French ships. The reason, officially assigned by the admiral, for anchoring at so great a distance was, that the wind blew fresh from the northward, and combined with the strength of the floodtide, rendered it hazardous to run into Aix roads; but, according to the evidence of Captain Broughton examined at Lord Gambier's court-martial, his lordship was induced to anchor so far off, because," as the enemy were on shore, he did not think it necessary to run any unnecessary risk of the fleet, when the object of their destruction seemed to be already obtained."*

As a further proof that the British admiral, whatever may have been his original intention, had now abandoned the idea of employing the fleet to cannonade the works on Isle d'Aix, or the French ships aground on the Palles shoal, Lord Gambier did not make the customary signal for the ships to get springs on their cables, and be ready to anchor by the stern, because that signal (No. 14) began by calling upon the ships to "prepare for battle." He therefore had recourse to the telegraph, as the only means of making the latter part of the signal without the former. The admiral did, however, direct the Etna bomb, covered by the gun-brigs Insolent, Conflict, and Growler, to proceed towards Aix road, and take a position for bombarding the grounded French ships; and Captain Bligh was directed to take under his orders the Valiant, Bellona, and Revenge, also the frigates and sloops, and to anchor them as close as possible to the Boyart shoal, to be ready to support the bomb-vessel and gun-brigs. While therefore the latter, as they had been ordered, stood on towards the road of Aix, the Valiant and her division came to an anchor about a mile nearer to the grounded ships than the spot at which the Caledonia and the remainder of the line-of-battle ships were then lying.

This movement on the part of the British fleet auguring an immediate attack, the Foudroyant and Cassard, who had been since daylight getting up their topmasts, cut their cables and made sail for the Charente, the latter at 45 minutes past noon, and the former in a few minutes afterwards; but, in attempting to ascend the river, the two ships grounded on the shoal at its entrance, very near to the castle of Fouras. In the mean time, as the tide flowed, all the ships that had previously grounded began to get upright, and their crews to exert themselves anew to float them off the bank. The water and provisions were started, many of the guns and much of the ammunition thrown overboard, and anchors laid out for warping. Since 6 A. M. the Océan had carried out a stream-anchor, with six cables. At about 2 P. M., by similar means, the Patriote, Régulus, and Jemmappes, succeeded in getting afloat, but grounded again on the muddy shoal at the entrance of the Charente. By the time

* Minutes, &c., p. 222.

it became nearly high water, the Océan also got afloat, and moved herself about 700 yards nearer to the channel of the river, where she was again stopped by the mud.

At

Seeing the French ships thus gradually getting beyond the reach of attack, whereby the whole object of the enterprise would be defeated, and observing, in particular, that the three nearest ships, the Calcutta, Aquilon, and Varsovie, were laying out anchors and hawsers for the purpose of effecting a similar removal, Lord Cochrane, at 1 P. M., just as the Ætna and the three gun-brigs had run past him, got under way with the Impérieuse, who had previously hove short, and, without any order or signal to that effect, dropped down towards the enemy 1 h. 30 m. P. M. the frigate set her topsails, and stood directly for the group of grounded ships on the Palles. Conceiving, now, that no serious attack was intended to be made upon these ships, which were setting their sails to assist in forcing them off the shoal, Lord Cochrane made the signal No. 405, "The enemy's ships are getting under sail;" and in 10 minutes afterwards, or at 1 h. 40 m. P. M., finding no attention paid to that, he caused to be hoisted the signal No. 378, "The enemy is superior to the chasing ship." At 1 h. 45 m. this was followed by No. 364, "The ship is in distress, and requires to be assisted immediately." The latter was the point aimed at; but there was no disuniting the signal without having recourse to the tedious operation of the telegraph.

