Nevertheless, he cruised all summer either in the channel or in soundings, for the protection of the trade, and in particular secured the homeward-bound Smyrna fleet, in which the English and Dutch had a joint concern amounting to four millions sterling.

Having scoured the channel, and sailed along great part of the French coast, he returned to Torbay in the beginning of August, and received fresh orders to put to sea again, notwithstanding his repeated remonstrances against exposing large ships to the storms that always blow about the time of the equinox.

He therefore sailed back to soundings, where he continued cruising till the second day of September, when he was overtaken by a violent tempest, which drove him into the channel, and obliged him to make for the port of Plymouth.

The weather being hazy, he reached the Sound with great difficulty: the Coronation, a second-rate, foundered at anchor off the Ram-head; the Harwich, a third-rate, bulged upon the rocks and perished; two others ran ashore, but were got off with little damage; but the whole fleet was scattered and distressed.

The nation murmured at the supposed misconduct of the admiral, and the commons subjected him to an inquiry: but when they examined his papers, orders, and instructions, they perceived he had adhered to them with great punctuality, and thought proper to drop the prosecution out of tenderness to the ministry.