overbalanced by the loss of captain James Hume, commander of the Pluto
fire-ship, a brave accomplished officer, who, in an unequal combat with
the enemy, refused to quit the deck even when he was disabled, and fell
gloriously, covered with wounds, exhorting the people, with his latest
breath, to continue the engagement while the ship could swim, and acquit
themselves with honour in the service of their country.

ADMIRAL BRODERICK'S SHIP BURNT.

On the twenty-ninth day of May, the Raisonable, a French ship of the
line, mounted with sixty-four cannon, having on board six hundred and
thirty men, commanded by the prince de Mombazon, chevalier de Rohan,
was, in her passage from Port l'Orient to Brest, attacked by captain
Dennis, in the Dorsetshire, of seventy guns, and taken after an
obstinate engagement, in which one hundred and sixty men of the prince's
complement were killed or wounded, and he sustained great damage in his
hull, sails, and rigging. These successes were, moreover, chequered by
the tidings of a lamentable disaster that befel the ship Prince George,
of eighty guns, commanded by rear-admiral Broderick, in his passage to
the Mediterranean. On the thirteenth day of April, between one and two
in the afternoon, a dreadful fire broke out in the fore part of the
ship, and raged with such fury, that notwithstanding all the efforts of
the officers and men for several hours, the flames increased, and the
ship being consumed to the water's edge, the remnant sunk about six
o'clock in the evening. The horror and consternation of such a scene are
not easily described. When all endeavours proved fruitless, and no
hope of preserving the ship remained, the barge was hoisted out for
the preservation of the admiral, who entered it accordingly; but all
distinction of persons being now abolished, the seamen rushed into it in
such crowds, that in a few moments it overset. The admiral, foreseeing
that this would be the case, stripped off his clothes, and committing
himself to the mercy of the waves, was saved by the boat of a merchant
ship, after he had sustained himself in the sea a full hour by swimming.
Captain Payton, who was the second in command, remained upon the
quarter-deck as long as it was possible to keep that station, and then
descending by the stern ladder, had the good fortune to be taken into a
boat belonging to the Aklerney sloop. The hull of the ship, masts, and
rigging, were now in a blaze, bursting tremen