Britain's naval power : a short history of the growth of the British navy

Front matter

CORNELL

UNIVERSITY

LIBRARY

Preface

This short lustory of the British Navy is the outcome of a serious demand for such a book to supply a want recognised and admitted by all branches of H.M. Navy, and also, it is believed, by those ashore who wish their boys to know something of the story of British Naval renown.

The information has chiefly been gathered from the Naval Histories of Campbell, Southey, and Yonge, the two volumes of Sir Harris Nicolas, Mr. Froude's Seamen of the Sixteenth Century, a Pamphlet on the Armada by Mr. W. H. K. Wright, F.R.H.S., and the well-known work by Captain Mahan, U.S.N.

No special fitness for the task can be claimed by the compiler, save a very keen interest in the subject : his pen is an inexperienced one : there are numbers of naval officers more capable for the work than

PREFACE

This short liistory of the British Navy is the outcome of a serious demand for such a book to supply a want recognised and admitted by all branches of H.M. Navy, and also, it is believed, by those ashore who v/ish their boys to know something of the story of British Naval renown.

The information has chiefly been gathered from the Naval Histories of Campbell, Southey, and Yonge, the two volumes of Sir Harris Nicolas, Mr. Froude's Seamen of the Sixteenth Century, a Pamphlet on the Armada by Mr. W. H. K. Wright, F.R.H.S., and the well-known work by Captain Mahan, U.S.N.

No special fitness for the task can be claimed by the compiler, save a very keen interest in the subject : his pen is an inexperienced one : there are numbers of naval officers more capable for the work than

X BRITAIN'S NAVAL POWER

himself; but the lot fell to him, and in offering this book to the public, he can only allow himself to hope that its errors may not prove of so glaring a nature as wholly to destroy its usefulness.

Chapter 1

Alfred the Great forms a navy — Constructs ships on his own lines — Defeats Danes at sea — Edgar improves and enlarges the navy — Guards the coasts — Ethelred's neglect and hesitation — Norman Conquest — No English fleet to meet it — Loss of the Blanche Nef ....... Page i

Chapter II

Richard I. collects a large fleet for the Crusades — First English fleet in foreign waters — Attacks Limasol — Sails in the Trench-the-mer — Fights a huge Turkish dromon — John excommunicated — French fleet at Damme — Salisbury destroys it — Eustace the Mock and Hubert de Burgh— The Cinque Ports— Sir R. Tiptoft's fight in the Channel ....... 9

Chapter III

Edward III. claims the crown of France — A French fleet ravages the English coasts — Battle of Sluys — Edward lands at La Hogue — Battle of " L'Espagnols sur mer" — Neglect of navy — Winchelsea burned — Battle of La Rochelle— Capture of an English fleet off Brittany by Spaniards — No notice is taken of it . . .19

Chapter IV

Channel and mouth of the Thames held by pirates— Depredations of French and Spaniards on the English coasts — Charles VI. prepares a huge fleet for invasion of England — Panic in London — Fleet

XU BRITAIN'S NAVAL TOWER

driven back by bad weather — Earl of Aiundel defeats a combined fleet in the Channel — Henry IV. — Attacks and reprisals by private vessels and squadrons — Henry hands over the defence of the coast to merchants — The plan utterly fails — Henry is nearly taken by pirates — Henry V. restores the navy — Crosses over to France with a splendid fleet — Duke of Bedford fights the French fleet at Harfleur — Earl of Huntingdon defeats the French in the Channel

CHAPTER V Henry VI Decline of our naval power — The fleet divided between

the rival Roses — Henry VII. restores the navy— ^Builds the Great Harry — Columbus — Cabot — Henry VIII. makes war on France — Sir Edward Howard attacks the French fleet off' Brest — Regeiil and Cordelier — France again prepares to invade— French fleet anchors in St. Helen's Roads — Loss of the Mary Rose^T)\s<^tx%2\ of the French fleet — Edward VI. — IVIary — Elizabeth — The privateers — Pioneers and rovers — Philip of Spain prepares to invade England — Drake harries the Spanish coasts — He " singes the King of Spain's beard" — The Armada sails — It meets foul weather — Puts in to Corufia — The Queen's navy — Comparison of forces — Armada sails again — The fight in the Channel — At Calais — Flight — Storm — Destruction — Elizabeth's meanness — Sir Richard Grenvile in the Revenge — Death of Elizabeth . . . . .41

