XXI. 1782. if more had been attempted, it is difficult, perhaps BOOK impossible, to determine." What had been is unknown, what is appears ;"--and certain it is, that this was one of the most glorious and decisive naval victories ever obtained by the arms of Britain. The number of men slain in this action, and in that of the 9th, on the part of the French, is estimated at 3000 men, and the wounded were nearly double; so that, taking the prisoners on board the captured ships also into the computation, the French must have sustained a loss of ten or twelve thousand men. Their fleet had on board the land forces intended for the Jamaica expedition; and the whole train of artillery, with thirty-six chests of money destined for the use and subsistence of the troops, were found on board the Ville de Paris and the other ships now taken. The designs of the confederated powers were thus most completely frustrated, while the loss of men, including both killed and wounded, on the part of the British did not exceed 1100. For this great victory sir George Bridges Rodney was created a peer of Great Britain, by the title of Baron Rodney, of Rodney-Stoke in the county of Somerset, and a perpetual annuity of 2000l. an nexed to the title. A motion made and over-ruled in the preceding session of parliament, and intended to have been revived by the present ministry, for an XXI. 1782. BOOK inquiry into the conduct of the naval and military commanders at St. Eustatius, was now no more thought of; and the admiral received, as he well deserved, the unanimous thanks of both houses for his eminent services. In the month of June the Ville de Paris of 120 guns, the Centaur, Glorieux, Hector, Ramilies, and Canada, of 74 guns each, being dispatched from Jamaica, in order to convoy the homeward bound fleet, were exposed to one of the most tremendous storms ever remembered.-Dreadful it is to relate, that the latter ship alone, commanded by the brave captain Cornwallis, reached the English shores.— The merchant vessels sustained proportionate damage. In the month of August the Royal George of 110 guns, with a thousand men on board, admiral Kempenfelt, an excellent veteran officer, being himself of the number, foundered in Portsmouth harbour; being overset by a sudden gust of wind when placed in an inclined position, for the purpose of undergoing a slight careen: a sloop which lay at a small distance was swallowed up in the vortexand the far greater part of the crews of both vessels miserably perished. From these fatal mischances the public were glad to avert their eyes, and to fix them on other and happier scenes. The campaign of the present year was destined to be for ever signalized in the annals of history by another event not less glorious to the arms of Bri XXI. 1782. tain than the victory of sir George Rodney. The BOOK favorite object of Spain, during the whole of this war, was the recovery of the important fortress of Gibraltar; and after the reduction of Minorca the whole strength of the Spanish monarchy seemed to be directed to this purpose. The duc de Crillon, conqueror of Minorca, was appointed to conduct the siege; and, from the failure of former plans, it was resolved to adopt an entire new mode of ope ration. A project was formed by the chevalier D'Arçon, and approved by the Spanish court, to construct a number of floating batteries on a model which it was imagined would secure them from being either sunk or fired. With this view their keels and bottoms were made of an extraordinary thickness, and their sides defended by a kind of rampart, composed of wood and cork long soaked in water, and including between them a large layer of wet sand. The roof was made of a strong rope-work netting, covered with wet hides, and calculated by its sloping position to prevent the shells and bombs from lodging, and to throw them off into the sea before they could produce any effect. The batteries, ten in number, were made of the hulls of large vessels cut down for the purpose, and mounted with heavy brass cannon; and by a most ingenious mechanism, a great variety of pipes and XXI. BOOK canals perforated all the solid workmanship, in such a manner as to convey a continued succession of water to every part of the vessels. 1782. The preparations were enormous in other respects: about 1200 pieces of heavy ordnance had been brought to the spot, to be employed in the different modes of attack; above eighty gun-boats and bomb-ketches were to second the operations of the floating batteries, with a multitude of frigates, sloops, and schooners: and the combined fleets of France and Spain, amounting to fifty sail of the line, were to cover and support the attack, while they heightened the terrible grandeur of the scene. numbers employed by land and sea against the fortress were estimated at more than one hundred thousand men. The With this force, and by the fire of three hundred cannon, mortars, and howitzers, from the adjacent isthmus, it was intended to attack every part of the British works at one and the same instant. The count d'Artois and the duc de Bourbon, the brother and cousin of the French monarch, and numerous other volunteers of high rank, had repaired to the Spanish camp in order to witness the inevitable fall of that famous fortress, which had so long bid haughty defiance to the power of Spain. Early on the morning of the 13th of September, the ten battering ships, commanded by admiral don Moreno, came to an anchor in a line parallel to the BOOK rock, at the distance of about one thousand or twelve XXI. 1782. defence and of Gibral hundred yards. The surrounding hills were covered with people, as though all Spain were assembled to behold the spectacle. The cannonade and bom- Glorious bardment on all sides, from the isthmus to the sea, final relief and the various works of the fortress, were tremen-tar. dously magnificent. The prodigious and unintermitted showers of red-hot balls, of bombs, and carcasses, which filled the air, exhibited a scene perhaps unparalleled in military history. The whole peninsula, like some vast volcano, discharging on all sides its burning lava, seemed enveloped in a sheet or torrent of fire. The battering ships for many hours remained to all appearance unaffected; but about two in the afternoon the admiral's ship was observed to smoke, and soon after that of the prince of Nassau was observed to be in the same condition. The whole line of attack was now visibly disordered. At length the day having closed, the two first ships appeared to be in flames, and others were beginning to kindle; and signals of distress were universally made. Captain Curtis, who commanded the English marine force in the Bay, to complete the confusion, having advanced to the attack with his gun-boats, and raked the whole line. of batteries with his fire, the Spanish launches,which had been employed in bringing off the men, no |