ANECDOTES OF DISTINGUISHED BRITISH OFFICERS Continued from vol. xiv. p. 282, JAMES TRAVENEON, Esq. Captain of the first rank. JAMES TRAVENEON, a British naval officer who had been round the world with captain Cook, of profefsional merit, general knowledge, and amiable manners, was engaged in her imperial majesty's 'service in the year 1787, to go upon an expedition from Cronstadt to Kamtchatka, and lead her subjects from one extremity to the other of her vast empire by sea, an attempt which had not yet been made, even in this enterprising reign. But when all was ready for departure, and the commander had even taken leave, a sudden stop was put to it, (for a time at least,) by the unexpected breaking out of the Swedish war. Public report said, and that is all that can, or ought to be known of a secret expedition, that the commander, captain Molotsky was to conduct the division of the little squadron by the way of the Cape of Good Hope, whilst the captain of the second rank, Traveneon, the subject of this article, was to take charge of the other, by the more dangerous route of Cape Horn, which has lost so much of its terror since our great navigator pointed out the way to avoid its dangerous local influence, by keeping more out to sea. As the commander of this expedition fell with Traveneon in the Swedish war, I fhall just mention here, before taking leave of him, that the imperial navy sustained a great lofs in this promising officer, who had passed through a severe but judicious drill of maritime education, for a thorough seaman from the English coal trade, dignified by the name of Cook, to the royal navy; although his relations were powerful at home, and would have made him an officer in the Russian navy on setting out in his career, with more ease than an apprentice to an English coalier. Mr Traveneon's merit was early perceived, and he rose rapidly to the rank of captain of the first rank, equivalent to three years post in Britain; indeed he stood so well in the favour of his new sovereign, that nothing was wanting but time and length of days, to have carried him to the head of the navy, like his distinguished countryman, Greig, in whose footsteps he was treading fast. As all thoughts of the Kamtchatka expedition were laid aside till the end of the war, captain Traveneon disdaining inaction, offered to go out with admiral Greig, as commander of a ship of the line, where he gained deserved applause by his conduct and courage, not only in the first great battle against the Swedes in 1788, but likewise in the fortunate and fkilful execution of a service for which he was detached from the fleet by his admiral, with a flying squadron, when he took and burned a num、 ber of Swedish transports laden with provisions and stores; and was rewarded by the sovereign' with the fourth clafs of St George, the order of military merit. Next year he was singled out to command a secret expedition against the coast of Sweden, more formidable and dangerous for rocks and fhoals, than even the batteries he was ordered to attack. This he well knew; and desired, as was said, to take with him only frigates and smaller vefsels, fit for a service where the seamen's element was wanting, or a sufficient depth of water to perform all those skilful evolutions which distinguish the experienced officer, and insure the succefs of his attack. In this he was over-ruled. by public report, if not in council; and he set out with three fhips of the line, four frigates, and ten smaller vefsels carrying from eight to ten guns. He executed the business he was sent on very completely, taking all the three little forts or batteries, and bringing away their guns; but the treacherous hidden, as well as visible rocks, which kept him in continual alarm for his larger vefsels, (and which would have probably deprived him of the greater part had the weather been tem *The writer of these anecdotes must be understood to pretend to no secret information of any transaction mentioned in them, more than government thought fit to publish, so that he offers them as the news of the period they happened in, according to public report, in which point of view, not only this, but every other species of information from Russia must be seen, where there is no opposition to pry into and make public the secrets of government, the salvation or scourge of Britain for its sins, according to the nature of the intelligence. pestuous,) swallowed up a fhip of the line, which dragging her anchors, swung upon a rock, and was lost. This captain Traveneon probably was the lefs affected at, as it was scarce thought pofsible by real seamen to escape such an accident in such a situation; but a more severe and unexpected trial was reserved for him, when all the apparent dangers of the expedition were thought over, in the lofs of his own ship on his return home, whilst under the direction of the master or pilot, according to the rules of the service, in passing between the is, land of Narge, and the coast of Livonia. It struck on a bank, very seldom dangerous when certain winds have not so long prevailed as to diminish greatly the water in the Gulph of Finland; nay, it was proved in the trial which it gave origin to, that the whole Rufsian fleet had sailed over it the year before. This second stroke fell heavy on captain Trave neon's mind, although by no means on his reputation, from a circumstance that does him much honour, which was the taking upon himself the lofs of the first he had no hand in, (nor in fact in the second,) lest the disagreeable, though unavoidable accident, might have hurt the reputation of the young Rufsian captain who commanded her; so that by the second disaster of the same kind, our countryman's name stood on the report as loser of two fhips of the line, a trying situation for a foreigner; but it had no influence on Catharine, who felt the full effect and merit of his bold, well execu ted expedition, and rewarded him with a gold hilted sword on his coming up to court. In the month of August 1790 another squadron was ordered to be got ready for a second secret expedition, under the command of captain Traveneon; but whilst it was preparing, our indefatigable seaman, although in a very bad state of health, took the command of a single fhip to range under the flag of admiral Cruse, and again distinguished himself in all the three battles fought against the Swedes commanded by the king's brother, the duke of Sudermania. For these actions her imperial majesty rewarded him with the third clafs of the order of Wilodemer, still a higher step than the former in the honours of knighthood. The naval campaign still remaining highly interesting, and even critical, we find captain Traveneon for the last time in the command of a ship of the line, though still in a very bad state of health, at the affair of Weyburg Bay, when the Swedes rushed out from the dangerous situation where they had been so long pent up by the Rufsian fleet. Here our able seaman, seeing the absolute impofsibility of preventing their escape in the position the fleet had taken, slipt his cables, and ran up to the first that came out, where he received a shot, which by carrying away a large portion of the muscles of the thigh, occasioned his death some days after, although great hopes were entertained of his recovery at first, probably frustrated chiefly by his general bad state of health. The same ball killed a midshipman, and took off the leg of his lieutenant before it struck the |