Page 263 - INDIANNAVYV1

HISTORY OF THE INDIAN NAYY. 231

The Bombay Marine, under the command of that able and
energetic officer, Captain R. Deane, of the ' Malabar,' co-operated
with zeal and efficiency in the operations ending in the sur-
render of the island, and Admiral Bertie made honourable
mention of the commanders, officers, and crews, in a separate
letter of thanks. But, nevertheless, strange as it may seem,
the Admiral made no reference in his despatches to the Service,
so that the future historian .could not even gather from these
records that any vessel of the Bombay Marine participated in
the expedition and, indeed, the effect of this omission
; is
apparent in the pages of James, the naval historian of the
Revolutionary War, who particularizes the names of " gun-
brigs," and " Government vessels," but makes no allusion to
the well-equipped squadron of Company's ships, which, having
shortly before returned from completing their task of breaking
up a notorious nest of pirates in the Persian Gulf, for which
they had received the cordial thanks of the Bombay Govern-
ment and the hearty acknowledgments of the senior naval
officer, Commodore Wainwright of the British Navy, were des-
patched to participate in the reduction of the Island of IMauritius.
A good idea of the gallant service performed by the Bombay
Marine during the Revolutionary War, will be gathered from
some extracts which we will make from a work, published by a
late officer of the Service, entitled "A Narrative of the Earl}'
Life and Services of Captain D. IMacdonahl, Indian Navy."
Captain D. Macdonald, brother of Sir John Kinneir Macdonald,
sometime British Envoy to the Persian Court, went out to
India to join the Service in 1799, in the ' Scaleby Castle,' and,
after a long passage, during which a malignant fever carried off
no less than one hundred and eighty seamen and soldiers of
the o4th Regiment, arrived at Bombay in the sununer of 1800.
On recovering his health, wiiich had suffered severely from the
fever, he was appointed to the sloop-of-war ' Mornington,' fitting
out under the command of Captain Richardson, for the especial
service of the Supreme Government, then administered by
Lord Mornington, afterwards Marquis Wellesley. She had been
recently launched and equipped, and, says Mr. ]\lacdonald,
" in those days of naval architecture, was considered by all
competent authorities, a beautiful sjiecimcn of her class ; her
armament consisted of twenty o2-i)ounders and four long Im-
pounders."
The ' Mornington' sailed from Bombay about the end of
September, with despatches for Vice-Admiral Rainier, the
Naval Commander-in-chief in India, and, having en route lauded,
at Tellicherry, General Carnac, an octogenarian warrior who
had borne a conspicuous part in the wars of Clive aud Warren
Hastings, and looked into Trincomalee, proceeded toMa<lras. The
Admiral having left Madras Roads, his despatches were luuidtd