At 1 h. 50 m. P. M. the Impérieuse shortened sail, and fired a shot at the Calcutta; and at 2 P. M. anchored on the Palles shoal in five fathoms, veered to half a cable and kept fast the spring. Her starboard broadside being thus brought to bear upon the Calcutta's starboard quarter, the Impérieuse commenced her fire upon that ship, and occasionally, with her starboard forecastle and bow guns, upon the Varsovie and Aquilon. At 2 h. 10 m., finding that the shot from the 24 and 18 pounder carronades of the Insolent, Growler, and Conflict, were dropping outside of the Impérieuse, and that even the shot from the heavier carronades of the Beagle, which brig had since anchored rather within the line taken up by the gun-brigs, were not producing any visible effect, Lord Cochrane wished to order them to come closer in ; but, the signal making no distinction between ships and brigs, the Etna would also feel bound to obey it, and she was in a proper situation for throwing her shells. In this emergency, the captain of the Impérieuse adopted an expedient more decisive than courteous: he ordered the maindeck guns of the frigate to be fired at, or near to, the brigs. They were so; and the latter took the hint, and dropped down to a more effective position, but still kept outside of the Impérieuse.

At a few minutes past 2 P. M., finding that the Impérieuse was warmly engaged with the enemy's ships, Lord Gambier made the signal for the Indefatigable, then at anchor with the

advanced squadron near the Boyart shoal, to weigh. Accord ingly, at 2 h. 15 m. P. M., this frigate got under way, and, agreeably to a signal to that effect, stood for the Impérieuse; but, the wind though fair being light, and the ebb-tide making, the Indefatigable proceeded very slowly, although carrying royal and topgallant studding-sails. Shortly after the Indefatigable had weighed, the remaining frigates and smaller vessels did the same, and stood after her; and at about 2h. 30 m. P. M. the Valiant and Revenge, by signal from the admiral, got also under way, and proceeded in the direction of the firing.

In the mean time the Impérieuse continued engaging the Calcutta ; and at 3 h. 20 m. P. M., on the near approach of the Indefatigable and other frigates, the crew of the Impérieuse cheered them. At that moment, finding that the Calcutta had ceased firing, and that the Frenchmen were abandoning her, Lord Cochrane sent a midshipman and boat's crew to take possession. At about 3 h. 30 m. P. M. the Indefatigable anchored on the inner or starboard quarter of the Impérieuse, and, until hailed by Lord Cochrane and informed that the Calcutta had struck, directed her fire at the latter. The Indefatigable then turned her foremost guns upon the Varsovie; and the Aigle, Emerald, and Unicorn, presently took their stations ahead of the Indefatigable. Shortly afterwards the Valiant, Revenge, and Pallas, came up and anchored; the last ahead of the other frigates, the Valiant close astern of the Indefatigable, and the Revenge about 600 or 800 yards to the north-east of the Impérieuse. Thus anchored with springs, in the form of a crescent, around the grounded French ships, the British ships opened upon them a heavy and destructive fire. The fire upon the Calcutta rendered it requisite to withdraw the boat of the Impérieuse, and Lord Cochrane sent others to inform the frigates that the French ship had surrendered.

Determined to show that his object in anchoring where he had was not to avoid close action, Captain Newcome, when he weighed, gallantly ran in between the Indefatigable and the wreck of the Jean-Bart. There dropping her anchor, the Beagle opened a heavy fire upon the grounded French ships. Finding, after a while, that his rudder was almost coming in contact with the wreck of the Jean-Bart, and that the Beagle was in considerable danger from the fire of the Indefatigable, Captain Newcome got under way and made sail for the stern of the Aquilon. On arriving within pistol-shot of the French 74, the Beagle opened upon her a well-directed and destructive

fire.

Having sustained the cannonade of the many ships opposed to them, without the means of using more than their stern-chase guns, the Varsovie and Aquilon, at 5 h. 30 m. P. M., made the token of submission by each showing a union jack in her mizen chains. At this moment the Theseus, having weighed from

Basque roads by signal at 3 h. 30 m. P. M., anchored between the Revenge and Valiant. At 6 P. M. the Tonnerre, who lay just out of range of the nearest British ship, the Revenge, was set on fire by her officers and crew, all of whom landed safe upon Isle Madame; and at 7 h. 30 m. P. M. the ship exploded. The Calcutta appears to have been set on fire by the midshipman of the Impérieuse without orders, and at about 8 h. 30 m. P. M. blew up with a tremendous explosion, her hold containing an immense quantity of powder and other ordnance-stores.

