before them to make it known to me, or the officer 1805. commanding on that station, to which they seem to point their course. Aug. loses At 10 A. M. the french squadron, which appears to have been lying to, was joined by a frigate and a brig from to-leeward. At 3 h. 30 m. P. M., being then distant from the Eolus about 12 miles in Eolus nearly the same direction as when first discovered, sight of the french squadron bore up and steered east-south- Rocheeast. At 5 P. M. the Eolus, still with her head squato the north-east, lost sight of the french squadron, dron. Shortly afterwards the frigate bore away to south; but at 6 h. 40 m. hauled up on the starboard tack, and made all sail in search of the vice-admiral. fort an and where sir On the 7th, in the forenoon, the Eolus brought to Board an american ship from Bordeaux to Charlestown, Ameand learnt that, two days before, she had been rican, boarded, off Cape Prior, by the british 74-gun ship learns Dragon, captain Edward Griffith, cruising in com- w Ropany with eight other sail of the line. As this was bert is undoubtedly the squadron of vice-admiral sir Robert cruis Calder, the Æolus, then only 38 leagues distant from Ferrol, crowded sail in the direction of that port. ing. the At 4 P. M., latitude at noon 43° 41' north, longi- Falls tude 10° 11' west, being close hauled on the larboard in with tack with a light breeze from the north-north-east, Didon. the Eolus discovered and chased a strange sail in the south quarter, standing under easy sail to the north-west. This was the french 40-gun frigate Didon, captain Pierre-Bernard Milius, two days from Corunna, in search of the squadron from Rochefort under rear-admiral Allemand, for whom she had important despatches.* At 4h. 30 m. P. M. the Didon Didon tacked towards the Eolus; but shortly afterwards, ma on ascertaining that the latter had no connection with M. Allemand's squadron, the french frigate bore up south-west. The Eolus bore up also, and * See p. 23. makes sail. 1805. continued in chase until 7 h. 30 m. P. M.: when, having approached near enough to discover that the Aug. ship was an enemy's frigate, "with yellow sides, discon the chase. and royal yards rigged aloft," the Eolus shortened Eolus sail and hauled to the wind on the starboard tack: tinues that is, while the french frigate continued running from the british frigate in the direction of south-west, the british frigate altered her course from south by west to north-west by west. These diverging courses soon shut out each frigate from the other's view; and at about 8h. 30m. P. M. the Eolus wore round on the larboard tack and resumed the course she was escapes steering when the Didon first hove in sight. Didon Guns, &c. of class. While, with light and variable winds, the Æolus is slowly making her way to the eastward, we will submit a few remarks upon the very very extraordinary circumstance of two frigates, each belonging to a nation at war with the other, voluntarily parting without a contest. Let us first see how far, on the score of relative olus force, either of these ships might feel justified in andher declining to engage the other. Could any circumstance connected with the old rating system of the british navy excite surprise, we should find it in the admiralty-order, which classed the Narcissus of 894, Tartar of 895, Amphion, of 914, Eolus of 919, and Medusa, of 920 tons, all, except the first, built in the year 1801, as 32-gun frigates, while, by another admiralty-order, the four frigates of the same year, the Meleager, of 875, Iphigenia, of 876, Shannon, of 881, and Tribune, of 884 tons, were registered as 36-gun frigates. Each class mounted 26 long 18-pounders on the main deck; but the 36s were established with twelve 32, the 32s with ten 24, pounder carronades: making, with four long nines, the total number of guns of the one class 42, and of the other 40. All five of these 32-gun frigates were, however, constructed to carry, and some of them subsequently mounted, 42 guns. In point of complement the difference was 10 men; giving to the Aug. 36-gun frigate 264, and to the 32-gun frigate 254, men 1805. and boys, including the three widow's men. At the time of her meeting the Didon, the Eolus, according to an entry in her log, mounted the 40 guns established upon her class; but she appears to have mustered at quarters, having probably manned one or two prizes, no more than 233 men and boys. The Didon was a very fine frigate of 1091 tons, Guns, and mounted two more guns than the establishment Didon. of her class, as given at p. 78 of the first volume, or 46 guns in all; of which 10 were iron, (similar to those of the Topaze,*) and four the usual brass, 36-pounder carronades. The crew of the Didon, according to the deposition of her officers in reference to an action fought by her three days after she had parted from the Eolus, amounted to 330 men and boys. These minute but important particulars