British ships edged away for the three rearmost of the French ones, the Cæsar seeking the Formidable, the Hero the Mont Blanc, and the Courageux the Scipion. At 12.15 P.M., the Cæsar, and shortly afterwards the other ships, opened fire on the port hand, and, the French replying, a warm action began. At about 12.55 P.M., five minutes after Strachan had hoisted his signal for close action, the Duguay Trouin luffed up as if to cross the Cæsar's bows and rake her from ahead; but the latter, luffing up also, avoided the danger; and, the Duguay Trouin having gone in stays, both the two leading British ships were able to handle her very severely at close range. The Formidable, Mont Blanc, and Scipion tacked in support of the

Duguay Trouin, but, in the course of the manoeuvre, the French flagship, being somewhat crippled aloft, lost her place in the line and became second instead of third. The French, however, got round on the port tack; and at 1.20 P.M. the British wore or tacked in chase. The Casar made but bad progress; and, seeing that the Namur was then on the weather bow of the French, Strachan, at 1.40 P.M., signalled to her to attack the enemy's van, and, to the Hero, to lead on the port tack. So impatient was Sir Richard that he presently enforced the order to the Namur, with two shotted guns. A little before 2 P.M., the action was recommenced by the Hero, which fired her starboard battery into the Scipion with such

1805.]

STRACHAN AND DUMANOIR.

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good effect as to bring down the latter's main top-mast and to cause her to fall to leeward, where she was quickly engaged by the Courageux, from windward, and by the Phoenix and Révolutionnaire, then newly come up, from leeward. The Hero by that time, having placed herself on the Formidable's weather beam, gradually forereached her, until she gained a place on the French flagship's port bow. At 2.45 P.M., the Namur, arriving astern of the Hero, also engaged the Formidable, whereupon the Hero made sail to close with the Mont Blanc. At 3.5 P.M., when the Cæsar, having refitted, was about to open fire on her, the Formidable struck, and was taken possession of by the Namur; at 3.10 P.M., the Scipion also struck,

just as the Duguay Trouin and Mont Blanc were then bearing up to form a fresh line ahead of her. She was taken possession of by the frigates. It was then obvious to the French that the day was hopelessly lost; and the Duguay Trouin and Mont Blanc endeavoured to escape. But they were quickly overhauled by the Hero and Cæsar; and, after a hot cannonade which lasted for twenty minutes, both of them struck, at about 3.35 P.M.

The losses on the British side were: Cæsar, 4 killed, 25 wounded; Hero, 10 killed, 51 wounded; Courageux, 1 killed, 13 wounded; Namur, 4 killed, 8 wounded; Santa Margarita, 1 killed, 1 wounded; Révolutionnaire, 2 killed, 6 wounded; Phoenix, 2 killed,

4 wounded; Eolus, 3 wounded: total 24 killed, 111 wounded. The officers killed were Second Lieutenant Robert Morrison, R.M. (Hero), and Boatswain Thomas Edwards (Santa Margarita). The officers wounded were: Lieutenants John Skekel (Hero), Robert Clephane (Courageux), and Thomas Osborne (Namur); Captain William Clements, R.M. (Namur); Second Lieutenant Cornelius James Stevenson, R.M. (Hero); Midshipmen John Gibbs Bird (Courageux), and Frederick Beasley (Namur); Master's Mate Thomas Daws (Courageux); Purser Thomas Titterton (Hero), and Gunner John Austin (Courageux). The Hero and the Cæsar had suffered most severely aloft. The French ships lost seven hundred and fifty killed and wounded, including among the killed M. Touffet, captain of the Duguay Trouin, and among the wounded M. Dumanoir Le Pelley, and M. Bellanger, captain of the Scipion; and all of them had been terribly mauled.1

Such was this creditable pendant to the great battle of Trafalgar. A court of inquiry, which, however, was not held until 1809, censured Dumanoir Le Pelley's tactics. In consequence, the rearadmiral demanded a court-martial, and by it he was honourably acquitted. It may still, however, be asked: why did he not, on the day before the action, or even early on the 4th, tack with his four sail of the line, and fall upon the three British sail of the line, which, with the three frigates, were the only vessels then threatening him?

The four prizes were carried to Plymouth, and all of them were eventually added to the Royal Navy, the Formidable as the Brave, the Duguay Trouin as the Implacable, and the other two under their original names. The Implacable still (1900) survives as part of the training establishment for boys at Devonport. She is the last of the numerous prizes of the Napoleonic war, and, except the Victory, the sole survivor of Trafalgar. For his conduct Strachan, who became a Rear-Admiral on November 9th, was made a K.B. on January 29th, 1806; and both he and his officers and men received the thanks of Parliament. Each of the Captains engaged was also presented with a gold medal; and the first Lieutenants of the ships of the line were 2 promoted.

