In 1848 Captain Granville G. Loch led a boat expedition up the Saint
Juan de Nicaragua, which was as spiritedly carried out as any in the
times of the previous war. It consisted of the boats of his own ship
the _Alarm_ and the _Vixen_, Commander Rider; and its object was to
punish a certain Colonel Sales of the Nicaraguan army, who, after
carrying off two British subjects and committing various outrages, had
fortified himself in the town of Serapaqui, situated about thirty miles
up the river. The current runs at the rate of five knots an hour, and
the fort was situated at the head of a long reach, its defences
consisting of six angular stockaded entrenchments eight feet in height,
of considerable thickness, one side of each looking down the reach and
the other across the river, completely commanding the only
landing-place. Notwithstanding the strength of the current, Captain
Loch commenced the ascent with twelve boats, carrying 260 officers and
men, accompanied by the consul in his own boat. Passing over numerous
downfalls and rapids, by immense exertions the party, at the end of
seventy-two hours, got almost in sight of the fort. Unhappily, the
consul and a friend accompanying him fell overboard during the night,
and both were drowned. The next morning on approaching the fort the
boats were received by a tremendous fire from it and from both banks of
the river, which riddled them with shot, broke nearly half the oars,
killed two men, and severely wounded Mr Turner, a midshipman, and
several others. Notwithstanding this, pulling on against the strong
current for an hour and forty minutes, they got past the batteries, and
then, dropping down to the landing-place, sprang on shore, and the
crews, uttering a loud cheer, stormed the stockades. The Nicaraguans
withstood them for some time, but at length giving way fled into the
forest, leaving twenty dead behind them, while twice that number were
wounded, and two officers and seven men captured. The boats returned
down the river, and arrived safely on board the ships.