name is won. In the less dazzling duties of his profession, which were all that fortune put it in his power to exercise, no man could be more assiduous. When commander-in-chief in the Baltic, he used every possible means to procure for his country a complete knowledge of that dangerous and intricate navigation. For this purpose he took uncom. mon pains to compile an accurate chart of the Baltic, and thus laid the foundation of that knowledge which has rendered the navigation of it less difficult than that of the Thames.

Sir Chaloner Ogle.

DIED A. D. 1750.

THIS officer was the descendant of a very ancient and respectable Northumbrian family. Of the earlier part of his services no mention is made, but we find him promoted on the 14th of March, 1708, from the Wolfe sloop of war, to the rank of post-captain in the navy, by appointment to the Tartar frigate, then on the Mediterranean station. In this occupation he met with considerable success, having made two or three valuable prizes; but, after the cessation of hostilities, he is no otherwise noticed, than as having, in the year 1717, commanded the Worcester, a fourth rate of fifty guns, sent that season with the fleet into the Baltic.

He particularly distinguished himself by the capture of Roberts the pirate, and his whole squadron, in April, 1722. Ogle was at that time captain of the Swallow, a fourth rate, and cruising off the coast of Africa, in search of the marauders, when he received intelligence that they were in a bay close to Cape Lopez. He immediately took in his lower tier of guns, and adopted every method possible to disguise the Swallow, so that it might pass with his desperate antagonists for a merchant-vessel. On standing in for the shore, he discovered the ships he was in quest of, the largest, commanded by Roberts himself, mounting forty guns, and the smallest carrying twenty-four. They were both lying high up in the bay, on their heel, the men being employed cleaning their bottoms. Captain Ogle's stratagem was so successful that the pirates were deceived into the belief that the Swallow was an unarmed ship, or at most a vessel of inconsiderable force. Roberts immediately made a signal for the only ship which was in a condition for immediate service, to slip its cable, and run out after the Swallow. This vessel mounted thirty-two guns, and was commanded by one Skyrm, a man of much resolution and intrepidity. Captain Ogle conducted himself through the whole of this difficult business with so much specious timidity, that he decoyed the pirate to a considerable distance, and then suddenly tacked upon his antagonist, and brought him to action. Skyrm himself was wounded by the first broadside, but such was the desperation with which his people fought, well-knowing the ignominious death which awaited them if taken, that they did not surrender till after an action of an hour and a half's continuance. Captain Ogle, after having taken possession of his prize, hoisted the black flag over the king's colours, and returned to the bay where he had left Roberts and his companion. These having in the interim, righted their ships, and being

deceived by the appearance of their comrade's success, immediately stood out of the bay to congratulate their companion on his conquest. Their mistake, however, was of short duration; for the Swallow captured them both, after a contest of two hours' continuance, in which Roberts himself was killed. The three prizes were carried into St Thomas's, and the prisoners to Cape Coast Castle, where they were tried. Seventy-four received sentence of death, of which number fiftytwo were executed: the greater part of them being afterwards hung in chains along the coast, as a terror to future depredators of the same class.

The conduct of Captain Ogle in this affair, and the success which attended it, was so highly approved of, that immediately after his return to England, the honour of knighthood was conferred on him; but he does not appear to have accepted any subsequent command till the year 1729, when he was appointed to the Burford, a third rate, one of the fleet collected at Spithead, under the orders of Sir Charles Wager. With the same admiral he again served in 1731, on his expedition to the Mediterranean and Leghorn, being at that time captain of the Edinburgh. Except in the instances just mentioned, he does not appear to have held any other commission previous to his advancement to the rank of a flag-officer.

On the 11th of July, 1739, he was appointed rear-admiral of the blue; and, having hoisted his flag on board the Augusta, was ordered to proceed to the Mediterranean, with twelve ships of the line, for the purpose of reinforcing Haddock's division. Nothing material took place during his absence on this service. Immediately after his return to England, he was sent out on a summer cruise into the Atlantic, as third in command of the fleet under the orders of Sir John Norris. On his return into port, he was ordered to take upon him the command of a considerable armament, fitted out to reinforce Vernon, preparatory to the attack on the Spanish settlements in the West Indies. Having accordingly shifted his flag from the Shrewsbury of eighty guns, to the Russel of the same force, he sailed from Spithead on the 26th of October, with a fleet of twenty-four ships of the line, one of fifty guns, several store and fire ships, and upwards of one hundred and fifty transports.

