Chapter XXV: Introduction (10)

It is true that the bravest and best disciplined ship’s company has its ardor dampened by an occurrence of the kind, as they feel that the next gun may, at any moment, in its turn sacrifice its crew. The good fame of a gun is as important as that of a woman, and the bursting of a gun during an engagement is one of the most unfortunate accidents which can occur to any ship, be the destruction great or small. In addition to this, all the English naval historians combine in saying that the Ambuscade had an exceptionally bad crew; and James devotes as much space to proving this, and also that this 24-gun corvette ought not to have taken an English ship of 32 guns, as he does to most general actions. The accident to the gun seems to have caused so much confusion on board the English ship that the French corvette made sail to take advantage of it, and make her escape from a disagreeable predicament. This act on her part seems to have recalled the Ambuscade’s Captain to a sense of his duty, and that ship soon overtook the Bayonnaise again--coming up to leeward, to recommence the action--but at first, owing to a press of sail, shooting a little too far ahead.

The Bayonnaise was, at this time, much damaged in hull, rigging and spars, and had suffered a heavy loss in officers and men--among others, her Captain and First Lieutenant--wounded. The commanding officer of the troops who were passengers then suggested to the only sea-officer left on deck the trial of boarding the English ship, which was so much the more powerful in weight of metal. The plan was assented to, the boarders called away, the corvette’s helm was put up, and she was allowed to drop foul of the Ambuscade, carrying away with her bowsprit the quarter-deck barricade, wheel, mizzen-rigging and mizzen-mast of the English frigate. It is evident that the latter must have been in a bad state to permit this to be done.

The Bayonnaise then swung round under the Ambuscade’s stern, but still remaining foul of her, having caught the English ship’s rudder chain, either by a grappling iron or by the fluke of an anchor, and the French now, by a vigorous use of musketry, commanded completely the quarter-deck of the Ambuscade.

The marines of the Ambuscade kept up a fire in return, but were overpowered by the steady, close fire of the French soldiers, and in a very short time the First Lieutenant was handed below, wounded in the groin, when he almost immediately expired.

Almost at the same moment Captain Jenkins was shot in the thigh, breaking the bone, and was necessarily removed from the deck, as was the Lieutenant of Marines, from wounds in the thigh and shoulder.

Scarcely had these left the deck when the Master was shot through the head, and instantly killed. The only surviving Lieutenant, who had left his sick bed to take part in the defence, was now wounded in the head.

The gunner at this moment came on deck, and reported the ship on fire below and abaft, which so alarmed the uninjured portion of the crew, on account of the neighborhood of the magazine, that they left their quarters on the gun-deck, and went below.

The fire was occasioned by some cartridges which had been carelessly left upon the rudder head, and which, on the discharge of a gun through the cabin window or stern port, into the bows of the Bayonnaise, had exploded, badly wounding every man at the gun, besides blowing out a part of the Ambuscade’s stern, and destroying the boat which was hanging there.

In the height of all this confusion on board the Ambuscade the French soldiers, who, throughout, had behaved splendidly, charged across the bowsprit of their vessel, which formed a bridge to the quarter-deck of the Ambuscade, now undefended, and, after a short struggle on the main deck, found themselves in possession of the frigate. There is no doubt that this result was most humiliating to a nation who had grown to consider themselves irresistible by sea, when the odds were not too great. The great advantage of the Ambuscade, her gun force, was not made the most of; and although she was evidently the faster vessel, the Frenchman, from superior tactics, was enabled to make his superiority in musketeers tell. In fact, the whole story shows that the English ship was sadly deficient in discipline and drill. It was immediately given out that the majority of her crew “were the scum of the British navy,” but the great trouble appears to have been with the captain himself. This officer had been promoted to the command of the Ambuscade from the Carnatic, 74, where he had been first lieutenant, and he had brought with him from that ship a party of seamen whom he chose to call the “gentlemen Carnatics,” and distinguishing those men whom he found on board the frigate by the very opprobrious epithet of “blackguard Ambuscades.” One can hardly speak calmly of the fact that such an idiot as this was placed in such a responsible position; and, as he himself had raised two parties in his ship, the only wonder is that she made so good a defence. When Captain Jenkins and his surviving officers and ship’s company were, some months later, exchanged, a court-martial was, of course, held upon him, for the loss of the Ambuscade. The Captain was suffering still from the effects of his dreadful wound, and he and the rest were acquitted, in spite of the evidence showing that his ship was in bad discipline, and that the action had been conducted in a lubberly manner, on the part of the English, from first to last. No questions appear to have been pressed as to why the Bayonnaise’s character was not earlier ascertained, whereby confusion would have been avoided in the opening of the engagement, and the Ambuscade might have obtained the weather-gage, and kept her adversary from boarding; while in that position, her superiority in metal should have told. It was proved that the hammocks were not in the nettings, in spite of the musketry being so much used, and other equally shameful points were made manifest. Yet Jenkins was acquitted, and the sentence of the court avoided even naming the ship by which he had been captured. The French took their prize into Rochefort, and great were the rejoicings, not without cause, for a French corvette had captured an English frigate. Richer was promoted by the French Directory, over one grade, to that of _Capitaine de Vaisseau_, and the crew properly rewarded. The gallant officer in command of the troops, to whom so much of the credit of the action is due, was killed on the Bayonnaise’s deck.

