24th September.
The 'Castor' and 'Pique' arrived off Tyre on the 24th September, and
took up their positions about noon. The Ottoman frigate, from calms
and light winds, did not come up in time. The town was summoned by
an officer with a flag of truce to surrender to the Sultan, which the
civil authorities agreed to do; but as 500 Egyptian troops still kept
possession, Captain Collier warned the inhabitants to quit the town,
as it was his intention to dislodge the soldiers. Having allowed the
inhabitants a sufficient time to retire a fire was opened by both
ships, at the distance of about five hundred yards, which soon
compelled the troops to fly. At daylight the following morning Capt.
Boxer, having gallantly landed and reconnoitred to prevent surprise,
the marines of the two frigates, with a few small-arm men under the
command of Lieutenant Patey, Senior Lieutenant of the 'Castor,'
landed and took possession of the town. Two guns were found mounted
on the works, the trunnions of which were knocked off; also a vast
quantity of grain in the public stores, and some munitions of war,
which latter were brought off. During these operations the seamen
under Captain Boxer and Lieutenant Carey, Senior Lieutenant of the
'Pique,' were arduously employed in the gun-boats day and night,
watching 1,500 of the enemy's troops, in levelling sand-banks ten
feet high, to cover the approach to the town, and in loading vessels
with grain after its capture. Not a man was hurt during the whole
affair.