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HISTORY OF THE INDIAN NAVY. 209
though they generally managed to escape, owing to the inferior
sailing qualities of the Bombay ships.
Conspicuous among these actions was that fought hy the
Company's snow,* ' Intrepid,' Captain Hall. On the 22nd of
November, 1800, the ' Intrepid,' carrying ten guns (6-pounders),
fell in off Muscat with a French privateer of twelve guns (9
and 12-pounder carronades), when a desperate action took place
at less than pistol-shot range. Between 9.30, when the first
shot was fired, and 11.45 a.m., the enemy, well aware of his
vast superiority in men—the ' Intrepid,' being, as was usual
with the Company's cruisers, underhanded—made two attempts
to run her on board and throw an overpowering force on tlie
brig's decks. With consunmmte skill and coolness Captain
Hall manoeuvred his ship so as to bafHo his adversary, while he
maintained a well-directed fire from his guns. Shortly before
eleven the gallant officer received a mortal wound, but the
action was continued by his First-Lieutenant, I\Ir. Thomas
Smee, who was inspired by the indomitable resolution of his
commander. The men stood to their guns with equal spirit,
though latterly the action was fought within half pistol-shot,
and on each occasion that the privateersmen tried to board over
the stern, they repelled them with great slaughter. At length
the enemy found that they had met their match, and a little
before twelve, the Frenchman made all sail away. The
' Intrepid' was too much cut up aloft to give chase, but in half
an hour her officers and crew having, with commendable
smartness, refitted her rigging, bent new sails, and rove new
braces which had been shot away, she was under a press of
canvas in pursuit. The enemy, however, owing to her superior
sailing qualities, escaped. The ' Intrepid ' lost her captain,
who died on the 30th Noveujber, and five men killed, and both
her lieutenants, Messrs. Smee and l^est, ]\Ir. Harriott, midship-
man, the boatswain, and nineteen men wounded.
The crew with which this action was fought consisted of only
forty Europeans, two-thirds of whom were ]\Iariue Society's
boys from the 'Warspite,' and about the same number of Sepoys
and Lascars. When we consider the loss among the officers
and the numerical weakness of the crew, we maintain that
few actions more honourable to those concerned, are recorded
even in the annals of the British Navy, whose every page is
illumined with deeds of gallantry such as the world has not
seen equalled since the days of Greece and Rome. That the
'Intrepid' was so manoeuvred as to prevent the enemy from
carrying their intention of boarding into eff'ect, and that the
* A snow only differs from a brig in having the boom-maiiisail hooped to a
trysail mast, a spar which is unknown in a brig, but wliich is carried in a snow
close to tliO mainmast.
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VOL. I.