SIR SIDNEY SMITH AND HIS SEAMEN AT ACRE. A.D. 1799.

In March, 1799, Commodore Sir William Sidney Smith, in command of the English 74-gun ship, Tigre, then lying off Alexandria, was invested by the British government with the rank of Minister Plenipotentiary to the Sublime Porte.

In consequence of an express received from Achmed Djezzar, Governor of Syria, with the information that Bonaparte had invaded that country, and had carried Jaffa by storm, and that the French were also preparing an expedition by sea, Sir Sidney sent off the Theseus, Captain Miller, to Acre, as well as a small vessel to reconnoitre the Syrian coast and rejoin the Theseus at Caïffa.

Acre was the next town and fortified place on the coast, north of Jaffa, and was in a bay of the same name, the southern port of which was the headland celebrated from very ancient times as Mount Carmel. The bay is very much exposed to winds from every quarter but the east and south, and at all times is a rough and uncertain anchorage. Just within the southern cape of Carmel, where the Mount drops away and the country becomes flat, is the town of Haïffa or Kaïffa, and beyond that, at the turn of the bay, before one comes to Acre, is the mouth of the river Kishon. This mouth, except when the river is in flood, is obstructed by sand bars, and is generally to be forded, with care.

On the 13th of March the Theseus, a 74, arrived at Acre, and on the 15th the Tigre, Alliance and Marianne also anchored in that port; and Sir Sidney Smith, finding that the Turks were disposed to defend the place, used every exertion to put the walls in a state to resist an attack. On the 17th the Theseus was sent to the southward, and Sir Sidney, with the boats of the Tigre, proceeded to the anchorage of Caïffa, under Mount Carmel. That evening, after dark, the advanced guard of the French was discovered, mounted on asses and dromedaries, and passing along the coast road, close to the seaside, and a launch, with a 12-lb carronade, was sent to the mouth of the river, to defend the ford.

At daybreak the next morning this launch opened a most unexpected fire on the French column, and compelled it to change its route, so that when they took the Nazareth road they became exposed to the attacks of the Samaritan Arabs. The guns of the British ships preventing the French from making an attack from the north, they invested Acre on the northeast side, where the defences were much stronger. As no artillery was used in replying to the British boats, it was evident that the French had none with them. Expecting that a flotilla was to bring artillery up to them, a lookout was kept, and, on the morning of the 18th a French corvette and nine sail of gun vessels was seen from the Tigre. They were promptly chased and the gun-boats taken, but the corvette escaped. The prizes were full of battering cannon, ammunition and siege stores, which they had brought from Damietta.

These guns, which had been intended for the destruction of Acre, were now landed for its defence, and the gun-boats employed to harass their late owners, and cut off supplies.

That same day an English boat expedition met with a disastrous repulse in an attack upon four French transports, which had come into Caïffa anchorage with supplies for the French army, losing heavily in officers and men; and soon after all the English vessels were obliged to put to sea, on account of bad weather, and were not able to return again until the 6th of April.

In the meantime Bonaparte had been pushing the siege operations with the energy peculiarly his own, and it seemed impossible for the Turkish garrison and the English sailors to resist his determined approach. During the absence of the British ships he had pushed his approaches to the counter-scarp, and in the ditch at the northeast angle of the town was mining the towers to widen a breach already made by his field pieces. As much danger was apprehended from this approach, a sortie was determined on, in which the English seamen and marines were to bear a prominent part. They were to force their way into the mine while the Turks attacked the enemy’s trenches on the right and left. The sortie took place just before daylight, but the Turks rendered abortive the attempt to surprise the enemy by their noise and impetuosity. The English sailors, armed with pikes and cutlasses, succeeded in entering the mine, and destroyed its supports, and partly filled it up. The marines supported and protected them while doing this, and the party was covered on its return by a cross fire from one of the ships. This sortie much delayed Bonaparte’s operations; but, in the meantime, Rear-Admiral Perrée of the French navy, who had been hovering about the coast with a squadron, succeeded in landing supplies and some 18-lb guns, at Jaffa, which were immediately brought up, overland. Napoleon attached the utmost importance to the speedy capture of Acre, which was necessary to the success of his plans, and he pushed the siege with tremendous energy, and reckless disregard for the lives of his troops. The garrison continued to make sorties, under cover of the boats of the English squadron, but the 1st of May found the French successful in establishing a breach, from the concentrated fire of twenty-three pieces of artillery. They then made a desperate attempt to storm the place.

The Theseus was moored on one side of the town, and the Tigre on the other, while the gun-boats and launches flanked the enemy’s trenches.

Notwithstanding a tremendous fire from the shipping, and in the very face of a heavy fire from the walls of the town, the French bravely mounted to the assault; but, in spite of all their efforts, were repulsed with great slaughter. Several English officers and seamen were killed in this affair, and Colonel Philipeaux, a French Royalist officer of engineers, serving with the English against Bonaparte, died of excessive fatigue.

The French continued to batter in breach, and continued their attempts to storm; in spite of which Sir Sidney Smith managed to construct two ravelins, within musket shot of the besiegers. All this involved the most extreme fatigue on the part of both the besiegers and the besieged. Frequent sorties were made, which impeded the French in their work; and on May 7th a reinforcement of two Turkish corvettes, and twenty-five transports with troops, arrived.

