+===+====================+==============+====+====+===============+
Ý ÝNames ÝCommanders ÝGunsÝMen Ý Ý
+---+--------------------+--------------+----+----+---------------+
Ý 1.ÝL'Orient ÝAdmiral BrueysÝ 120Ý1010ÝBurnt Ý
+---+--------------------+--------------+----+----+---------------+
Ý 2.ÝLe Franklin Ý Ý 80Ý 800ÝTaken Ý
+---+--------------------+--------------+----+----+---------------+
Ý 3.ÝLe Tonnant Ý Ý 80Ý 800ÝTaken Ý
+---+--------------------+--------------+----+----+---------------+
Ý 4.ÝLe Guillaume Tell Ý Ý 80Ý 800ÝEscaped Ý
+---+--------------------+--------------+----+----+---------------+
Ý 5.ÝLe Conquerant Ý Ý 74Ý 700ÝTaken Ý
+---+--------------------+--------------+----+----+---------------+
Ý 6.ÝLe Spartiate Ý Ý 74Ý 700ÝTaken Ý
+---+--------------------+--------------+----+----+---------------+
Ý 7.ÝL'Aquilon Ý Ý 74Ý 700ÝTaken Ý
+---+--------------------+--------------+----+----+---------------+
Ý 8.ÝLe Souverain Peuple Ý Ý 74Ý 700ÝTaken Ý
+---+--------------------+--------------+----+----+---------------+
Ý 9.ÝL'Heureux Ý Ý 74Ý 700ÝTaken Ý
+---+--------------------+--------------+----+----+---------------+
Ý10.ÝLe Timoleon Ý Ý 74Ý 700ÝBurnt Ý
+---+--------------------+--------------+----+----+---------------+
Ý11.ÝLe Mercure Ý Ý 74Ý 700ÝTaken Ý
+---+--------------------+--------------+----+----+---------------+
Ý12.ÝLe Genereux Ý Ý 74Ý 700ÝEscaped Ý
+---+--------------------+--------------+----+----+---------------+
Ý13.ÝLe Guerrier Ý Ý 74Ý 600ÝTaken Ý
+---+--------------------+--------------+----+----+---------------+
Ý14.ÝLa Diane (Frigate) Ý Ý 48Ý 300ÝEscaped Ý
+---+--------------------+--------------+----+----+---------------+
Ý15.ÝLa Justice (Frigate)Ý Ý 44Ý 300ÝEscaped Ý
+---+--------------------+--------------+----+----+---------------+
Ý16.ÝL'Artemise (Frigate)Ý Ý 36Ý 250ÝBurnt Ý
+---+--------------------+--------------+----+----+---------------+
Ý17.ÝLa Serieux (Frigate)Ý Ý 36Ý 250ÝDismasted, sunkÝ
+===+====================+==============+====+====+===============+
Such were the forces that met to engage in deadly conflict on the 1st of
August 1798, with not only national but world-wide interest pending on
the issue, for the battle of the Nile was one of the leading battles of
the world.
When Nelson perceived the position of the enemy, his fertile and active
mind at once evolved a characteristic course of action. Where there was
room, he said, for an enemy's ship to swing, there was room for one of
his to anchor. He therefore at once formed the plan of doubling on the
French ships, stationing one of his ships on the bow and another on the
quarter of each of the enemy.
Nelson immediately explained his intended course to his officers. It
had been his custom during the whole time he was engaged in searching
for the French fleet, to have his captains as frequently as possible on
board the _Vanguard_, when he explained to them his opinions as to the
best mode of attack in all the various positions in which it was
possible or probable that the enemy might be found. Hence they knew
their commander's tactics so well, that when the hour for action
arrived, no time was lost in the tedious operation of signalling orders.
He had such confidence in all his officers, that after thoroughly
explaining his intended plan of attack, he merely said to them, "Form as
is most convenient for mutual support, and anchor by the stern. First
gain the victory, and then make the best use of it you can."
When Captain Berry, perceiving the boldness of the plan, said, "If we
succeed, what will the world say?" Nelson replied, "There is no _if_ in
the case; that we shall succeed is certain: who may live to tell the
story is a very different question!"