Chapter VI

James I. — Charles I. — Buckingham's fiascos — The Dutch — Cromwell's Navigation Act — Saluting the flag — Tromp insults Dover — Blake attacks him — De Ruyter attacked by Ayscough — Battle off the Kentish Knock — Biake beaten by Tromp — Battle of Portland — Battle off Essex coast — Battle off Dutch coast — Death of Tromp — Cromwell makes war on Spain — Capture of a plate fleet — Blake at Santa Cruz — Death of Blake — Charles II. — Quarrels between English and Dutch East India Companies — War breaks out — Opdam defeated off Lowestoft by Duke of York — The Four Days' Fight off' the North Foreland— The St. James' Fight— The Dutch in the Thames — Peace of Breda — Secret treaty of Dover — Battle of Solebay — French fleet plays the traitor — Further fighting — Treaty of London . . . . . . .62

CONTENTS

Chapter VII

William of Orange — Battles of Bantry Bay, of Beachy Head, of La Hogue — Attacks on St. Malo, Dieppe, and Calais — Peace of Ryswick — Spanish Succession — Anne — Rooke's Victory at Vigo — Benbow and Du Casse — Wade and Kirby are shot — Great storm — Capture of Gibraltar— Battle of Malaga-^Shovel in the Mediterranean — Loss of the Association, Eagle, and Roinney — Forbin and Duguai Trouin take the Cumberlami and others — Treaty of Utrecht ...... Page 84

Chapter VIII

George I. — The "Fifteen" — A Spanish fleet seizes Palermo — Admiral Byng'svictoryoff Cape Passaro — Georgell. — ^Jenkins's ear — Admiral Vernon at Porto Bello — Failure at Cartagena and Santiago — Anson takes the great galleon — Matthews and Lestock off Toulon — Loss of the Victory — The "Forty-Five" — Lion and Elizabeth — Anson off Finisterre — Hawke off Brest — Peace of Aix-la- Chapelle — Braddock's defeat and death — The Seven Years' War — French attack Minorca — Byng sent to relieve it — Byng fights and abandons it — Execution of Byng — Attacks on French coast — French prepare to invade — Rodney at Havre — Boscawen and De la Clue off Lagos — Hawke and Conflans in Quiberon Bay — Elliot and Thurot off Isle of Man — George HI. — Belleisle taken — Spain makes war — Herinione taken — The Havana taken by Pocock — Manila taken —The Santisima Trinidad taken . .102

Chapter IX

The tea-tax — Sir Peter Parker at Norfolk , Virginia — Attack on Charleston repulsed — Lord Howe in the Eagle — Bushnell's torpedo— Douglas' squadron on Lake Champlain^French declare war— Howe and D'Estaing at Rhode Island — Barrington and D'Estaing— Keppel and D'Orvilliers off Brest — Spain joins France— Byron and D'Estaing —France and Spain prepare to invade— Huge fleet off Plymouth- Rodney and De Langara off St. Vincent — Gibraltar relieved— Rodney and De Guiclien in the West Indies— Great hurricane- Nelson at San Juan— Second relief of Gibraltar by Admiral Darby — Parker and Zoulman off the Dogger Bank— De Grasse and Hood at Fort Royal— De Grasse and Graves off the Chesapeake— De Grasse and Rodney off Martinique— Lord Howe prepares to relieve xiv BRITAIN'S NAVAL POWER

Gibraltar again— Loss of the Royal George —The great attack on Gibraltar — Sir Edward Hughes and M. de Suffren in the East Indies— Treaty of Versailles . . . ,. Page 131

Chapter X

Mutiny of the jSoK/i/j/ — War with the French Republic — Hood at Toulon — Nelson in Corsica — "The Glorious First of June" — Martinique and St. Lucia taken — Dutch declare war — Cornwallis escapes from the French fleet — Bridport off Lorient — Hotham in the Gulf of Genoa — fa Ira and Censem — Hotham off Hybes — Attempt on Ireland — Spain joins France — Battle of St. Vincent — The Mutinies — Attacks on Cadiz — Nelson at Santa Cruz — Battle of Camperdown . . . . . • .164

