uarter-deck guns pointed forward. The _Blanche_ having no stern-ports
on the main-deck could only return the fire by two quarter-deck
6-pounders. Lieutenant Watkins accordingly resolved to venture on the
somewhat hazardous experiment of blowing away part of the stern to allow
a couple of guns to be run out. The firemen were called with their
buckets ready to extinguish the flames should they burst out, and two
12-pounders being pointed astern in the cabin, soon made a clear breach,
through which a tremendous fire was opened on the _Pique's_ decks. The
French frigate had already lost her fore and mizen-mast, and about three
hours and a quarter after midnight, her main-mast fell over the side.
Thus the _Blanche_ continued towing along her antagonist, which,
notwithstanding the raking fire to which she was exposed, held out two
hours longer; when at length some of the French seamen who had climbed
on to the bowsprit cried out that they had struck. Neither of the
frigates being able to put a boat in the water, Mr David Milne, the
second lieutenant, and ten men, endeavoured to gain the prize by means
of a hawser still attached to her. Their weight, however, bringing it
down, they were compelled to swim on board. When the _Blanche_
commenced the action, she had but 198 men and boys on board; of these,
besides her gallant commander, she lost a midshipman, 5 seamen, and I
marine killed, and I midshipman, 4 petty officers, and 12 seamen, and 4
marines wounded. The _Pique_ had 279 men on board, of whom she lost 76
officers and men killed and 110 wounded, her brave captain, who soon
afterwards died from his hurts, being among the number. The _Blanche_
measured 710 tons and the _Pique_ 906, while the weight of her guns was
slightly in excess of that of the victor. The _Pique_ was added to the
British Navy, and Lieutenants Watkins and Milne were deservedly
promoted. About a quarter-of-an-hour after the action had ceased, just
after daylight, a 64-gun ship, the _Veteran_, was seen approaching, and
the French officers afterwards refused to sign the usual head-money
certificate unless the _Veteran_ was named as one of their captors,
though they afterwards withdrew their objections, which were absurd,
considering that though she had seen the flashes of their guns, she had
not caught sight of the combatants until the _Pique_ was in possession
of her captors.

The change which had some time before been proposed in the armament o