more remarkable instance of desperate
courage than that which was exerted in December of the preceding year,
by the officers and crew of an English privateer, named the Terrible,
under the command of captain William Death, equipped with twenty-six
carriage guns, and manned with two hundred sailors. On the twenty-third
day of the month he engaged and made prize of a large French ship from
St. Domingo, after an obstinate battle, in which he lost his own brother
and sixteen seamen; then he secured with forty men his prize, which
contained a valuable cargo, and directed his course to England; but in
a few days he had the misfortune to fall in with the Vengeance, a
privateer of St. Maloes, carrying thirty-six large cannon, with a
complement of three hundred and sixty men. Their first step was to
attack the prize, which was easily retaken; then the two ships bore down
upon the Terrible, whose main-mast was shot away by the first broadside.
Notwithstanding this disaster, the Terrible maintained such a furious
engagement against both as can hardly be paralleled in the annals of
Britain. The French commander and his second was killed, with two-thirds
of his company; but the gallant Captain Death, with the greater part of
his officers, and almost his whole crew, having met with the same fate,
his ship was boarded by the enemy, who found no more than twenty-six
persons alive, sixteen of whom were mutilated by the loss of leg or arm,
and the other ten grievously wounded. The ship itself was so shattered,
that it could scarce be kept above water, and the whole exhibited a
scene of blood, horror, and desolation. The victor itself lay like
a wreck on the surface; and in this condition made shift, with great
difficulty, to tow the Terrible* into St. Maloes, where she was not
beheld without astonishment and terror.

* There was a strange combination of names belonging to this
privateer; the Terrible, equipped at Execution Dock,
commanded by captain Death, whose lieutenant was called
Devil, and who had one Ghost for surgeon.

This adventure was no sooner known in England, than a liberal
subscription was raised for the support of Death's widow, and that
part of the crew which survived the engagement. In this, and every sea
reincounter that happened within the present year, the superiority in
skill and resolution was ascertained to the British mariners; for even
when they fought against great odds, their courage was ge