Chapter XI

General Humbert lands in Ireland — His surrender — Warren's victory oil the west coast of Ireland — Nelson sent to the Mediterranean — French expedition to Egypt — Va?iguard AhmzsteA — Pursuit of French fleet — Battle of the Nile — Admiral Bruix's cruise from Brest — Operations on the Italian seaboard — Defence of Acre — Surrender of Dutch fleet to Lord Duncan — Capture of the Thetis and Santa BrigiJa — Siege of Malta — Capture of Ghiereitx and Guillatune Tell — Surrender of Malta — Loss of the Queen Charlotte by fire — The Freya incident — "Armed Neutrality of the North" — Battle of Copenhagen — Nelson's home command — Attack on Boulogne— Ganteaume's attempt to relieve the army in Egypt — Linois and Saumarez at Algeciras — Treaty of Amiens • . . , 198

Chapter XII

Preparations for invasion — War again declared — French ports unceasingly watched — Buonaparte declares himself Emperor — Nelson off Toulon — Admiral Latouche Treville — Spain prepares for war — Capture of Spanish treasure-ships — Mercedes blows up — Nelson's weary watch — Buonaparte's plans of invasion — The flotillas — The French fleets— Missiessy is the first to move — Villeneuve slips out of Toulon — Nelson pursues him blindly^Combined fleet escapes to West Indies — Nelson follows — He chases them back to Europe — They encounter Sir R. Calder — Calder tried by court-martial — Combined fleet retires to Cadiz — Nelson is sent there — Battle of Trafalgar . 233

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

Frontispiece

Xelsox ......

Norman Ships — William sailing to England

Continuation of the record of the Noriman Invasion SHOWING the Sail, Steering Oar, and Moorings

Sea-Fight — Early 14TH Century MS. Roy 10 E 10

Expedition of the Knights of France and England under the duke of bourbon to africa in 139o

Henry VIII. embarking at Dover

Sir Francis Drake

The Armada in the Channel

The Armada off Calais

Map OF THE Course of the Armada

Tett's " Sovereign of the Seas"

Admiral Blake .

The " Royal Charles " ueing taken off to Holland

The Battle of Solebay

The Stern of the " Royai, Charlls"

Destroying the Ships after the Battle of La Hogue

Ad.viiral Lord Rodney

Plan— Battle of St. Vincent

Plan — Battle of the Nile

Plan — Battle of Copenhagen

Plan— Battle of Trafalgar

7 '3

Si

223 250

Chapter I

Alfred the Great forms a navy — Constructs ships on his own lines — Defeats Danes at sea — Edgar improves and enlarges the navy — Guards the coasts — Ethelred's neglect and hesitation — Norman Conquest — No English fleet to meet it — Loss of the Blanche Nef.

" On the British Navy, under the good providence of God, the wealth, safety, and strength of the kingdom chiefly depend." So runs the preamble to the Articles of War, and few Englishmen would wish to dispute the fact. But while we glory in the tale of the Armada and of a long line of brilliant victories, culminating in the supreme day of Trafalgar, we are apt to forget the means whereby these victories were assured to us. It is well that our people should study not only the triumphs of our Fleet, but its reverses also ; that they should make themselves acquainted with every step in that long and often bitter struggle through which the British Navy won its way from insignificance to the mastery of the seas. To meet invasion successfully the enemy must never be permitted to place his foot on our shore. Our insular position and our absence of frontier benefit us only so long as we encounter our assailants on the passage between their coast and ours. It is not surprising that this fact should not have S B been immediately recognised. Certainly the original Britons did not know it (though Southey asserts that they had large and powerful vessels built of strong oak), for their defence began as the Roman landed. / Nor, in the three hundred years during which Britain

was a Roman province, do our conquerors appear to have taught us this, with all their naval knowledge, for, after their departure, no effort seems to have been made afloat to drive off the forces of the Angles, the Saxons, or the Jutes.

It was reserved for Alfred the Great, under pressure of the Pagans of the North, to discover what is now regarded as a self-evident proposition, that the first and only real line of defence for an island consists in an efficient navy. Sea-fights had taken place before his time between the invading Danes and our forefathers, in some of which the latter were successful ; but to Alfred was given the inspiration that the true defence was never to let the foe Alfred builds land. To effect this object he began to build the a navy. fjj.g^ British fleet. It was not a slavish copy of the

ships of the enemy, nor even a reproduction of the best British models, but built on lines of his own, adapted to the necessity of the case, " full-nigh twice as long as the others ; some had sixty oars, some had more ; they were both swifter and steadier and also higher than the others ; shapen neither like the Frisian nor the Danish, but so as it seemed to him that they would be most efficient" With this fleet, small in numbers, we may suppose, compared with that of the enemy, but possessing superior fighting powers, Alfred on several occasions encountered and defeated the Danish pirates, capturing many of their ships, and thus teaching his people the value of the

I EDGAR'S NAVY 3

command of the sea, and bequeathing the knowledge to his successors to be enlarged and utilised with a wider experience.

