Naval courts martial . it in battle and storm. Inthem also we meet with cases of failure and we can see much else, of a very different character,and in them the good far exceeds the bad. I shalldeliberately look rather to this, the more pleasant, I have already said, it is not my purpose to discussagain those battles which, like Keppels engagementwith DOrvilliers off Ushant, Mathews encounterwith the French and Spaniards near Toulon, or Byngsmiserable engagement with La Galisonniere near Min-orca, have become notorious. The only battle I proposeto tell from the Court Mar
Naval courts martial . it in battle and storm. Inthem also we meet with cases of failure and we can see much else, of a very different character,and in them the good far exceeds the bad. I shalldeliberately look rather to this, the more pleasant, I have already said, it is not my purpose to discussagain those battles which, like Keppels engagementwith DOrvilliers off Ushant, Mathews encounterwith the French and Spaniards near Toulon, or Byngsmiserable engagement with La Galisonniere near Min-orca, have become notorious. The only battle I proposeto tell from the Court Martial records is that fought in1758, in the Bay of Bengal, by Pocock. It wasobscure and unimportant in its consequences, but itwas none the less instructive and curiously rich indisplays of personal character. Of single ship actionsI shall prefer those which show in what conditions thework of the old Navy was done. No part of that work is more obscure to us than theshare of the fireship. It is gone and for ever, but the. 3u c > 0^ CH. VI] IN ACTION AND SHIPWRECK 163 name is familiar, and the memory of certain occasionson which it was used with tremendous effect is stillfresh. The total destruction of the Earl of Sandwichsflagship in the battle of Solebay in 1672, gives us causeto remember one occasion on which it was employedwith signal effect against ourselves. The attack onthe French squadron in the Basque Roads in 1809,when the terror of fire gave us victory, the vengeancetaken by the insurgent Greeks on the Turks for themassacre at Chio, are modern instances. When itsucceeded, the fireship proved as fully, though not asinstantly, destructive as the modern torpedo andfloating mine. If it did not play a yet greater part innaval history, the reason must be sought in the factthat its power was subject to two strict could hope for success only when wind and currentwere in its favour, and when the enemy was eitherunable to move, or could move but very slowly. And
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