Nelson possessed in an eminent degree the power of infusing into his men
the irresistible confidence that animated his own bosom. There was
probably not a man in the British fleet who did not sail into Aboukir
Bay on that memorable day with a feeling of certainty that the battle
was as good as gained before it was begun. The cool, quiet,
self-possessed manner in which the British tars went to work at the
beginning must have been very impressive to the enemy; for, as they
advanced, they did not even condescend to fire a shot in reply to the
storm of shot and shell to which the leading ships were treated by the
batteries on an island in the bay, and by the broadsides of the whole
French fleet at half gunshot-range, the men being too busily engaged in
furling the sails aloft, attending to the braces below, and preparing to
cast anchor!
Nelson's fleet did not all enter the bay at once, but each vessel lost
no time in taking up position as it arrived; and as, one after another,
they bore down on the enemy, anchored close alongside, and opened fire,
the thunder of the French fleet was quickly and increasingly augmented
by the British, until the full tide of battle was reached, and the
shores of Egypt trembled under the incessant rolling roar of dreadful
war; while sheets of flame shot forth and rent the thick clouds which
enwrapped the contending fleets, and hung incumbent over the bay.
An attempt was made by a French brig to decoy the English ships towards
a shoal before they entered Aboukir Bay, but it failed because Nelson
either knew the danger or saw through the device.
It seemed as if the _Zealous_ (Captain Hood) was to have the honour of
commencing the action, but Captain Foley passed her in the _Goliath_,
and successfully accomplished that feat which the French had deemed
impossible, and had done their best to guard against. Instead of
attacking the leading ship--the _Guerrier_--outside, he sailed round her
bows, passed between her and the shore, and cast anchor. Before he
could bring up, however, he had drifted down to the second ship of the
enemy's line--the _Conquerant_--and opened fire. It had been rightly
conjectured that the landward guns of the enemy would not be manned, or
even ready for action. The _Goliath_, therefore, made short and sharp
work of her foe. In ten minutes the masts of the _Conquerant_ were shot
away! The _Zealous_ was laid alongside the _Guerrier_, and in twelve
minutes that vessel was totally disabled. Next came the _Orion_ (Sir J.
Saumarez), which went into action in splendid style. Perceiving that a
frigate lying farther inshore was annoying the _Goliath_, she sailed
towards her, giving the _Guerrier_ a taste of her larboard guns as long
as they would bear upon her, then dismasted and sunk the frigate, hauled
round towards the French line, and anchoring between the _Franklin_ and
the _Souverain Peuple_, received and returned the fire of both.
In like manner the _Audacious_ (Captain Gould) justified her name by
attacking the _Guerrier_ and _Conquerant_ at once, and, when the latter
struck passed on to the _Souverain Peuple_.
The unfortunate _Guerrier_ was also worthy of her title, for she bore
the brunt of the battle. Every ship that passed her appeared to deem it
a duty to give her a broadside before settling down to its particular
place in the line, and finding its own special antagonist or
antagonists--for several of the English ships engaged two of the enemy
at once. The _Theseus_ (Captain Miller), after bringing down the main
and mizzen-masts of the _Guerrier_, anchored inside the _Spartiate_ and
engaged her.
Meanwhile, on the other side of this vessel, Nelson's ship, the
_Vanguard_, bore down on the foe with six flags flying in different
parts of the rigging, to guard against the possibility of his colours
being shot away! She opened a tremendous fire on the _Spartiate_ at
half pistol-range. The muscular British tars wrought with heroic energy
at the guns. In a few minutes six of these guns, which stood on the
fore-part of the _Vanguard's_ deck, were left without a man, and three
times afterwards were these six guns cleared of men--so terrific was the
fire of the enemy.
Other four of the British vessels sailed ahead of the _Vanguard_ and got
into action. One of these--the _Bellerophon_ (Captain Darby)--engaged
the gigantic _L'Orient_, which was so disproportionately large that the
weight of ball from her lower deck alone exceeded that from the whole
broadside of her assailant. The result was that the _Bellerophon_ was
overpowered, 200 of her men were killed or wounded, all her masts and
cables were shot away, and she drifted out of the line. Her place,
however, was taken by the _Swiftsure_, which not only assailed the
_L'Orient_ on the bow, but at the same time opened a steady fire on the
quarter of the _Franklin_.