Bonaparte determined to make one more effort to capture the place before these troops could be landed. Although the British fire from the vessels was kept up, Bonaparte had succeeded in throwing up epaulements and traverses, with his great engineering ability, which in a great degree protected his working parties from the naval party. The pieces which annoyed him most were in the light-house tower, and in the north ravelin, and two 68-pounders, mounted in native flat-bottomed vessels and throwing shells. These were all manned by the English seamen.

In spite of all this, Bonaparte gained ground, and having battered down the northeast tower of the walls, the ruins formed a sort of ladder, and at daylight on the 8th of May the French stormed again, and succeeded in planting their colors on the outer angle of the tower.

Their position was sheltered by two traverses, which they had constructed during the preceding night, composed of sand-bags and bodies of the dead built in with them, and forming a wall so high that only their bayonets could be seen above them.

In the meantime the reinforcement of Turkish troops, under Hassan Bey, were being debarked, which only increased Bonaparte’s endeavors to get possession of the place before they could be put in position.

It was a most critical moment, and Sir Sidney, to gain time, himself led the British seamen, mostly armed with pikes, to the defence of the breach. Here he found a few Turks, who were hurling huge stones down upon the French. The latter, being reinforced, charged up, and the fight became a hand-to-hand one.

According to the ancient custom of the Turks, Djezzar Pasha had been sitting in his palace rewarding such as brought to him the heads of his enemies; but when he heard that Sir Sidney was on the breach he hastened there to persuade him to retire, saying that “if harm befell his English friends all would be lost.” Hassan’s troops were now close at hand, and Sir Sidney led up the Chifflic regiment, armed and disciplined in the European style, and made a determined sally. They were beaten back, however, by the desperate fighting of the French, with great loss; but in doing so, the latter were obliged to expose themselves, and suffered terribly from the flanking fire of the English guns.

Napoleon had entered Syria with about fifteen thousand men, and many of his best generals, but by this time his losses had been so great that he feared he should be unsuccessful in his undertaking of seizing the whole of that country, for which undertaking he had made such exertions and sacrifices. But he was not the man to retire from any enterprise before he had exhausted all his resources.

On the 9th and 10th he continued to batter the defences, day and night, in preparation for one final, desperate effort. Every shot brought down large pieces of the wall, which was less solid than the tower they had been so long battering, and a new breach was effected, to the southward of their first lodgment. Bonaparte was now distinctly seen by the defenders most energetically directing operations from an elevated mound called after Richard Cœur de Lion, addressing his generals with great energy of gesture, and sending off aides-de-camp in every direction. The night before he had himself inspected the breach closely, rousing the enthusiasm of his veteran troops by the way in which he exposed himself, at the very foot of the walls, to the hottest fire. About noon he made dispositions for storming. Kleber’s grenadiers were to lead, their chief, Venoux, saying, “If Saint Jean d’Acre is not taken this evening you may be certain that Venoux is dead.” And he did, indeed, die, that evening, at the breach.

Just before sunset a massive column of the French was seen advancing, and it was suffered by the Turks to mount the breach, but, in the Pasha’s garden, came upon a second and almost impregnable line of defence, erected by Philipeaux in view of just such an event. Here the Turks rushed upon them in overwhelming numbers, and the advance of the French were massacred almost to a man. The rest retreated precipitately, leaving General Rambeaud dead, and carrying off General Lannes, wounded. A reinforcement of English coming up, the officers very nearly suffered the fate of the French advance, for many of the newly arrived Turkish troops did not know the English uniform, and took them for French. The fighting consequent upon this assault did not terminate until the next day.

Kleber’s division had been ordered to the assault again, but were met by a sortie, in which the besieged gained the third parallel of the attack, and spiked some of the French guns, and Kleber, instead of storming the fortress, was occupied in recovering their works, which involved great loss on both sides. During the progress of the siege, a dreadful accident occurred on board the English ship Theseus--seventy large shells exploding on her poop--killing and wounding eighty-seven of her officers and ship’s company. The ship herself was dreadfully shattered.

After the failure of Kleber’s attack the French troops could not be brought to mount the breach again. The plague, which had committed such ravages among them at Jaffa, broke out again, probably from the horribly putrid stench of the great number of unburied bodies, and especially of those built into the epaulements and traverses, added to fatigue and shortness of provisions; a flag of truce was sent in, to propose a cessation of hostilities, to allow them to bury the dead. This Djezzar would not permit. The flag had hardly performed its duties and withdrawn, when a shower of shot and shell from the French batteries announced the commencement of another attack, which was made with fury and desperation. But the garrison was prepared, and the French were once more driven back, with great slaughter. In the night of the 20th of May the French raised the siege, and made a precipitate retreat, leaving twenty-three pieces of battering cannon behind them.

Sir Sidney Smith remained at Acre until the middle of June, rendering the Turks all assistance in once more placing the fortress in a state of defence.

This celebrated siege lasted sixty-one days. The besiegers had marched to the assault no less than eight times, while the besieged made eleven desperate sallies. Bonaparte, in his reports to the French Directory, gave many flimsy reasons for his want of success.

