As I passed under the stern of one of the ships of war in the Bay, with my prize colours flying, the officer on deck hailed me, and said I “had better shorten sail.”  I thought so too, but how was this to be done?  My whole ship’s company were too drunk to do it, and though I begged for some assistance from his Majesty’s ship, it blew so fresh, and we passed so quick, that they could not hear me, or were not inclined.  Necessity has no law.  I saw among the other ships in the bay a great lump of a transport, and I thought she was much better able to bear the concussion I intended for her than any other vessel; because I had heard then, and have been made sure of it since, that her owners (like all other owners) were cheating the government out of thousands of pounds a year.  She was lying exactly in the part of the Bay assigned for the prizes; and as I saw no other possible mode of “bringing the ship to anchor,” I steered for “the lobster smack,” and ran slap on board of her, to the great astonishment of the master, mate, and crew.

The usual expletives, a volley of oaths and curses on our lubberly heads, followed the shock.  This I expected, and was as fully prepared for as I was for the fall of my foremast, which, taking the foreyard of the transport, fell over the starboard quarter and greatly relieved me on the subject of shortening sail.  Thus, my pretty brig was first reduced to a sloop and then to a hulk; fortunately, her bottom was sound.  I was soon cut clear of the transport, and called out in a manly voice, “Let go the anchor.”

This order was obeyed with promptitude:  away it went sure enough; but the devil a cable was there bent to it, and my men being all stupidly drunk, I let my vessel drift athwart-hawse of a frigate; the commanding officer of which, seeing I had no other cable bent, very kindly sent a few hands on board to assist me; and by five o’clock I was safely moored in the Bay of Gibraltar, and walked my quarter-deck as high in my own estimation as Columbus, when he made the American islands.

But short, short was my power!  My frigate arrived the next morning.  The captain sent for me, and I gave him an account of my voyage and my disasters; he very kindly consoled me for my misfortune; and so far from being angry with me for losing my masts, said it was wonderful, under all circumstances, how I had succeeded in saving the vessel.  We lay only a fortnight at Gibraltar, when news arrived that the French had entered Spain, and very shortly after orders came from England to suspend all hostilities against the Spaniards.  This we thought a bore, as it almost annihilated any chance of prize-money; at the same time that it increased our labours and stimulated our activity in a most surprising manner, and opened scenes to us far more interesting than if the war with Spain had continued.

We were ordered up to join the admiral off Toulon, but desired to look into the Spanish port of Carthagena on our way, and to report the state of the Spanish squadron in that arsenal.  We were received with great politeness by the governor and the officers of the Spanish fleet lying there.  These people we found were men of talent and education; their ships were mostly dismantled, and they had not the means of equipping them.