More letters by Captain Alexander John Ball, R. N.

Abstract

On May 1798, Capt. A. J. Ball R.N., was transferred to the Mediterranean Station to serve under the Command of Lord Nelson, and was soon promoted to Command HMS Alexander, a 74-gun ship of the line, with 500 men on board. He achieved distinction in the battle of the Nile, off Aboukir Bay in Egypt, on August 1, 1798, where Nelson destroyed Napoleon's French Fleet. On Sunday, September 2, 1798, the Maltese rebelled against the French garrison under the Command of General Claude-Henri Vaubois, whom Napoleon had left as Commander of the French Forces in Malta, after taking Malta from the Knights of St John, and expelling the Grand Master Ferdinand von Hompesch from the Islands. [excerpt]