| On May 31st, cruising off Oneglia, he [Nelson] chased six French vessels under a battery. The Meleager, Agamemnon, Petrel and Speedy, anchored close in, with only a few inches of water under them, and silenced the battery; and then the boats, in spite of the fire from three 18-pounders in the French ketch Genie, and one 18-pounder in a gunboat, [Number 12] carried both. The other four vessels, which were transports, had, in the meantime, run themselves ashore, yet they were not only taken, but also brought off, in the face of a heavy musketry fire from the beach. The British loss was but one killed and three wounded. The transports were full of guns and stores destined for employment at the siege of Mantua, operations against which city, it is believed, failed mainly in consequence of the non-arrival of these supplies. |