The legacy of a commanding navy was improved by those who followed him. Alfred died in 901, and sixty years afterwards we find Edgar, called the Peaceful, protecting the coasts of his kingdom with Edgar protects three powerful fleets, one on the north, another on ** '^°^"' the east, and a third on the west coast, numbering altogether between four and five thousand sail. This was the monarch who is said to have been rowed up the Dee by eight dependent kings : by Kenneth King of the Scots, Malcolm King of Cumberland, M'Orrie King of Anglesey and the Isles, Dyfnwal, Gwfifith, and Howel, three Welsh kings, Jago King of Galloway, and Jukil King of Westmoreland. It is of Edgar that the ancient chronicler observes that : " No fleet was so daring, nor army so strong, that 'mid the English nation took from him aught the svhile that the noble king ruled on his throne." Each year he made the circuit of his coasts, and put his fleets through something in the nature of naval manoeuvres to keep up their efificiency.

But as now the efficiency of a force depends in great measure on the efficiency of the government which controls it, so in those days did the strength of the navy wax or wane with the character of the King. Close on the heels of his father Edgar came the wretched sovereign whom all succeeding generations have known by the fatal name of the Unready or Ill-advised. Ethelred was indeed a terrible example of a wavering mind. First, he bought off his Danish foes with ;£'i6,ooo ; then, he would attack them both by land and water, but when the ships were ready

Chap. I The Danish Invasions S

he had not the courage to move. Again he bought them off, this time with .£'24,000 ] and then, as if enraged at the price of his own weakness, he mas- Etheired's sacred all the Danes iri his dominions. Once more '''^^''"ess. a bribe of ^36,000 gave him momentary peace, and again he prepared a mighty fleet after the fashion of his wise father, and proposed to regain command of the sea. But the disordered mind of the King had infected his officers. Part of his fleet deserted, part was miserably wrecked and scattered in a storm ; the remainder followed the lead of the King and his Court, laid the ships up, and abandoned the enterprise.

Possibly, had Edmund Ironside, the worthy son of an unworthy sire, lived to occupy the throne for more than a few months, his defence of his kingdom might have been as magnificent afloat as it was on shore. But, whether by treachery or by natural cause, the year of his accession was also that of his death, and the Danish invasion became the Danish occupation.

This invasion, like that of the Angles and Saxons preceding it, had been the work of many years, and was made up of the sum of many expeditions, the tide of victory ebbing and flowing so often that nearly two centuries had passed before the final result was attained. It was to be followed after the lapse of but fifty years by an invasion, the sudden and overwhelming character of which completely distinguishes it from any that had gone before, and invests it with a terrible and unique dignity. This was the Norman Conquest. As to The Norman the number of the ships which carried over William's "1™='°"- invading force accounts differ widely : — 400 large

6 BRITAIN'S NAVAL POWER chap, i

ships with looo transports is the estimate of one writer, 3000 ships carrying sails the estimate of another. Enough for us to know that it was a mighty force, and that, encumbered as it was with men-at-arms, witli mailed knights, and with horses, it offered a splendid opportunity of attack to a well-appointed fleet, had there been such waiting to receive it in mid-channel. Where, then, was the fleet of England ? The answer is significant. Such a fleet, described as the largest ever seen in England, had been assembled at Sandwich in anticipation of the attack, in co-operation with an army of equally large proportions. Harold, we know, had hurried north with the army to meet the Giant of Norway and the traitor Tostig ; but the fleet, on which the safety of England depended, had dispersed, the only reason alleged being that their provisions were exhausted. So, unchecked by any effort of our first line of defence, the invasion broke in one huge wave upon our unprotected shore and swept all before it.

