our king and our country, provided we
could fight under him. We had not long to wait. We soon got news that
the `Vanguard' was to be commissioned to carry Sir Horatio Nelson's flag
to join the Mediterranean fleet under Earl Saint Vincent. That was in
the year 1798.

"We sailed from Gibraltar on the 9th of May with three line-of-battle
ships, four frigates, and a sloop of war, to look after the French
fleet, which consisted of thirteen ships of the line, seven frigates,
twenty-four smaller ships of war, and a fleet of transports, bound, as
we afterwards learned, for Egypt. If the French had conquered that
country, they would have gone on, there is no doubt of it, to attack our
possessions in India. The admiral, I dare say, knew the importance of
stopping that French fleet. In spite of their numbers we did not fear
them. Proud we were of our ship, and prouder still was our admiral of
her and her crew and the fleet he commanded. While we were in the Gulf
of Lyons, after it had been blowing hard all day, it came on one dark
night to blow harder still, and, without warning, first our main and
then our mizen-topmast went over the side, and lastly the foremast went
altogether, so that we no longer could carry sail on it. What a
crippled wreck we looked in the morning! There was a thick fog: not one
of the squadron could be seen. We were boasting the day before that we
were ready to meet more than an equal number of the finest ships the
French could bring against us; and now we lay docked of our wings, and
scarcely able to contend with the smallest frigate. Providence was
watching over us, and we had good reason to believe this when some time
afterwards we learned that that very day the French fleet sailed from
Toulon, and passed within a few miles of us, while we were hid from them
by the fog. At last Captain Ball, in the `Alexander,' came up, and
towed us into the harbour of San Pietro in Sardinia, where in four days,
with the aid of his and other two ships' companies, we got completely
refitted and ready for sea. Away we went in search of the French fleet,
with General Bonaparte himself on board. We heard of the French at
Gozo, and our admiral would have attacked them there, bu