The only British ships that sustained any loss in this attack were the Revenge and Impérieuse. The Revenge had one seaman and two marines killed, and one lieutenant (James Garland), five seamen and nine marines wounded; two of them mortally, and nearly the whole with contusions. The ship had her bowsprit severely wounded, a great part of her running rigging and sails cut to pieces, five planks of the quarterdeck cut through and a beam carried away; besides which a number of shot had struck different parts of her hull. The damage, in the hull, and the killed and wounded, are stated to have been caused by the fire of the batteries on Isle d'Aix, and the cut rigging by the fire of the Aquilon and Varsovie.

The loss sustained by the Impérieuse consisted of three seamen killed, her surgeon's assistant (Gilbert), purser (Mark Marsden), seven seamen, and two marines wounded. The frigate received several shot in the hull, and had her masts, rigging, and sails a good deal cut: both loss and damage principally the effects of the fire of her three antagonists on the Palles, especially of the Calcutta. The Indefatigable and Beagle, although they escaped without loss, received more or less of damage in their masts and yards from the enemy's shot. It is remarkable that, although the batteries of Isle d'Aix and of Saumonard on the isle of Oleron kept up a constant fire of shot and shells, the Revenge and Indefatigable were the only British vessels of the 14 engaged that suffered from it: the damage to the Indefatigable, indeed, was merely a wounded topmast.

With respect to the French loss in this attack, our information is not of the most certain kind. The Calcutta is described to have had her hull riddled before any assistance came to the Impérieuse, and to have lost, out of a crew of 230 men, none killed, but 12 badly wounded. The captain of the Aquilon appears to have been killed, as he was sitting by the side of Lord Cochrane in the boat of the Impérieuse, by a shot from one of the Tonnerre's guns, which accidentally went off while that ship was burning. The Aquilon's loss on board was inconsiderable, owing, as it was stated, to Captain Maingan, when he found he could not return the enemy's fire, very prudently directing his officers and men to lie down. The Varsovie lost upwards of 100 in killed and wounded together. The Océan sent her boats

to save the crew of this ship, but the grape-shot from the British ships prevented the boats from getting alongside.

The discrepancies that occur in the time kept by the British ships, and our inability to remedy the evil by a reference to the minutes kept by the French ships, prevent us from applying to any very useful purpose, the following translated extract from the letter written by the officer of the Océan: "During this action (that with the grounded ships), we fired some of our guns from the stern. The flood having borne our ship up for a short time, we ran her on shore a few cables' lengths further up. An English ship of the line tried to come to an anchor under our stern; but she touched the ground, and was with great difficulty got off. Had this not happened, we should have been cannonaded in a pretty style." We cannot discover that any of the British line-of-battle ships sent into Aix road had an intention to molest the Océan: but the ship alluded to was undoubtedly the Revenge. This ship, however, did not actually take the ground: she only stirred up the mud with her keel. One fact is certain. The Océan, at the time she was thus menaced, or supposed to be menaced, with an English line-of-battle ship's raking fire, had retired from a spot nearly half a mile nearer to the British fleet: on which exposed spot the French threedecker had lain aground since long before daylight; where, for four or five hours the ship was heeling very much; and where, in short, a couple of well-handled frigates, one on each quarter, might have nearly destroyed her.

Even after this opportunity had been lost, five French line-ofbattle ships, and one frigate were still assailable, either by fireships, or by frigates, gun-brigs, and bomb-vessels. Those ships were the Océan, Cassard, Régulus, Jemmappes, Tourville, and Indienne, all lying aground at the mouth of the Charente. Unfortunately, there having been no reserve of fire-ships, the fleet was now without any, and the only bomb-vessel present was the Etna. However, three transports were hastily converted into fire-ships; and at 5 h. 30 m. P. M. Rear-admiral Stopford got under way with the Cæsar, and, accompanied by the three fire-ships, and the launches of the fleet fitted to throw Congreve rockets, stood towards Aix road, receiving from the batteries of Aix and of Oleron, a spirited but ineffectual fire. At 7 h. 40 m. P. M., Isle d'Aix bearing from north to north-north-east, the Cæsar struck on what was supposed to be the south-eastern extremity of the Boyart shoal. As it was nearly low water, the Cæsar did not float again until 10 h. 30 m. P. M.; when she swang to the stream-anchor which had been let go.. The Valiant had grounded about half an hour earlier than the Cæsar, and got afloat a few minutes later, equally without damage. Neither the Theseus nor the Revenge appear to have grounded at all. Upon weighing from her first anchorage, which she did shortly