Thus on four occasions England fell into the hands of the invader — Roman, Saxon, Dane, and Norman — because its coast was unprotected. It should be noted that the attack of the Dane was absolutely checked while the navy of Edgar was maintained in efficiency, and that the Norman was only successful in that the defence began after his foot was firmly planted on our shores. Even the Conqueror himself, though victorious at Senlac, was shortly after obliged, through want of a naval force, to resort to the plan of the unlucky Ethelred, and to bribe away a fleet of Northmen which threatened our eastern coast. But the peace thus obtained was

CHAP. I

Loss of the Blanche Nef, 1 1 20.

employed by the Duke in forming a navy so strong that we hear of no more such attacks from the Danes, who, as the Saxon chronicler expressly asserts, " durst not maintain a fight with King William."

Beyond the piteous story of the loss of the Blanche Nef in the Ras de Catteville in 11 20, when the heir to the throne and the flower of the young nobility of England and Normandy were lost on a November night in the midst of song and revelry, the reigns of Rufus and Henry I., the wild anarchy of Stephen, and even the stern rule of Henry H. offer no naval events of sufficient importance to be chronicled here ; and so we pass on to the reign of Richard of the Lionheart, the first English monarch to carry an English fleet into foreign waters.

Chapter II

Richard I. collects a large fleet for the Crusades — First English fleet in foreign waters — Attacks Limasol — Sails in the Trench-the- /««/■— Fights a huge Turkish dromon — John excommunicated — French fleet at Damme — Salisbury destroys it — Eustace the Monk and Hubert de Burgh — The Cinque Ports— Sir R. Tiptoft's fight in the Channel.

The rescue of the Holy Sepulchre from the hands of the infidel, and the establishment of a Christian monarch upon the throne of the House of David, were subjects which had enflamed the knightly heart of Europe for many years before Richard came to the throne of England. He had already taken the cross ere he wore the crown ; but his accession to royal power afforded him ampler means of pursuing his object, and he lost no time in availing himself of them.

Having come to the throne in 1189, in April 1 190 he collected at Dartmouth an enormous fleet, Richard i. which was to join him at Marseilles. The winds ^°'^^^"= ^ "« '■ were adverse, however, through nearly all that summer. It was not till September that he took command of his fleet, not at Marseilles, but at Messina ; nor was it till the following April that he sailed with it for the coast of Syria. All writers unite in describing it as magnificent, though their quaint terms do not much help us to an adequate idea of its lo BRITAIN'S NAVAL POWER chap.

appearance. Thirteen " dromons " or " very large busses," 150 smaller "busses," and 53 well-armed galleys, with several galliasses and other light vessels formed his fleet ; the 1 3 large " busses " being described as having a " threefold expansion of sails," which seems to point to their being three-masted vessels. They sailed in eight separate lines, each line a trumpet-call distant from the next, and Richard himself in the eighth line commanded and regulated the whole. It was not all fine weather sailing, however. Several of his ships were lost in a gale off the coast of Cyprus ; the vessel containing his bride, Berengaria of Navarre, and his sister, was driven into Limasol, and there ill-treated by Isaac of Cyprus. The fiery Richard on his arrival at once Richard I. proceeded to his vengeance. He took Limasol, defeated Isaac, threw him into prison, loaded him with silver chains, and exacted a heavy recompense in money and land. Once more, on 5 th June, he sailed in his favourite galley. Trench- the -mer (the " Shearwater "), and shaped his course for Acre. The fleet had already made the land when, in the neighbourhood of Baruth (Beyrout), they sighted an enormous ship, described by one of the annalists of the time as only second in size to Noah's ark. She was " stoutly built," with three tall masts, and " her sides were painted, in some places green and in others yellow, so elegantly that nothing could exceed her beauty." She carried 1500 men, Greek fire in abundance, and " 200 most deadly serpents for the destruction of the Christians." For some time there was a doubt as to her nationality as she showed no colours ; but having at length induced her to declare herself, Richard at once commenced the attack takes Limasol 1191,

II THE GREAT DROMON i!