Speaking of it afterwards, at St. Helena, he attempted to put the whole blame of his non-success upon the French naval officers who had failed to engage and drive away Sir Sidney Smith and his squadron. He said that if he had succeeded in his plans the whole face of the world would have been changed. “Acre,” he said, “would have been taken; the French army would have gone to Damascus and Aleppo; in the twinkling of an eye they would have been on the Euphrates; the Syrian Christians would have joined us; the Druses, the Armenians, would have united with us.” Some one remarked, “We might have been reinforced to the number of one hundred thousand men.” “Say six hundred thousand,” Bonaparte replied; “who can calculate the amount? I would have reached Constantinople and the Indies; I would have changed the face of the world!”

FOUDROYANT AND CONSORTS, IN ACTION WITH THE GUILLAUME TELL. 1800.

During the early part of the year 1800, a British squadron, composed of the eighty-gun ship Foudroyant, Captain Sir Edward Berry (the same who was captured in the Leander, after the battle of the Nile, as bearer of despatches), and bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral Lord Nelson, the 74-gun ship Alexandria, Captain Ball, the 64-gun ship Lion, Captain Dixon, and the 36-gun frigate Penelope, Captain Blackwood, with two or three sloops and smaller vessels, was stationed off Malta, then in French possession, to prevent succors from being thrown into that island, and to watch the movements of the French ships which were in that safe port.

Among the latter, lying in Valetta, was the French 80-gun ship Guillaume Tell, Rear-Admiral Denis Décrès, and Captain Saunier.

The Guillaume Tell was one of the two French line-of-battle-ships which had escaped from the battle of the Nile, and she had taken refuge at Malta.

Décrès occupied so exalted a position, afterwards, that it will be necessary, before beginning the account of a very remarkable battle, to give some account of his life.

This very distinguished French naval officer was born in 1762, and died in 1820. He entered the navy early, and won his first promotion under Count De Grasse, in America, while he afterwards distinguished himself in the frigate squadron which France sent to the East Indies to annoy the English commerce. In 1793 he was a “_capitaine de vaisseau_,” but was deprived of his rank by the Revolutionists, because he was a noble. Escaping the guillotine, when thousands of others perished, he was restored to his rank in the navy in 1795. In 1798 he attained the rank of Rear-Admiral, and in that capacity was present at the capture of Malta. He then served at the battle of the Nile, and came back to Malta with the few French vessels that escaped. These were soon blockaded by the English in the harbor of Valetta. Décrès, in conjunction with General Vaubois, conducted the defence of Malta, which continued for seventeen months.

In March, 1800, provisions fell short, and much sickness appeared in the French garrison, and Décrès concluded to embark about twelve hundred men on board the Guillaume Tell, and force the blockade. The English frigate Penelope followed him, but was able to offer no resistance. The next day Décrès fell in with more English ships, and the celebrated engagement which we shall relate further on ensued. Although conquered at last, Décrès received a sword of honor from the First Consul, Bonaparte, for his conduct, and the English “Naval Chronicle” says that this was the warmest resistance ever made by a foreign man-of-war against a superior British force.

Upon his return from captivity in England, Décrès was successively appointed Prefêt Maritime, Commandant of the Western Fleet, and Minister of Marine. He continued to act in this capacity as long as the French Empire lasted; and in it he showed great administrative ability.

During his administration the great works at Cherbourg were materially advanced; as well as those at Nieuwe Dieppe and Flushing, while the docks and construction yards of Antwerp were wholly created. He managed to keep up, and even increase, the strength of the French navy, in spite of their great losses; and he collected the great flotilla of Boulogne, which circumstances rendered useless, however.

Napoleon, who made him, in succession, a Count, Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor, and finally, a Duke, recalled him to his old position during the Hundred Days; and when the Emperor finally fell, he was retired by the Bourbon government.

Duke Décrès survived many bloody battles, to be at last assassinated by his valet. This man, who had been robbing him for a long time, placed a quantity of powder, with a slow match, under Décrès’ mattress. Stealing into the Duke’s bedroom at night, he blew him up. The valet, in his perturbation at what he had done, threw himself out of the window, and was killed. His master died a few days after, aged 58 years.

And now to return to this celebrated action.

At eleven o’clock at night, on the 30th of March, 1800, the Guillaume Tell, taking advantage of a strong southerly gale, and the darkness that had succeeded the setting of the moon, weighed anchor and put to sea.

About midnight the English frigate Penelope, which was on guard off the harbor, discovered the French ship, under a press of sail, with the wind on the starboard quarter. The Penelope at once made the necessary signals to the other blockading ships, and then tacked, and stood after the Tell. In half an hour she was close up with the chase, and luffed up, and gave the Tell her whole broadside; receiving in return, only the Tell’s chase guns.

The French ship, aware that if she brought to, she would soon have upon her the whole of the English blockading ships, whose lights could be already seen on the horizon, wisely kept her course to the northward.

The Penelope was faster than the Tell, and was commanded by an experienced seaman, and she continued to follow her, and to occasionally luff, and pour in a broadside, so that, just before daybreak, the Guillaume Tell’s main and mizzen-top-masts, and her main-yard came down. She was thus reduced, except her mizzen, to her head-sails; and these were greatly damaged by the Penelope’s shot. She had also lost many men from the English frigate’s raking shots.

The Penelope skillfully avoided exposing herself to a broadside from so powerful a ship, and had the good fortune to escape much damage to her sails and rigging. She had lost her master, killed, and a few wounded.

