Chap. XIV. during the Reign os §gteen Ann

1710. Soon after the Kent , commanded by?he Superbe Captain R obert Johnson, came up with*f Wen ta- ^ ie l ar g e ft of these Ships, which prov-ien. ed to be the Superbe, a Man of War of

fix and fifty Guns, which after about anHour’s Engagement he took (e)

Sir John Norrisst ProceedingsMediterranean, (f)

m

the

John

Morris ar-at

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e Frenchthe

e mbroke,

l nd the Fal-Ct >a.

Sir John Norris sailed from Plymouth ,the twelfth of January, and arrived atPort-Mahon the thirteenth of March, (g)where he joined Sir Edward Whitaker,and the Dutch Rear-Admiral Somers-dyke\ And from thence he sent threeEnglish and two Dutch Ships to Barce-lona, with the Publick Mony, Recruits,&c. And four Third-Rates, whichwere in the Worst Condition to remainabroad, he sent home. ( R) While hewas at Port-Mahon, hereceivedAdvice,that the Pembroke, of sixty-four Guns,and the Falcon of thirty-two, had beentaken by three French Men of War ofseventy, sixty, and fifty-four Guns: (/)

And that two of our Men of War, the 1710.PKarspight , Captain Crow, and the Bre-^nd two Br.da, Captain Long, had taken a French ^ssMan of War, called the Moor. (k) Moor.

The seventh of April, Sir John failed-^ John ar-from Port-Mahon , and, the eleventh,arrived at Barcelona. (J) Little wasdone, except carrying the Viceroy toSardinia, and appointing Ships to seve*ral Stations, to protect the Trade, andcruise upon the Enemy, ’till the first ofJune, when Sir John set Sail, with fourEnglish and six Dutch Ships, and two Salh to theImperial Regiments, to hinder the De- ^dimasscent intended by the Enemy on the I-siand of Sardinia. The second, theycame before Bajiia in Corsica, where alittle French Ship, coming from theArchipelago, upon the Approach of ourFleet, retired under the Canon of thatPlace. The Admiral sent in some Boats, ^ Fr. Shipwhich brought her off, but the Men es J a ^ en>caped. The fifth, they came into theBay of Terra Nova, in Sardinia, wherethey took four of the Enemy’s Tartans ; Fottr 0 f t i e(m) And having succeeded here, to Enemy'stheir Wish, and finding no farther Dan- Tartans ta-

ger e8 ' ‘

the Ships he had seen the Day before were four-teen Merchant-ships bound for the Bank of New-foundland and Martinica , under Convoy of theSuperbe, a French Man of War of fix and fiftyGuns, and the Concord of thirty, and that theShip a-head, which our Cruizerswere pursuing,Was the former of them.

(e) The Superbe was a noted Sailor, which hadtaken several Prizes from us, and had been oftenchased to no Purpose; But had now been threeMonths off of the Ground j She was a beautifulShip, but eighteen Months old, and better man-ned than the Kent ; But, by the Bravery and Con-duct of Captain Johnson , was obliged to strike, af-ter both Ships were very much shattered. Shewas afterwards registered in our Royal Navy.

(/) Mr. Secretary Burchett, immediately afterhis Account of the Lord Durfley’s Proceedings inthe Soundings, which he carries to May the. ninth,1710. gives an Account of an Expedition of SirJohn Norris ’s to the Baltick, to intercept someFrench Men of War, and Merchant-Ships, com-ing from thence, laden with Corn: And as he on-ly mentions the Months of June and July, with-out assigning any Fear, one would naturally con-clude it was this Year 1710. especially as he men-tions him to have then been Admiral of the Blue,which he was not, 'till November, 1709. But heremust be a double Mistake ; For, as he was all theYear 1710. and almost all the Year 1711. j n t heMediterranean, this Expedition must have beenin 1709. And then he could not have been Admi-ral of the Blue, at the Time of the Expedition :As this Eaterprize, however, ended in nothing(tho' Sir John did all that was or could be expect-ed from him) I forbear giving any farther Ac-count of it.

(g) He had, in his Passage, seen the Virginia,and Weft-India Trades, with their Convoy, wellinto Sea.

(h) The Ships which could remain abroad, un-der Sir John Morris’s Command, were, at this

Time, disposed as follows: Two Fisth-Rates or-dered to Lisbon to clean, and to join him at Port-Mahon ; One Third-and one Fifth-Rate, sent bySir Edward Whitaker to Or an, in Barbary, toconvoy some Corn-Vessels to Barcelona, and ano-ther Frigat, on the like Errand, to Algiers. FiveThird-Rates, one Fourth, one Fifth, one Sixth-Rate, and . a Fire-ship, were with Vice-AdmiralBaker, in and about the Arches, which, withtwo Dutch Ships, were to convoy Corn fromthence, as we have seen above. One Third, andone Fourth-Rate ordered by Sir Edward Whit-aker, to cruise in the Phare of Messina , and oneSixth-Rate sent by him to Genoa. A Fifth-Ratewas going to Sardinia, and a Fourth, with twoFisth-Rates to Genoa, to fetch General Stanhope,and the Mony for the Army; And four Third-Rates, two Fourth-Rates, three Bomb-Vessels,and two Hospital-Ships were going with Sir JohnNorris to Barcelona.

(i) They defended themselves bravely, anddid not surrender, 'till Captain Rumfey , of thePembroke, was killed, a Hundred and forty of herMen killed and wounded, her Mizzen-Mast shotby the Board, and all her Rigging torn to Pieces,and Captain Constable of the Falcon wounded inthe Right Shoulder, (yet did not leave his Post)a great Number of her Men killed and maimed,and the Ship very much disabled.

(k) The Breda first came up, and had a shortbut warm Dispute with her, in which her Com-mander Was killed ; But as soon as the Isarspightcame up close under her Quarter, and was readyto board her, she struck.

(/) He was there informed, by His CatholickMajesty, that he had Advice the Enemy intendedto attempt Cagliari, with twenty Gashes, fiveShips, other small Vessels, and about three Thou-sand, five Hundred Men, who, therefore, desi-red him to endeavour to Frustrate this Design.

(m) These Tartans had landed four HundredMea asd sixty Officers, under the Command of

the

Annals ofA Ann,