St Vincent's flag-lieutenant; and when the fleets were first descried, Johnny Gilpin, as his lordship used to call him, was sent to order the Penelope, a little hired cutter, to go, count, and dodge them. The lieutenant commanding the cutter was found too ill to utter an order. But Mr Maitland, well knowing his Chief, and that this was service which must be done, at once assumed the command, and got the vessel under weigh. He stood over to Ceuta. The night was so pitchy dark and so calm that the cutter was unperceived by the enemy, and yet so close among them that the words of command in French and Spanish could be distinctly heard. At daybreak she was about gunshot distance from the whole Spanish fleet. When they saw her their admiral signalled a number of launches to tow a brig of 14 guns to attack her, but on their arrival within shot from the little Penelope, the reception she astonished them with was so spirited that the enemy dropped astern again and retired; and a faint hope of escape appeared, for, there being no wind, the cutter's boats were kept ahead all the forenoon, towing to the southward. Then every ship in that mighty fleet, except one frigate, actually turned their heads to the southward to give chase to the cutter. But the frigate stood to the northward, and as the afternoon's westerly breeze got up, it brought her down under studding-sails near the Penelope, before the air had reached her. When she was within cable's length, the frigate opened her broadside fire. Mr Maitland told the cutter's crew to lie down upon the deck till the frigate had discharged all her guns. The men lay down very smartly; but when ordered to rise, splice the top-sail braces, and get the vessel's head about, not a man of them would stir. 'Fighting,' they said, 'was not their employ; they were not hired for it, and, should they lose a limb, there was no provision for them;' and thus the frigate now renewing her fire, the little Penelope was taken.

"To the honour of the Spanish admiral it must be added, that, having witnessed this bravery and heard that it was Lord St Vincent's flag-lieutenant that had displayed it, he sent Mr Maitland in a cartel to Gibraltar, declaring him free without exchange."

Tucker, who wrote in 1844, was not quite correct in saying that the anecdote was "as yet untold." It had been given long before in Marshall's Naval Biography. Marshall mentions, among other details, that "the Penelope had on board a sum of money intended for Minorca, which it was not deemed advisable to remove, under the pressing urgency for her immediate departure from Gibraltar. When her crew found there was no chance of escape from the combined fleets, they made an attempt to plunder the treasure, which Lieutenant Maitland most honourably and successfully resisted, alleging that as public property it was the lawful prize of the captors."

Lord St Vincent returned to England in August 1799, accompanied by Maitland. On reaching Portsmouth he heard of an explosion of shells which had taken place in May on board the Theseus, 74, resulting in the death of her commander, Captain Ralph Willet Miller. A vacancy had thus occurred in the Mediterranean before the admiral quitted that station. He used his privilege as commander-in-chief and promoted Maitland to the rank of commander in the Cameleon sloop-of-war, the promotion to date from June 14. Maitland at once went out to join his new ship, which was then on the coast of Egypt under Sir Sidney Smith. After the signing of the convention of El Arish he was sent home with despatches. He returned and regained his ship, in which he made several captures.

On December 10, 1800, he was appointed by Lord Keith to the Wassenaar, 64. As she was then lying at Malta unfit for service, he obtained permission to accompany Sir Ralph Abercromby's expedition to Egypt.

The fleet anchored in Aboukir Bay on the 2nd of March 1801. On the 8th, Abercromby effected a landing in face of a large and strongly posted French force. To Maitland fell the duty of commanding the armed launches employed to cover the landing. The enemy were driven from their positions, and retired towards Alexandria with the loss of seven guns. Abercromby at once followed them up, and advanced on the neck of sand lying between the sea and the Lake of Aboukir, leaving a distance of about four miles between the English and French camps. On the 13th he again attacked the French, and forced them back upon their lines before Alexandria. The right flank of the British force rested on the sea, the left on the Lake of Aboukir, and the flanks were covered by a naval flotilla, the boats on the sea being under Maitland's command, and those on the lake under that of Captain James Hillyar. Seven days later Sir Sidney Smith, who commanded the naval battalion serving on shore, received from a friendly Arab sheikh a letter informing him that it was General Menou's intention to attack the British camp next morning. The news (p. xxxiii) was thought too good to be true, as in a few days Abercromby would have been compelled to attack the lines of Alexandria under every tactical disadvantage. It was, however, confirmed, and on the 21st of March the battle of Alexandria was fought, the fate of Egypt was decided, and Abercromby received his death-wound. Maitland again covered the British right flank from the sea. In the detailed plan of the battle given in Sir Robert Wilson's History of the British Expedition to Egypt, Maitland's flotilla is shown a little to the west of the ruins of Nicopolis, in a position to enfilade the French attack. For his services on the 8th, 13th, and 21st Maitland received the thanks of the naval and military commanders-in-chief, and on March 22, the day after the battle, Sir Sidney Smith wrote to Lord Keith warmly commending Maitland's conduct.

Maitland's post commission was confirmed by the Admiralty on the day of the battle of Alexandria. In the ensuing month he was appointed to the Dragon, 74, and shortly afterwards to the Carrère, a French 40-gun frigate taken near Elba. He remained in command of her in the Mediterranean till the Peace of Amiens.

The Carrère was paid off on October 4, 1802. Eleven days afterwards Maitland was appointed by Lord St Vincent to the Loire, a fine 46-gun frigate. War broke out again on May 18, 1803, and the Loire started on a brilliant career of captures,[1] which included the 10-gun brig Venteux, cut out from under the Isle of Bas by two of the Loire's boats, the Braave privateer, and the 30-gun frigate Blonde, captured in August 1804 after a pursuit of twenty hours and a desperate running fight.

An official letter written by Maitland in June 1805, gives us a vivid glimpse of frigate service in the old days:—

Captain Maitland to Rear-Admiral Drury, Cork.

Loire, Muros Road, Spain,
June 4, 1805.

Sir,—Being informed that there was a French privateer of 26 guns fitting out at Muros, and nearly ready for sea, it struck me, from my recollection of the bay (having been in it formerly, when lieutenant of the Kingfisher), as being practicable either to bring her out or destroy her with the ship I have the honour to command. I accordingly