fired away all her 10-inch shells, but she did not leave the mouth of the Charente until the 29th. In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the then still surviving participants in the battle the Naval General Service Medal (NGSM) with the clasp "Basque Roads 1809". Walcheren Campaign Aetna then formed part of the naval force in the Scheldt under the command of Sir Richard Strachan. At 06:00 on the morning of 28 July 1809 Aetna, together with the whole fleet in The Downs, set sail for Flushing and that evening they anchored about 18 miles from Walcheren. On the 30th they watched the troops go ashore covered by the frigates. The following morning at 11:00 Aetna, with the rest of the force, opened fire with her two mortars for the first time and fired 42 shells before an officer in a boat came round the various ships about midnight to desire them to desist. Commander Paul Lawless assumed command of Aetna in August, though he may have already been in command before then. On 2 August Aetna moved towards the fort at Rammekens and on the 5th she anchored about a mile and a half from Flushing. Aetna saw no more action until the 13th when she fired seventy-four 13-inch shells and thirty-nine 10-inch at Flushing before the tide turned. When they were able to close again another fifty-two 12-inch and nine 10-inch shells were discharged. HMS Vesuvius, several gunbrigs and man-of-war launches with 24-pounders were firing alongside them. There was more firing on the 14th and 15th before a white flag was seen and the town surrendered on the 17th. By the 18th Aetna was a little more than 12 miles from Antwerp and a number of officers went ashore for a walk on South Beveland. On the 22nd they dropped down to the town of Doel and fired thirty-five 13-inch and five 10-inch shells to deter the French from throwing up a battery. , , and Aetna threw one shell per hour through the night, but in the morning they found that the enemy had continued work so, until the 26th they fired another 133 shells at the battery. All this time Antwerp was only seven or eight miles away, but still the troops waited, suffering from miasmatic fever and dysentery. On the 29th Aetna fired fifteen large shells against the battery and Thunder, Hound and a brig threw