. The great battles of all nations from Marathon to Santiago, 490 1898. aken his enemy. The French, if frigates be included, counted seventeen ships tofourteen, and ship for ship they had the advantage over the Br:alike in crew, tonnage, and weight of fire. In size the Englishships scarcely averaged 1. ns; the French ships exceeded 3 tons. Xelson had only seventy-fours, his heaviest gun beinga 32-poundrr. The avenge French eighty-gun ship in every de-tail of fighting strength exceeded an English ninety-eight, andBrueys had three such ships in his fleet: while his own flagship,the Or
. The great battles of all nations from Marathon to Santiago, 490 1898. aken his enemy. The French, if frigates be included, counted seventeen ships tofourteen, and ship for ship they had the advantage over the Br:alike in crew, tonnage, and weight of fire. In size the Englishships scarcely averaged 1. ns; the French ships exceeded 3 tons. Xelson had only seventy-fours, his heaviest gun beinga 32-poundrr. The avenge French eighty-gun ship in every de-tail of fighting strength exceeded an English ninety-eight, andBrueys had three such ships in his fleet: while his own flagship,the Orient.* was fully equal fco two English seventy-fours. Itsweight of ball on the I k alone exceeded that from the whole bn - of the Bellei^hon, .ip that engaged it. THE BATTLE OF THE NILE 451 The French, in brief, had an advantage in guns of about twentyper cent, and in men of over thirty per cent. Brueys, moreover,was lying in a carefully chosen position in a dangerous bay, ofwhich his enemies possessed no chart, and the head of his line wasprotected by a powerful shore NELSONAfter the portrait by Hoppkkr in the possession of the Queen Nothing in this great fight is more dramatic than the swiftnessand vehemence of Nelsons attack. He simply leaped upon hisenemy at sight. Four of his ships were miles off in the offing, butNelson did not wait for them. In the long pursuit he had assem-bled his captains repeatedly in his cabin, and discussed every pos- 452 GREAT BATTLES OF ALL NATIONS sible manner of attacking the French fleet. If he found the fleetas he guessed, drawn up in battle-line close inshore and anchored,his plan was to place one of his ships on the bows, another on thequarter, of each French ship in succession. It has been debated who actually evolved the idea of roundingthe head of the French line and attacking on both faces. Oneversion is that Foley, in the Goliath, who led the British line,owed the suggestion to a keen-eyed middy who pointed out thatthe anchor
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