On the 19th of June, 1744, he was advanced to be admiral of the blue. He remained in the West Indies till the following year, but neither the Spaniards nor the French having any naval force for him to contend with, and he himself having neither a land-force sufficient to support, nor instructions to undertake any enterprise against their settlements, the whole of the period during which he was commanderin chief on the above station was consumed merely in cruising for the protection of commerce, except in the attacks made on La Guira and Porto-Cavallo, in neither of which Sir Chaloner was personally engag

ed. Having shifted his flag on board the Cumberland, he returned to Europe, and arrived at Spithead, with three other ships of the line, and a small convoy of merchant-vessels, early in the month of June, 1744. In the month of September, he was appointed president of the courtmartial assembled on board the London, in the river Medway, for the trials of Admirals Mathews and Lestock, with the captains and other officers, against whom different charges had been made relative

to the miscarriage in the action off Toulon. He sat as president only till the conclusion of the trials of the lieutenants and captains. The court was afterwards removed to Deptford, and Sir Chaloner was succeeded by Rear-admiral Mayne.

After this he does not appear to have accepted any naval command, or to have appeared in any public station whatever. He was, on July 15th, 1747, advanced to be admiral of the white squadron; and to the still higher rank of admiral of the fleet, on the 10th of July, 1749. The latter advancement he did not long enjoy, dying some time in the year 1750.

Admiral Mathews.

BORN A. D. 1670.-DIED a. D. 1751.

THIS brave but unfortunate naval officer was the descendant of an ancient Welsh family, in the county of Glamorgan. He received a captaincy in the navy in 1703, when he was appointed to the command of the Yarmouth. In 1707 he was captain of the Dover, then cruising in soundings, under Commodore Evans, in which service he captured a French frigate. Next year, he joined the squadron under Lord Dursley, and had the good fortune to capture the Glorieux, a French ship of war.

In 1718 he commanded the Kent, a fine vessel of seventy guns, in the Mediterranean fleet, under Sir George Byng. In the engagement with the Spanish fleet off Messina, he greatly distinguished himself by the capture of the St Carlos, and by the aid he gave Captain Master of the Superb, in capturing the Spanish admiral, the San Philip. In the succeeding month of January, he was appointed to cruise off Pontemilia, with the view of preventing the escape of Rear-admiral Cammock. So active and diligent was he in this service that he captured a frigate, drove the Santa Rosalia of sixty-four guns ashore, and nearly took the rear-admiral himself.

In 1722 he was sent with a small squadron to the East Indies, whence he returned in 1724. His name does not appear again in the maritime annals of his country until 1736, when we find him holding a resident commissionership of the navy at Chatham. On the 12th of March, 1741, he was appointed vice-admiral of the red; and on the 25th of the same month was named commander-in-chief in the Mediterranean, and minister-plenipotentiary to the king of Sardinia and the States of Italy. Having hoisted his flag on board the Namur of ninety guns, he sailed for Gibraltar, where he was joined by the force under the command of Admiral Lestock. His services at this period were of great importance. The conveyance of stores and provisions, under the customary and stale pretence of neutral flags, was immediately restrained, and at last annihilated, by the judgment of the vice-admiral in stationing his cruisers, and their diligence in executing his orders. Moreover, all attempts to convey naval stores into the Spanish ports, through the medium of light vessels and galleys, drawing little water, which, keeping along shore, pushed occasionally into neutral ports when hard pressed, to seek a better opportunity of again escaping, were also totally put an