with his usual impetuosity. She was not, how- Richard i. ever, a foe to yield without a struggle ; and indeed, fightsaTurkisi;

tor a long time it seemed as if the victory might be hers. So lofty were her sides that the King's ships found it well-nigh impossible to shoot on to her decks, while they themselves were overwhelmed by the storm of arrows, stones, spears, and Greek fire showered on them from so great a height. Boarding was tried and failed, and the English began to show a disposition to draw off. Then the King in a paroxysm of fury swore that if the great ship escaped, every one of his men should be crucified or put to the torture. Urged in this strange fashion to fresh exertions, the crew of the Trenchtke-mer leaped overboard and succeeded in fouling the enemy's rudder, so that she could not steer. A second attempt to board carried the Englishmen on to the dromon's deck ; but the weight of numbers was too overpowering, and they were driven back with heavy loss. One last resource remained. The great ship was helpless, her rudder useless either for advance, retreat, or manoeuvre. The English galleys* formed in line, and at a given signal, at full sweep of their powerful oars, hurled their iron beaks together upon the huge dromon. She gave a shuddering lurch, and, with her side smashed in in a dozen places, sank at once, carrying all but fifty-five of her crew with her. We are specially told that the 200 serpents were drowned; and that the King generously rewarded his men with all that they could save from the ship, which does not appear, on the face of it, to have been much. With Richard's doings in Palestine, with his imprisonment, his ransom, and his death at Chaluz, we are not concerned. Nor does the reign of his brother John offer much of naval interest. We may except the attack made by the Earl of Salisbury on the French fleet, which, to the number of 1700, was assembled Battle of in or near the port of Damme, for the invasion of

Damme, 1213. England and the removal of her excommunicated King. The attack was a surprise ; the French ships were denuded of their crews, and over 400 vessels were either taken or destroyed ; but the affair scarcely rises to the dignity of a naval engagement.

But hardly had John died and left his throne to his little son Henry III. when an event occurred which illustrates at once the value of the first line of defence. It will be remembered that after the signing of Magna Charta, the barons of England, rendered desperate by the vengeance of the incensed monarch, turned to France and offered the crown of England to Prince Louis, who at once came over and joined the barons in London. But the sudden death of the vindictive John and the accession of the infant Henry, transformed Prince Louis from friend to foe ; and at the Battle of Lincoln he learned painfully that he was looked upon as an , intruder. His friends in France, however, were not inclined to let him tamely abandon so great a prize as the English crown. Robert de Courtenay sailed to his relief with a large army and a fleet of over 80 large vessels, under the command of the famous or rather infamous rover Eustace the Monk, a name of dread along all the southern coast of England. But in the Governor of Dover Castle, Hubert de Burgh, England possessed a man fully capable of encountering so redoubtable a foe. At first his summons to arms was not responded to with the

11 THE BATTLE OF SANDWICH 13

enthusiasm which he had a right to expect. " We are not sea-soldiers, nor pirates, nor fishermen," replied those to whom he addressed himself, " Go thou and die ! " But presently inspired by his determination bolder counsels prevailed, and with 16 large and well-armed ships, and 20 smaller ones. Battle of Sandhe moved out to meet the enemy. These were sighted somewhere off the North Foreland, and De Burgh, apparently anxious to gain the weather gage, held his luff as if making for Calais. " I know,"

Sea-Fight — Early 14TH Century MS. Roy 10 E 10.

said the Monk, gazing hard at the English fleet in the distance, " those wretches think to attack Calais like thieves ; but it is no use, the place is well defended." He was soon undeceived. Presently the English ships put their helms up and bore down together upon the rear of the enemy's line ; then, eager as ever for close quarters, they grappled ship to ship, and a fierce fight commenced. Clouds of arrows flew from the English decks ; stones, after the fashion of the times, were hurled from the tops ; and our men, being to windward, made use of a strange weapon, quicklime, which they threw into their enemies' faces, then boarding while they had them at a disadvantage, they cut the halyards, and the great sail with its heavy yard fell upon the French " like a net upon ensnared birds." Many of their ships were sunk by the rams of the galleys ; many of the French knights jumped overboard and sank rather than be taken ; while the courage of the dreaded Eustace seems to have failed him in the hour of defeat, and he was discovered miserably hiding in the hold of his ship. His prayers for mercy, his offers of money, his promises of service were alike unavailing. His head was then and there struck off, and afterwards displayed on shore as a terror to all future sea-rovers. Of the entire French fleet but fifteen escaped, and the gallant De Burgh, taking his prizes in tow, returned to Dover " ploughing the waves in victorious triumph." This fight is to be noticed as the first of the long series of naval engagements between the English and French, a series which ended only with Trafalgar, — and as proving conclusively the inestimable value of a strong and well-appointed fleet patrolling the narrow sea and making it impossible for an enemy to set foot in England until its resistance has first been crushed.