Before this time, however, the shades of night had fallen on the scene.
The battle began at half-past six in the evening--half-an-hour
afterwards daylight was gone, and the deadly fight was lighted only by
the lurid and fitful flashing of the guns.
Those vessels of the English squadron which happened to be in rear were
some leagues astern when the fight began, and it was so dark when they
entered that extreme difficulty was experienced in getting in. One of
these--the _Culloden_ (Captain Trowbridge)--sounded carefully as she
went, but got aground, where she remained helpless during the action,
despite the efforts of the _Leander_ and _La Mutine_ brig to get her
off. She served, however, as a beacon to the _Alexander_ and
_Swiftsure_.
The latter ship, on entering the bay, fell in with the drifting and
disabled _Bellerophon_, which was at first supposed to be one of the
enemy, because she did not show the signal ordered by Nelson to be
hoisted by his ships at the mizzen peak. This arose, of course, from
the masts having been shot away. Captain Hallowell wisely refrained
from firing on her, saying that, if she was an enemy, she was too much
disabled to escape. He passed on, therefore, and, as we have said, took
the station and the duty from which the other had been driven.
The huge _L'Orient_ was now surrounded. Captain Ball, in the
_Alexander_, anchored on her larboard quarter, and, besides raking her
with his guns, kept up a steady fire of musketry on her decks. Captain
Thomson also, in the _Leander_, took up such a position that he could
fire into her and the _Franklin_ at the same time.
Standing in the midst of death and destruction, the hero of the Nile did
not escape scathless. He remained unhurt, however, until he knew that
victory was certain. The first and second ships of the enemy's line
were disabled, as we have said, at the commencement of the action, and
the third, fourth, and fifth were taken between eight and nine; so that
Nelson could not have much, if any, doubt as to the issue of the battle.
Suddenly he received a wound on the head from a piece of langridge shot,
and fell into the arms of Captain Berry. A large flap of skin was cut
from the bone and fell over his sound eye,--the other having been lost
in a previous engagement. The flow of blood was very great, and, being
thus totally blinded, he thought that he had received a mortal wound.
He was immediately carried down to the cockpit.
The cockpit of a man-of-war lies in that part of the ship which is below
water, and is never visited by the light of day. Being safe also from
the visitation of shot or shell, it has been selected as the place to
which the wounded are conveyed during an action to have their wounds
dressed and limbs amputated by the surgeons--whose hands at such seasons
are, as may easily be supposed, much too full. No pen can describe
adequately the horrors of that dimly-lighted place, with its flickering
lights, glittering knives, bloody tables and decks, and mangled men,
whose groans of agony burst forth in spite of their utmost efforts to
repress them. Here, in the midst of dead, dying, and suffering men, the
great Admiral sat down to wait his turn.
The surgeon was engaged in dressing the wounds of a sailor when he was
brought down. On learning who it was that required his services, he
quitted the man who was under his hands. "No," said Nelson, refusing
his proffered assistance, "no; I will take my turn with my brave
fellows." Accordingly, there he remained, persistently refusing aid,
until every man who had been previously wounded had been attended to!
When his turn came, it was found that his wound was merely superficial
and heartfelt was the joy expressed by the wounded men and the crew of
the _Vanguard_ when this was made known.
But before this had been ascertained, and while he believed himself to
be dying, Nelson called the chaplain, and gave him his last remembrance
to Lady Nelson, appointed a successor to Captain Berry, who was to go to
England with the news of the victory, and made other arrangements in
anticipation of his death. But his hour had not yet come. When the
surgeon pronounced his hurt to be superficial, he refused to take the
rest which was recommended, and at once sent for his secretary to write
despatches.
While he was thus engaged, a cry was heard which rose above the din of
battle, proclaiming that the _L'Orient_ was on fire. In the confusion
that followed, Nelson found his way upon deck unassisted, and, to the
astonishment of every one, appeared on the quarter-deck, and gave orders
to lower the boats, and send relief to the enemy.
But before describing the scene that followed, we shall turn aside for a
little to watch more closely the proceedings of Captain Westcott in the
_Majestic_, and the personal deeds of Bill Bowls and his messmates.