end to by following them into the very harbours whither they had fled for refuge. The blockade of the fleet of Spain, which had sheltered itself in Toulon, and that of the French ships also, which had been equipped for the purpose of reinforcing it, was undertaken by Mathews himself; who, by repairing to Villa-Franca, and keeping constant cruisers off the Hieres islands, as well as off Toulon, confined the powerful armaments of the enemy, and prevented the actual declaration of war on the part of France, for the space of eighteen months. "Admiral Mathews," says a contemporary account, "when joined by Rear-admiral Rowley with a strong reinforcement, had a very formidable force with him; but it is asserted by some that the combined force of France and Spain consisted of thirty-six ships of the line, which he confined to the port of Toulon, by detaching his two rear-admirals, Rowley and Lestock, to cruise off the islands of Hieres, with twenty-four ships." By cruising on the coast of Provence, and continuing at Villa-Franca, he considerably impeded the operations of the Spanish army. A letter from Florence, dated June 16th, 1742, has the following paragraph:-" By letters from Nice, we understand that they are making all possible preparations in that neighbourhood, for opposing the passage of the Spanish troops from Provence, and are greatly assisted therein by the English Vice-admiral Mathews, who continues to lie with part of his fleet at Villa-Franca." In the month of August, in consequence of his Sicilian majesty's having sent a body of troops to join the Spanish army, the vice-admiral detached Commodore Martin, with five ships of the line, four bomb-ketches and their tenders, to Naples. His appearance created much alarm; but his firmness, joined to his moderation, effected the purpose of compelling the recall of the Neapolitan troops, without his being compelled to have recourse to a bombardment. On the return of Commodore Martin to the fleet, he was immediately despatched to the town of Arassa, in the Genoese territories, where it was reported considerable magazines had been formed for the use of the Spanish army. The intelligence proved true, and the whole contents of the depot were accordingly destroyed. About the same time, the vice-admiral hearing that a Spanish ship of the line lay at anchor at Ajaccio, in the island of Corsica, he sent thither the Ipswich, and another ship of war, to take or destroy her, The Spaniards prevented, however, the necessity of an attack, by setting fire to this ship themselves. The operations of the year 1743 were of the same nature with the preceding. The French and Spanish squadrons ventured not beyond the protection of the batteries which covered them; and the British fleet continued to give law on the Mediterranean. The consequences of this state of things were, the prevention of the Spanish army in Italy from taking the field; the chastisement of the Genoese, who were secretly and most dangerously attached to the Spanish cause; and the preservation of the territories of the king of Sardinia from insult and invasion.

In August, 1743, Mathews was made admiral of the blue. The governments of France and Spain, weary of the blockade of their fleets in Toulon, at last ordered them to put to sea. M. De Court arrived at Toulon, in the month of January, and assumed the command of the combined fleet. On the 8th of February, 1744, they were perceived The British fleet instantly got under weigh also, and

to be under sail.

two days were spent on both sides in manœuvring for the advantage of situations. The number of ships in each line was equal; but Mathews had a reserve of six fifty-gun ships, to supply the place of such of his line as might be disabled. On the 11th, the English commander gave the signal to engage; but it was not repeated by Lestock, the second in command, whose division, it would seem, was yet considerably astern. An opportunity was thus lost of striking a very decisive blow; and Mathews was so dissatisfied with Lestock's conduct, that he laid him under arrest, and sent him to England in the Salisbury. On his arrival in England, Lestock retaliated on his principal, by accusing him of rashness and precipitation. He said that "the night before the engagement he brought to, in obedience to the admiral's night signal but that, at break of day, by reason of the wind's shifting, and the indraught of the tides, he found himself at a greater distance from the main body than he expected; that about eight he had an account from the admiral, by Mr Jasper, his first lieutenant, that he would lay by till he could join him with his division, in place whereof the admiral made more sail, and sent Lieutenant Knowles to order him to do the same, though he had then crowded all he could carry; that he did all he possibly could to get up with the sternmost of the Spanish squadron, and even fired a broadside at the Isabella, being the hindmost, but could not prevent her going ahead of him; that he did all in his power to assist the admiral, whose rashness and precipitation in engaging the enemy, before the line of battle was formed, contrary to the rules of war, and the practice of our best admirals, rendered his attempts to succour and support him fruitless; that this conduct in Mr Mathews was the more inexcusable, as he was under no necessity of hurrying ou the action, since, by the disposition of the French and Spanish admirals, it plainly appeared they were resolved to fight; that it was unaccountable the admiral should take such precautions not to let the enemy escape us, when our fleet was not formed in order of battle, and they lay prepared for us before the engagement; and, though we had the advantage of disabling some of their ships, and burning another, that he should become of a sudden more cautious, by bringing to in order of battle, at a much greater distance, without sending out any cruisers to observe their motions; therefore, the sole miscarriage was chargeable on the admiral, who, by his imprudence in fighting at first at such a disadvantage, had endangered the whole fleet intrusted to his command, and afterwards, by a quite contrary conduct, suffered the enemy to escape out of his hands."

In consequence of these charges, Mathews was ordered home, and a parliamentary investigation followed, which terminated in an address to his majesty for the appointment of a court-martial on the parties. After a very long scrutiny, Lestock was honourably acquitted, while Mathews was declared incapable of holding any further employment in the king's service. The result was by no means satisfactory either to the country or to the king himself. The accusation as to engaging an enemy before the line of battle was formed, seems to have been of little weight, for it is a course of proceeding that has been adopted by some of our most eminent naval commanders. The insinuation that the French and Spanish admirals were resolved to fight, was expressly denied by Mathews, who said he was fully convinced they would never