Note 129 — Chapter VII

In the great action off Cape Trafalgar on 21st October 1805, the Leviathan, seventy-four guns, under Captain Bayton, was next to the Victory. After passing through the enemy’s line she dismasted her opponent, raked the Santissima Trinidad, and passed on to the San Augustin, one of seven coming to surround her; this ship was silenced in fifteen minutes, and the crew of the Leviathan, making her fast with a hawser, towed her into the English Fleet with the English Jack flying. The French ship L’Intrépide had by distant firing cut into the sails and rigging of the Leviathan, but three more British ships coming up, L’Intrépide was, after a noble resistance, also compelled to surrender, and was set on fire by the Britannia. The crews were landed at Portsmouth and transferred to Norman Cross, where they were received on 8th January 1806. One was Corporal Jean De la Porte, whose name appears as the maker of signed straw marquetry pictures, and to whom are attributed many other unsigned pictures of the same character. Mr. Jean De la Porte is spoken of as an officer; had he been of that rank he would not have been in the prison, but out on parole. He was a Petty Officer, and would be in the Petty Officers’ prison. He was confined at Norman Cross for nearly nine years, and during this long captivity his artistic skill and taste must have enormously mitigated his suffering.