So we
then to White Hall, and meet Sir W. Coventry, who presses all
that is possible for fireships. So we three to the office
presently; and thither comes Sir Fretcheville Hollis, who is to
command them all in some exploits he is to do with them on the
enemy in the River. [Son of Fretcheville Hollis, of Grimsby
(Colonel of a regiment on the King's side during the Civil Wars,
in which he acquired considerable credit,) by his second wife
Elizabeth Molesworth, and himself a distinguished naval officer.
He lost an arm in the sea-fight 1665, and afterwards served as
Rear-Admiral under Sir R. Holmes, when they attacked the Smyrna
fleet. He fell in the battle of Southwold Bay, 1672, on board
the Cambridge. Although Mr. Pepys speaks slightingly of Sir F.
H. he was a man of high spirit and enterprise, and is thus
eulogised by Dryden in his ANNUS MIRABILIS.
"Young Hollis on a Muse by Mars begot,
Born, Caesar-like, to write and act great deeds,
Impatient to revenge his fatal shot,
His right hand doubly to his left succeeds."]
So we all down to Deptford, and pitched upon ships and set men at
work: but, Lord! to see how backwardly things move at this
pinch, notwithstanding that by the enemy's being now come up as
high as almost the Hope, Sir J.
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