established, we may present the following as the of the This figure-statement, compared with that in which Force appears the name of the Loire, a ship of the same two numerical force as the Didon,+ shows the effect ships pro- comduced in the broadside weight of metal of french pared. frigates by the substitution, to so great an extent, of 36-pounder carronades for long 8-pounders. In the present instance it gives a superiority of nearly three to two; whereas, in long guns only, the Didon is not superior to the Eolus by much above an eighth. But, according to that rigid law, the custom of the service, the larger of these differences, important as it is, does not excuse a british ship, even if aware that the odds are in that proportion against * See VOL. IV. p. Q † See vol. ii. p. 202. 1805. her, from bringing, or endeavouring to bring, an Aug. enemy to action. Respecting the cause, whatever it may have been, which prevented the Eolus from continuing in pursuit of the Didon, we shall postpone any further inquiry, until we have brought down the proceedings of the Eolus to a somewhat later period, and have dipped a little deeper into a new and very importtant source of information, which the account of lord William's rencounter with the Didon, as it stood in the first edition of this work, has recently opened to our Cause view. We may here explain how it happens that the of this case of the Eolus and Didon, instead of being, as being in the old edition, mixed up with the affair between sepa the latter and another british frigate, ranks in the rately consi- present under a distinct sub-head. It will be suffidered. cient to remind the reader that, when first introduc case Æolus falls in ing the head of "Light squadrons and single ships," we stated our intention to notice under it, among others, every case wherein vessels met," between which, from the relative situation of the parties as to force and other circumstances, an action might reasonably have been expected."* Pursuing her route towards the north-west coast with of Spain, the Æolus, on the 9th, at 6 h. 40 m. P. M., Dragon Cape Prior bearing south-east half-east distant five or six leagues, fell in with the Dragon, hastening to sir Robert Calder with the important information that the franco-spanish fleet had got into Ferrol and Corunna.+ At 6 h. 50 m. the Eolus asked, by signal, the situation of the admiral, and communicated in the same manner, that she had been "chased" (No. 406) by an enemy's squadron of five sail of the line. The Dragon acquainted the Eolus by signal, Is by that the british admiral was in the north-east by east; ducted and in that direction the frigate immediately accompanied the 74. At daybreak on the following day, Calder. the 10th, the 98-gun ship Neptune was fallen in with; her con to sir Robert * See vol. i. p. 127. † See p. 21; but the date is misprinted 10 instead of 9. Aug. Wil deli vers his ́and, in an hour or two afterwards, the remainder of 1805. the vice-admiral's squadron. Captain Griffith now communicated to sir Robert the important result of his second reconnoitring visit to Ferrol, and lord Lord William delivered to the vice-admiral the letter or liam letters (for we believe there was a private one) with which he had been intrusted. Shortly afterwards, letters. taking his measures from the Dragon's information, sir Robert ordered the latter ship to cruise for a certain period, and then, with the remainder of the squadron, proceeded to join the commander in chief Robert off Ushant. This the vice-admiral effected, as joins already mentioned, on the 14th ;* but the Eolus, Cornhaving for some cause or other parted company, did wallis. not join admiral Cornwallis until the forenoon of Eolus the 20th. .* Sir adm. also. son rendez secret. To view the case of the Æolus in the most favourable light, we must suppose that lord William, as in reply to our former remarks on his conduct he has since stated, did really imagine that he was the bearer, not of a letter which, comparatively, was of no consequence at all, but, of secret despatches of the utmost importance to the nation. We can Probareadily conceive why a document, containing the ble rearendezvous of a particular squadron, is inscribed that a on the envelope "Secret." "Secret." It is that the captain vous is may not communicate the contents to any of his marked officers, nor they to the crew. Otherwise, in case of capture, should even the despatch itself be thrown overboard, the enemy might gain oral intelligence of the exact spot at which he could pounce upon an inferior force. Why not "Rendezvous," with an understanding that it is to be kept within the captain's breast, substituted for the awfully mysterious word "Secret"? And why should a common letter from one admiral to another, with one or more of which almost every vessel is charged that travels from station to station, be dignified with the name of "despatch"? * See p. 21. |