About five in the morning the Lion, 64, after pressing sail, arrived up. Steering between the Penelope and the crippled Guillaume Tell, and so near to the latter that the yard-arms of the two ships barely passed clear, the Lion ranged up on the port side of her opponent, and poured in a destructive double-shotted broadside. The Lion then luffed up across the bow of the Guillaume Tell, the jib-boom of the latter passing between the main and mizzen shrouds of the former. Of course, with an inferior complement of men, the Lion did not wish to be boarded, and, fortunately for her, the Tell’s jib-boom soon carried away, leaving the Lion inaccessible to boarders, but in an excellent position across the Guillaume Tell’s bows. Here the Lion, aided by the Penelope kept up a heavy fire, for about half an hour, when the Tell had so damaged the Lion that she was forced to drop astern; still firing, however, as did the Penelope, whenever an opportunity offered.

At six o’clock the Foudroyant came up. Lord Nelson was not on board, having been left, sick, at Palermo; and Captain Dixon, of the Lion, was the senior officer to Captain Sir Edward Perry, of the Foudroyant. The latter ship, under a crowd of sail, ranged up so close to the Guillaume Tell that her spare anchor just cleared the Tell’s mizzen-chains, and called to her to strike; accompanying the summons by a treble-shotted broadside. The only answer of the French ship was a similar broadside, which cut away a good deal of the Foudroyant’s rigging. The latter, having so much sail set, necessarily shot ahead, and did not again get alongside the Tell for several minutes. Then the two large ships engaged, and the Guillaume Tell’s second broadside brought down many of the English ship’s spars, and cut her sails to pieces. She then dropped alongside the Tell, still firing occasionally; as did the Lion, on the Tell’s port side, and the Penelope, on her port quarter. Under this unremitting and galling fire the gallant French ship’s main and mizzen masts came down; and the Foudroyant, having cleared away the wreck of her fallen spars, and to some extent refitted her rigging, again closed with the Guillaume Tell, and after a few broadsides, was nearly on board her. At eight o’clock the foremast of the Tell fell, and she was totally dismasted. At a few minutes after eight the gallant Frenchman was rolling, an unmanageable hulk, with the wreck of her masts disabling her port guns, and the violent rolling, in her dismasted state, requiring the lower deck ports, on both sides, to be closed.

The Foudroyant was on one quarter, the Lion on the other, and the Penelope close ahead. Under these circumstances the Guillaume Tell struck her colors.

Both the Foudroyant, 80, and the Lion, 64, were in too disabled a state to be able to take possession of the French 80-gun ship. That duty devolved upon the Penelope. The other vessels had enough to do to take care of themselves. Some English brig sloops and a bomb-vessel witnessed this singular engagement, but appear to have taken no part in it.

A more heroic defence than that of the Guillaume Tell is not be found in the record of naval actions; and the defeat in this case was more honorable than half the single ship victories which have been so loudly praised. To the Penelope belongs the special credit, next to the Guillaume Tell herself. Next to the frigate, credit is due to the Lion. It was, of course, the arrival of the Foudroyant which turned the scale. Had that ship, single handed, and so nearly matched, met the Tell, the contest would have been between two of the most powerful ships that had ever so met, and the chances are that the Guillaume Tell, so gallantly manned, and so ably commanded, would have come off the conqueror. This is conceded by all the English accounts.

All of the vessels engaged, except the Penelope, were so damaged that it was with difficulty they reached port; the Penelope towing the prize into Syracuse.

The Guillaume Tell was eventually taken to England, and received into the Royal Navy under the name of Malta, and she long remained one of the finest ships in the English service.

NAVAL OPERATIONS AT ABOUKIR BAY, AND CAPTURE OF ALEXANDRIA. A.D. 1801.

It being determined to effect the expulsion of the French from Egypt, a joint expedition was agreed upon between England and Turkey. On March 2d, 1801, the English part of the expedition anchored in the bay of Aboukir, which had already been the scene of two momentous battles within a very short time. The Turkish part of the expedition did not make its appearance, having been dispersed by bad weather. The English force consisted of seven sail-of-the-line, and several frigates and sloops, under the command of Admiral Lord Keith, in the Foudroyant, 80. These escorted a large number of disarmed men-of-war and transports, which conveyed about 17,000 English troops, under Sir Ralph Abercrombie. The whole day of arrival was taken up in anchoring this numerous fleet, and then a succession of high northerly gales, with a heavy surf, prevented the landing of the troops until the 8th of March. This gave the French time to muster all the force which they could spare to oppose the landing. This is stated in the British account to have been about 3000, while the French put it down at not more than 1200 men. There is every probability, however, that the French left out of their estimate the cavalry and artillery, which were certainly engaged in disputing the English landing. The French troops were under the command of General Friant, who, with great judgment, had stationed a part of his men and several pieces of artillery on an almost inaccessible hill that commanded the whole place of disembarkation, while other parties, with field pieces and mortars, occupied excellent positions afforded by the neighboring ground.

In good season, on the morning of the 8th, the boats of the fleet formed in line abreast, in the same order in which the troops, consisting of the first division of about six thousand men, were to form when landed. They then pulled rapidly towards the beach, which extends between the Castle or Fort of Aboukir and the river Sed. The whole of the landing arrangements were in charge of Captain Cochrane, of the Ajax; and the boats were partially protected, in their landing, by the guns of armed cutters, gun-boats, and launches, as well as by three sloops and two bomb-vessels.

