the despatches from Admiral Thomas McNamara Russell announcing the capitulation of the island of Heligoland to the British. William Milne took command at some point after Heligoland. He had been a sub-lieutenant on Carrier at Heligoland and at the seizure of Copenhagen in September 1807. On 14 November, off Cromer, Carrier was under the command of Acting Lieutenant William Milne when she captured a French cutter-rigged privateer. Milne had steered towards what he thought was a fishing boat from which he wished to ask about how far they were from land, but when he got close she hoisted French colours and opened fire. Because of a gale, heavy seas, and the fact that she had a crew of only 16 men aboard, Carrier could not make use of her four 12-pounder carronades. Once Carrier had shot away the French vessel's colours and halyards she surrendered. She proved to be the Actif, commissioned for eight guns, but with only two on board at the time Carrier captured her. She had a crew 32 men under the command of Norbat Corcenwinder and had suffered four wounded. Actif had left Dunkirk three weeks earlier and had captured two vessels, a galiot that Sybille recaptured, and the Lord Keith, an English sloop. Milne put a prize crew aboard Actif and sent her to Yarmouth. In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Carrier 14 Novr. 1807" to all surviving claimants from this action. Capture At this point her history becomes confusing. Accounts differ on when and where the French captured Carrier. The best account, based on court martial records, reports that on 24 January 1808 Carrier grounded off Étaples, on the coast of France. This occurred during the night and in the morning shore batteries opened fire. Unable to get her off, Carriers crew abandoned her after trying, unsuccessfully, to set her on fire. The New Navy List reports that Milne was involved in an attack on Boulogne, and that later in 1808 he was involved in an attack on two batteries at Étaples, where he was wounded twice, and that Carrier subsequently was wrecked. This may represent a garbled version of the above account. A third account has Carrier grounding on 5 February 1809 on a sandbank off Boulogne. By all accounts, the French captured her and her crew, who would be prisoners for five years. Their court martial