The Sun.
London, England, 1839-05-29 00:00:00

ALLEGED

OUTRAGE ON THE

BRITISH FLAG.

(From a Correspondent of the Times.)
On the 18th of April, her Majesty's steam-vessel
Medea arrived at Bermuda, bearing the broad pennant
of Commodore Douglas, naval Commander-in-Chief on
the West Indian and North American stations, being
nine days from Jamaica, and eight from Santiago de
Cuba. On the evening of the 11th of April, the
Medea, then off the south coast of Cuba, fell in with
a brig, which the Commodore suspecting to be a slave
vessel, gave orders to follow, firing guns not shotted as
signals for her to heave to. These the brig disre-
garded, keeping on under full sail, running
with the wind on her larboard quarter, and
studding-sails set. This appearing suspicious, the
Medea followed at full speed, clearing away
her 84-pounder on the forecastle, and her gangway 32-
pounders. On getting on the brig's larboard quarter a
few muskets were fired with blank cartridges, on which
the beating to quarters on board the brig was heard,
clearly demonstrating that she was not a slaver, but a
man-of-war. The Medea being now near enough, hailed,
asking, " What brig is that ? Where are you going?"
To these questions, though repeated in English and
French, there being no doubt she was a French man-of
war, no answers were obtained. The French Com-
mander asked in English," Are you the packet ?" An an-
swer was returned, " No, the Medea man-of-war ;" after
which the Medea, wishing the Frenchman " Good night,"
stood away to resume her course. When at a short dis-
tance, however, the Commodore, thinking he could com-
municate important news from Mexico, ordered Cap-
tain Nott to run down to the brig, which was accord-
ingly done. When the Medea, her engines working at
half power, had got nearly a-beam of the brig the latter
appeared to put her helm down, so as to get under the
steamer's starboard bow ; upon which Captain Nott
immediately ordered the helm of the Medea to be put
a starboard and the wheels backed ; by which, when
the vessels came in collision, the shock was very slight,
nothing being carried away but one of the brig's studding-
sail-booms. But half-a-dozen shotted guns were si-
multaneouly fired into the bows of the Medea.
The Commodore, of course, knowing what the ves-
sel was, and that she had fired from some unfor-
tunate mistake, did not order the fire to be returned ;
and fortunate it was for the Frenchmen under the
Medea's bows he did not, for the heavy gun on the
forecastle would have silenced or sunk the brig in a very
few minutes. The paddles were hacked, by which the
vessels were parted, a boat was then lowered from the
Medea, and an officer sent on board the brig to demand
the cause of their having fired. The French Com-
mander, when informed what the Medea was and who
was in her, became very bumble and penitent, said he
had merely ordered one shot to be fired a-head of the
steamer, but his order being misunderstood, all the guns
which . could be brought to bear upon her were dis-
charged. He afterwards came on board the Medea.
and made his apologies to the Commodore in
person. It is with regret we have to add, that
one of the Medea's men was so severely wounded
in the thigh that immediate amputation of the
limb was necessary. Three 36-pound shot struck the
vessel, damaging her considerably. The name of the
French brig was ascertained to be the Griffon, 20 guns,
bound from France to Vera Cruz; it was understood,
howeter, that the intelligence communicated by Com-
modore Douglas, respecting the pacification with Mexico,
&c., would cause her to proceed to Havannah.

It will be difficult, indeed, for the French to give a
satisfactory account of this second outrage committed of
late in those seas by their men-of-war. In the first
place, the French Commander was woefully deficient in
courtesy in declining to heave to when civilly requested ;
he was the party that would have profited by the commu-
nication of the news ; for, being from France, he
must have been ignorant of the important transactions
at Vera Cruz ; and he must have been aware that any
English cruiser, even the packet, could give him in-
formation ; and, in the second place, a suspicion of the
Medea being a " Mexican corsair" is ridiculous ; for to
say nothing of her size, not only were two lights hoisted
at the foreyard, but the Commander-in-chiet's top and
poop lights were displayed. It is strongly suspected
he believed the Medea to be the English packet, and
conceived he could act the bully with impunity.
The following extract, received this morning from
Bermuda, bearing date April 24, from the letter of an
eye-witness, is supplied by the editor of the United
Service Gazette.

" On the 11th April, at six, p.m., we left the harbour
of St. Juan de Cuba, at seven the Moro Castle bore
N.E. by W. three or four miles, saw a brig running down,
apparently for the harbour of St. Juan ; altered our
course in chase. The evening was rather dark,
but still the motions of the brig could be made out ;
observed her go about and stand off shore, and set her
studding sails ; this manceuvre created a suspicion of her
being a slave-ship, as she was in the very track for slaves,
at 7.50 fired a blank gun followed by blank musketry,
of which the chase took no notice, ranged within
hail and spoke her, asked what ship it was, which
was repeated three times before she answered, and then
she replied by asking if that was the English packet.
We answered, No, that it was her Brittanic Majesty's
ship Medea, bearing the broad pennant of the Com-
mander in Chief of the West Indian Station. She then
answered that she was the French brig of war, Griffon,
from France, bound to Vera Cruz, mutual leave
taking then passed, and we parted. I should have
before observed, that previously to approaching her
we had beat to quarters, and got the guns ready
for action, and now, finding her to be a friend,
the guns were again secured, and the quarters dismissed.
After going a short distance a-head of her, Commo-
dore Douglas desired the ship might be again brought
into speaking distance, as he wished to inform them of
the settlement of their affairs at Vera Cruz. We went
about and followed her ; as we approached we ob-
served her closing us, or rather attemting to stand
across our bows ; we immediately stopped the engines,
and put the helm a starboard, but as we were going
at the rate of about nine knots, and she not
more than five, and the manceuvre not being at-
tempted till we were close to her, as a matter
of course it brought us foul of her, our bows striking
her quarter, and breaking her lower studding booms.
Immediately the two ships touched she fired six guns
into us ; one man (Matthew Starker, seaman) was
severely wounded, obliged to have his leg taken off
close up to the hip-joint. The shots struck us be-
tween the fore-rigging and cutwater, passing through
the sides in four places, the chain-cable was cut in
two, a splinter from which wounded the unfortu-
nate seaman. We then, from our engines having been
backing all the time, fell astern of her, the French
brig hove too, and we sent the commodore's flag lieute-
nant on board to desire the French commander to wait
on the British commander-in-chief, and give an explana-
tion of his conduct. When the lieutenant delivered
his message, the French commander said he was su
bewildered, and so out of his mind, that he did not
know what he was about. Shortly after he
waited on the Commodore. He then said, that
being alarmed at our approaching him a second
time, not knowing what we were, for we might have
been an enemy or a pirate, be had ordered a shot to
be fired a-head of us, which order being mistaken six
guns had been fired—an unfortunate error, which he
sincerely deplored, and for which he submitted the
most ample excuses. The ship was found to be so
much injured that we were obliged to bear up for
Cumberland Harbour, Cuba, to repair damages. The
above are the facts taken from the ship's log-book. I
should also remark that the French commander spoke
perfectly good English, and that the above expressions
Life not translations."

EARTHQUAKE AT CRIEFF.—About two
o'clock on the morning of Friday last, two shocks of en
earthquake were felt i❑ this quarter, which lasted about
two second:, but the subterraneous noise which accompanied
it continued much longer. The weather became soft the
next day.—Glasgow Courier.