As soon as the boats got near the shore a very sharp and steady fire of grape and musketry was opened upon them from behind the sand hills, while Aboukir fort, on the right, kept up a very galling fire of heavy shot and shell. But the boats pushed on, without check or confusion, the beach was gained, and a footing on dry land obtained. They then formed and advanced, and soon obtained possession of all the points from which the French were annoying them. The boats then returned, without delay, for the second division; and before night the whole army, with sufficient stores for present wants, was safely landed. Few except naval men can appreciate the difficulties to be encountered in such an operation as this, especially when the landing is upon an open coast, and such an undertaking, accomplished quickly and in good order, and without loss, is always considered extremely creditable.

A detachment of 1000 seamen, under Captain Sir Sidney Smith, formed part of the landing force. Their duty was to drag the cannon up the sand hills, a service which they performed in a manner which called forth the applause of the army, and in which they suffered considerably. The French, when driven from the hill, left behind them seven pieces of artillery and a considerable number of horses.

On the 12th the British army moved forward, and came in sight of the French position, which was an advantageous one, along the ridge, their left resting upon the sea and their right upon the canal of Alexandria, better known to us, in late operations there, as the Mahmoudieh canal.

The French had received reinforcements, under General Lanusse, and numbered about 7000. The following day a battle was fought, in which the seamen, under Sir Sidney Smith, and the marines of the fleet, under Colonel Smith, bore a full share. At the termination of the action the English took up a position within three miles of Alexandria. This movement caused the capitulation of Aboukir castle.

On March 21st occurred the decisive battle of the campaign. The French made a desperate attack upon the English lines, about an hour before daylight, but, after a bloody and desperate contest against greatly superior numbers, were forced to retire. The British sustained a very heavy loss, however, and the Commanding General, Sir Ralph Abercrombie, was mortally wounded, living only a few days. In this battle the seamen again participated, and Sir Sidney Smith was among the wounded.

Alexandria was now completely shut in; and no very important event took place until August 16th, when a naval force under Sir Sidney Smith made a demonstration of attack upon the city, and the French set fire to their flotilla, lying in the harbor. A week after this the fortified castle of Marabout, which protects the entrance to the western harbor of Alexandria, surrendered to a combined naval and military attack. This fort is about eight miles west of the city, and is one of those about which we heard so much in the late bombardment by the British iron-clads. On the nearer approach of the combined forces the garrison of Alexandria sank several vessels to block up the channel, and brought their few remaining ships nearer to the town. But these were expiring efforts. On the 27th of August General Menou sent to Lieutenant-General Hutchinson, who had succeeded Abercrombie, to request a three days’ armistice. This was granted, and on September 2d, Alexandria and its garrison capitulated.

Recent events have made these operations once more interesting. General Hutchinson (afterwards Lord Donoughmore) was, like Sir Garnet Wolseley, an Irishman, and their careers are, in many respects, alike.

Hutchinson entered the English army in 1774, as a cornet of dragoons, and in nine years rose to the rank of colonel. A Major-General in 1796, he became second in command in Egypt in 1801, as a Lieutenant-General, and succeeded to the command on Abercrombie’s death. He advanced, like Wolseley, as far as Cairo, when a capitulation took place, and the war ended.

THE CUTTING OUT OF THE CHEVRETTE. JULY, A. D. 1801.

The cutting out of vessels from harbors and from under the protection of shore batteries, belongs exclusively to a past condition of naval warfare. Even under the peculiar conditions of our late civil war and blockade, cutting-out expeditions, when the object was the capture of an armed vessel, were not so numerous as might have been supposed, although most remarkable and gallant actions were performed in this way by both sides.

As an example of a “cutting-out expedition,” we are tempted to give that of the French 20-gun corvette Chevrette. Such actions are decisive, on account of the discouragement and destruction of _morale_ brought upon the defeated side, and by the corresponding confidence and elation of the victors.

In the summer of 1801 the French and Spanish combined fleet was lying in Brest harbor, with Admiral Cornwallis and a British fleet watching them. The more effectually to prevent the Franco-Spanish fleet from getting to sea without his knowledge, the Admiral had detailed a squadron of three frigates, under Captain Brisbane, of the Doris, to lie off Point Mathias, in full view of the combined fleet.

During the month of July these frigates observed the French corvette Chevrette at anchor in Camaret Bay, under some batteries; a position considered by the French almost as secure as Brest harbor, and a capital place for a cruiser to lie and watch the chances of the blockade to get to sea. In spite of her position under the batteries, the British resolved to attempt her capture. Accordingly, on the night of the 20th of July, the boats of the Beaulieu and Doris frigates, manned entirely by volunteers, and all under the orders of a Lieutenant Losack, who had been sent in from the flag-ship, by Admiral Cornwallis, to take the command, proceeded on the enterprise. The boats soon separated, the crews of the faster ones being too zealous and excited to slacken their efforts, so that the heavier boats could not keep up with them. We can readily imagine, too, that a strange officer, sent in by influence, to command such an expedition, would not receive as cheerful support as would one of their own. Some of the boats got lost, and returned to the ships; the rest, after reaching the entrance to the bay, where they expected to be joined by their companions, lay upon their oars until daybreak. They then pulled back to their ships. But the mischief was done; they had been discovered from the corvette and from the shore, and the effect was to put them on their guard, and prevent any good being got from a surprise, in case of a renewed attempt.