1 Strachan to Marsden, Nov. 4th, 1805: ditto, Nov. 8th. Chevalier, 233.

2 John Thompson (3), of the Namur, Robert Clephane, of the Courageux, Alexander Cunningham (2), of the Hero, and Benjamin Crispin, of the Cæsar, were made Commanders on Dec. 24th, 1805.

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THE THREATS OF INVASION.

175

Napoleon's plans for the invasion of the United Kingdom were doomed when the allied fleets put into Ferrol; and they were finally and hopelessly shattered by the results of Trafalgar and of Strachan's action. When news of Villeneuve's presence at Ferrol reached him, about the second week in August, the Emperor, apprehensive that the allies would be blockaded in that port, prepared to utilise for the marvellous central European campaign of Austerlitz the army which he had assembled against Great Britain. By August 23rd, Napoleon had learnt that the allies had put to sea again; and, hoping that they were heading for Brest and the Channel, he once more, for a brief space, turned to the scheme of invasion, and warned Marmont,' in Holland, to be ready to play his part in it, but to be ready also, in case of miscarriage of the fleet, to march inland. A few days later came the intelligence that, instead of making for Brest, Villeneuve had gone to Cadiz. The news obliged the Emperor to recognise that, for that year at least, he must abandon his project of crossing the Channel. Then followed Trafalgar; and the project which, until Trafalgar, had seemed feasible, though perhaps distant, faded into the impossible.

Yet, during more than half the year 1805, Great Britain still saw the invasion flotilla, and the French army, watching from across the Channel for an opportunity to overwhelm her. Unable to follow quickly the movements of the opposing fleets, she knew not from day to day what was in store for her; and until August, when Napoleon first began to withdraw some of his troops to the eastward, the menace seemed to grow hourly more grave. In those anxious months, when the immediate fate of the country was bound up more intimately than at any other period of its history with the fate of its fleets, the real work of defence was done, as has been shown, in the Mediterranean, off Brest, in the West Indies, along the Atlantic coasts of Spain and Portugal, and, finally, at Trafalgar ; but, as in previous years, the Navy did something also in the Channel against the huge armaments which lay waiting along the shores of France.

The spring of the year witnessed a systematic effort of concentration on the part of what may be called the right wing of the expeditionary army and flotilla. The corps of Davout moved from.

the neighbourhood of Ostend into the department of Pas de Calais ; and, at about the same time, part of the Franco-Batavian flotilla, which was attached to it, and which, in the previous year, had been driven into Ostend by Sir William Sidney Smith, moved as far to the westward as Dunquerque, whence it sought an opportunity for stealing piecemeal along the coast to its new rendezvous at Ambleteuse, a few miles north of Boulogne.

At 9 P.M. on April 23rd, the night being dark and a fresh N.E. wind blowing, a division of thirty-three gun-vessels and nineteen transports, which had previously reached Dunquerque road from Ostend, weighed in further pursuance of this plan of concentration. It safely passed Gravelines and Calais without being observed by the British cruisers; but, just before dawn on the 24th, it was thrown into some confusion by a shift of wind, first to S.E. and later to S.S.E., and by the change of tide; and the greater number of the craft made for an anchorage between Capes Blanc-Nez and Gris-Nez, although eight armed schuyts were too far to leeward to be able to follow. At break of day the enemy was discovered by a British squadron, the bulk of which was at anchor off Boulogne. This consisted of the Leda, 38, Captain Robert Honyman, the sloops Harpy, Commander Edmund Heywood, and Railleur, Commander Valentine Collard, the bomb Fury, Commander John Yelland, and the gun-brigs Bruiser, Archer, Locust, Tickler, Firm, Monkey, Gallant, and Watchful, the two last being on guard off Ambleteuse. The squadron chased to the N.E.; and at 8 A.M. the Gallant, Lieutenant Thomas Shirley (2), and the Watchful, Lieutenant James Marshall, closed with the schuyts, which were aided by some of the gun-brigs and by the shore batteries. The Gallant, struck between wind and water, had to haul off to stop her leaks; but the Watchful took one schuyt, and the Railleur, with the Locust, Lieutenant John Lake, and the Starling, Lieutenant Charles Napier (la), presently coming up, took six more, after a spirited engagement. On the following morning the Archer, Lieutenant William Price, captured another schuyt which had drifted off the land. The only loss on the British side was one seaman wounded.' The rest of the enemy's flotilla reached Ambleteuse, assisted by armed launches sent out from Boulogne by Rear

1 Gazette, 1805, 554. The schuyts had on board 18 guns, 1 howitzer, and 168 men. Capt. Honyman's letter omits to mention the Starling, which seems to have been present in addition to the eight gun-vessels named by him. James, iii. 306.