1808	Light Squadrons and Single Ships	36

roads, with the body of her late gallant and much lamented captain on board.

On the 19th of May, at 4 p.m., in latitude 46� north, longitude 14� west, the British 38-gun frigate Virginie, Captain Edward Brace, standing on the starboard tack with the wind at north-east, saw and chased a sail in the north-north-west. At 4 h. 30 m. p.m. the strange sail, which was the Dutch frigate Guelderland, already named as the object of the Tartar's search, bore away. At 7 h. 40 m. p.m. the Virginie, coming up fast fired a gun to leeward : on which the Guelderland fired one to windward, and hoisted French colours. At 9 h. 45 m. p.m. the: Virginie hailed the Guelderland; who, shifting her colours replied that she was a Dutch ship of war.

Being now called upon to strike, and refusing, the Guelderland was fired into by the Virginie, and an action forthwith commenced. During its continuance the Dutch frigate wore three times, and, in attempting to do so the fourth time, fell on board her opponent ; but the night was so dark, and the swell so great, that the British could not act as on such occasion they are wont. After an hour and a half's contest, in which she had her bowsprit and all three masts shot away by the board, and sustained a very heavy loss in killed and wounded, the Guelderland struck her colours to the Virginie ; whose principal damage was that caused by the former's running foul of her. The Guelderland, soon after she had struck, caught fire, but, through the firm discipline of the enemy," says Captain Brace, " the fire was extinguished " before the Virginie's boats could get on board to rescue the prisoners.

The Virginie came out of the action with so trifling a loss as one man killed and two men wounded ; while that of the Guelderland, whose crew numbered 253, exclusive of 23 passengers, amounted to 25 officers and men killed, and 50, including her commander, severely wounded.

Against such a superiority as existed in this action, to delay surrendering until the ship was wholly dismasted, and three tenths of her crew killed or disabled, showed that there was no want of bravery in the Dutch frigate. There appears, however, to have been one exception among the persons on board ; and that, shame to say, the captain himself. On the 28th of November, 1810, Colonel de mer Pool, late captain of the Guelderland frigate, was tried by a court-martial at Amsterdam, for having, during that ship's action with the Virginie, quitted his quarters after receiving two slight wounds, one in the face, the other in the hand. By the sentence that followed, he was dismissed the service, declared perjured and infamous, and banished for life. *

In the art of gunnery, the Dutchmen appear to have been

* Moniteur, December 14, 1810

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