On the 21st the Chevrette got under way, and after running about a mile and a half further up the bay, moored again, under some heavy batteries on the shore. Here she took on board a number of soldiers, sufficient to bring up her number on board to about three hundred and forty.

Her guns were loaded with grape, and every preparation made to resist to the last. The shore batteries were also prepared; and temporary redoubts were thrown up at adjacent points, while a gun-boat was moored as a guard-boat at the entrance of the bay. All these precautions taken, the corvette saucily displayed, in defiance, a large French ensign above an English one, which could be plainly seen from the anchorage of the English frigates.

The English now had their pride aroused, and that very night, about ten o’clock, the boats of the three frigates, with the barge and pinnace of the Robust, 74, and numbering fifteen in all, and still commanded by Lieutenant Losack, proceeded to try the French corvette a second time.

Shortly after starting Lieut. Losack, with his own and five other boats, went in pursuit of a lookout boat of the French, which it was important to secure. The rest of the boats were directed to await the return of the commanding officer. After waiting for a considerable time, without his return, the officer next in command, Lieut. Keith Maxwell, of the Beaulieu, considering that the boats had at least six miles to pull, and that the night was already far advanced, resolved to proceed without him.

They did so at once, after he had given orders that, while one party was engaged in disarming the enemy’s crew on deck, the smartest top-men of the Beaulieu should fight their way aloft and cut loose the sails; others were detailed to cut the cables, and others to go to the wheel. Some other arrangements made, the nine boats, under Maxwell, bent to their oars, and steered for the enemy.

At one o’clock in the morning of the 22d, the nine boats came in sight of the Chevrette, and the latter, after hailing, opened a heavy fire of grape and musketry upon her assailants, and this was seconded by a fire of musketry from the shore. But the boats pulled steadily on, and the Beaulieu’s boats, under Maxwell himself, boarded the vessel on the starboard bow and quarter. Those of the Uranie, one of the Robust’s, and one of the Doris’ boarded on the port bow. These latter had been cheered on by the gallant Lieut. Martin Neville, who was conspicuous throughout, and who was wounded. The attempt to board was most obstinately resisted by the French, with fire-arms, sabres, tomahawks and pikes; and they, in their turn, boarded the boats. During this formidable opposition over the side of the vessel the English lost most of their fire-arms; but, by obstinate fighting, at last forced their way on board, mostly armed with their cutlasses alone. Those who had been ordered to go aloft fought their way to the rigging; and, although some were killed, and others wounded, the remainder gained the corvette’s yards. Here they found the foot-ropes strapped up, but they soon managed to loose the sails, and, in the midst of the fight still going on for the possession of the deck, down came the Chevrette’s three top-sails and courses. The cable having, in the meantime, been cut outside the ship, she began, under a light breeze from the land, to drift out of the bay.

No sooner did the Frenchmen (who had up to that time, been fighting most gallantly), see the sails fall, and their ship under way, than they lost heart. Some of them jumped overboard, and made for the shore; while others dropped their arms, and ran below, so that the English got possession of the quarter-deck and forecastle; but the corvette’s crew that had fled below still maintained a hot fire from the main deck, and from up the hatchways, and it took a considerable time before these were overpowered, and compelled to submit.

It is related in the Naval Chronicle that Mr. Brown, Boatswain of the Beaulieu, in boarding, forced his way into the Chevrette’s quarter gallery, but found the door so securely barricaded that he could not force it. Through the crevices in the planks he could see men, armed with pikes and pistols, who frequently shot at him through the panels, as he attempted to burst in. Failing in the quarter gallery, he tried the quarter, and after a great deal of resistance, gained the vessel’s taffrail. The officer in command of the party was at this time fighting his way up on the quarter, but not yet on board. The boatswain stood up for a moment, a mark for the enemy’s fire, seeing in which direction he should attack. Second nature then directed him to make for the forecastle, where he felt most at home; and gathering a few men, and waving his cutlass, with “Make a lane there!” dashed in, and fought his way the whole length of the ship. Then, with the men animated by his example he soon cleared the forecastle, which he held for the rest of the contest, although frequently assailed. Here, after the vessel was carried, he was seen attending to orders from the quarter-deck, and assisting in casting the ship and making sail, with as much coolness as if he had been on board the Beaulieu.

On her way out of the bay, during a short interval of calm, the Chevrette became exposed to a heavy fire from the batteries on shore; but the fair, light breeze soon arose again, and carried her clear of them. Just at this time the six boats under Lieut. Losack joined her, and Lieut. Maxwell, was, of course, superseded in his command, but not until he had accomplished all that there was to be done.

Three two-deckers got under way and came out from Brest Roads with the view of recapturing the Chevrette; but the near approach of the British in-shore squadron compelled them to return to their anchorage, and the captors carried off their prize safely. In this spirited engagement the English had eleven killed, fifty-seven wounded, and one drowned. The latter was in one of the English boats sunk by the French shot.

The Chevrette lost her captain, two lieutenants, three midshipmen, one lieutenant of soldiers, and eighty-five seamen and troops killed; and one lieutenant, four midshipmen, and fifty-seven seamen and troops wounded; total, 92 killed and 62 wounded.

BOAT ATTACK UPON THE FRENCH FLOTILLA, AT BOULOGNE. A. D. 1801.

Another boat attack of the English upon the French, in the same year as the cutting-out of the Chevrette, did not result so favorably for the attacking party, even if their exertions were directed by no less a person than Lord Nelson himself.

The fall of the year 1801 was the season decided upon by Napoleon for putting in execution his famous plan for invading England. As this became known it was thought desirable, by his vigilant and powerful enemies on the other side of the Channel, to attack the flotilla of gun-boats and small craft which he had collected at Boulogne, and other ports, for the conveyance of his army. Accordingly, on July 30th, Vice-Admiral Lord Nelson hoisted his flag on board the frigate Medusa, 32, then lying in the Downs, as commander-in-chief, not only of the squadron for the special service, but of all the defences constructing along the south shores of England, from Orfordness to Beachey Head.

On the 3d of August Lord Nelson, having with him about thirty vessels, great and small, stood across to Boulogne, the port whence it was supposed the main attempt would be made against England, and which the French, fearing attack themselves, had recently been fortifying with considerable care.

On the morning of the 4th the English bomb-vessels threw their shells among the French flotilla, which consisted of twenty-four brigs, many lugger-rigged flats, and a schooner, anchored in line in front of the town. These brigs were vessels of about 200 tons, and generally armed with from four to eight heavy long guns. The lugger-flats drew but about three or four feet of water, had very stout bulwarks, and were armed with a 13-inch mortar, a long gun, swivels and small arms. They each carried about thirty men in crew, and one hundred and fifty soldiers besides. Bonaparte had an immense number of these lugger-flats constructed, all along the northern coast of France, for the conveyance of his army. It is hard to see how they were to be successful in accomplishing the object, in that spot of swift, uncertain tides, irregular currents, and most changeable weather. Nelson’s bombardment of Boulogne, on the morning of the 4th of August, amounted to nothing, and he retired.

On the night of August 13th, however, Nelson dispatched the armed boats of his squadron, formed into four grand divisions, and commanded by four captains, and accompanied by a division of mortar-boats, to attempt to capture and bring off the French flotilla at Boulogne, which had been very much strengthened since the last attack.

The boats put off from Nelson’s flag-ship at about half past eleven at night, in perfect order; but the darkness of the night coöperating with the tides and currents, soon separated the divisions. One of them, indeed, was obliged to return, and never reached the scene of action at all. Another division was carried by the currents far to the eastward, but at length, by dint of great exertion, reached the French flotilla just before daylight. Some portion of the boats then attacked, and after a short contest carried, a brig lying close to the pier head, but were prevented from towing her off, in consequence of her being secured with chains, and partly because of a heavy fire of musketry and grape-shot from the shore, and from other vessels moored close to.

In fact, the English “caught a Tartar,” and, abandoning their single prize, as the day broke pushed out of the range of French fire. They had accomplished nothing, and this division, which was commanded by Captain Somerville, had eighteen killed and fifty-five wounded.

Another division, under Captain Parker, had less trouble from the current, and got to the scene of action half an hour after midnight. They attacked one of the largest of the French brigs, most gallantly and impetuously, but a very strong boarding netting, triced up completely to her lower yards, baffled the British in their endeavors to board, while a general discharge of her great guns and small arms, the latter from about 200 soldiers on board, dashed the assailants back, bleeding and dazed, into their boats. Some other vessels were attacked, with a like result, and this division had also to retire, with a loss of twenty-one killed, and forty-two wounded.

The third and last division of Nelson’s boats which succeeded in reaching the enemy attacked with the same gallantry, and were repulsed as decidedly. They had five killed and twenty-nine wounded. Grand total, 44 killed, and 126 wounded. In addition the English had to leave behind them not a few of their boats; and the affair was in every respect a triumph for the French, in spite of the master mind which conceived it.

COPENHAGEN. A.D. 1801.

In the year 1800 the surrender of Malta to the English fleet gave it the mastery in the Mediterranean; and General Abercrombie, with a British force, landing at Aboukir Bay, defeated the French army which Bonaparte had left in Egypt, and which soon after found itself forced to surrender.

By the evacuation of Egypt, India was secured, and Turkey was prevented from becoming a dependency of France.

England now turned her attention to the Northern coalition.

The treaty of Luneville had left her alone in the struggle against France.

The Northern powers, wishing to secure their commerce from insult and capture by the always increasing naval power of England, had formed a coalition, headed by the Czar Peter, and revived the claim that a neutral flag should cover even contraband of war.

Denmark, which had been very active in the combination, was the first to feel the weight of the anger of the British Cabinet.

The Danish naval force consisted of about ten sail of seventy-fours and sixty-fours, in fair order, and of about as many more which were unserviceable. The Russians had about twenty sail available, and the Swedes eleven sail.

In the month of March, 1801, before the fleets of Sweden and Russia could join that of Denmark, and thus form a combined fleet which could hope to resist English encroachments, England dispatched a fleet to the Cattegat, under Admiral Sir Hyde Parker, with Lord Nelson as second in command.