On the 20th, at daybreak, the admiral found himself very near the enemy with only the Ruby to assist him, the rest of the ships lying three, four, or five miles astern. About two in the afternoon the sea-breeze began to blow, and then the enemy got into a line, making what sail they could; and the rest of his ships not coming up, the admiral and the Ruby plied them with chase-guns and kept them company all the next night.
On the 21st the admiral was on the quarter of the second ship of the enemy's line, within point-blank shot; but the Ruby being ahead of the same ship was attacked by two of the enemy's line. The Breda, which carried the admiral, engaged the ship that first attacked the Ruby, and plied her so warmly that she was forced to tow off. The admiral would have followed her, but the Ruby was in such a condition that he could not leave her. During this engagement the rear ship of the enemy's was abreast of the Defiance and Windsor; but neither of those ships fired a single shot. On the 22nd, at daybreak, the Greenwich was five leagues astern, though the signal for battle was never struck night or day; about three in the afternoon the wind came southerly, which gave the enemy the weather-gauge.
On the 23rd the enemy was six leagues ahead and the great Dutch ship separated from them. At ten the enemy tacked with the wind at east-north-east, the vice-admiral fetched point-blank within a shot or two of them, and each gave the other his broadside. About noon they recovered from the enemy a small English ship called the Anne galley, which they had taken off the rock of Lisbon. The Ruby being disabled, the admiral ordered her for Port Royal. The rest of the squadron now came up, and the enemy being but two miles off, the brave admiral was in hopes of doing something at last, and therefore continued to steer after them; but his ships, except the Falmouth, were soon astern again. At twelve the enemy began to separate.
On the 24th, about two in the morning, they came up within call of the sternmost, there being then very little wind. The admiral fired a broadside with double round below, and round and cartridge aloft. At three o'clock the admiral's right leg was shattered to pieces by a chain-shot, and he was carried below; but he presently ordered his cradle to be carried to the quarter-deck, and continued the fight till day. Then appeared the ruins of the enemy's ship of about seventy guns; her main yard down and shot to pieces, her foretop-sail yard shot away, her mizen-mast shot by the board, all her rigging gone, and her sides bored to pieces. The admiral soon after discovered the enemy standing toward him with a strong gale of wind. The Windsor, Pendennis, and Greenwich, ahead of the enemy, came to the leeward of the disabled ship, fired their broadsides, passed her, and stood to the southward; then came the Defiance, fired part of her broadside, when the disabled ship returning about twenty guns, the Defiance put her helm a-weather, and ran away right before the wind, lowered both her top-sails, and ran to the leeward of the Falmouth without any regard to the signal of battle.
The enemy seeing the other two ships stand to the southward, expected they would have tacked and stood towards them, and therefore they brought their heads to the northward. But when they saw these ships did not tack, they immediately bore down upon the admiral, and ran between their disabled ship and him, and poured in all their shot, by which they brought down his maintop-sail yard, and shattered his rigging very much; none of the other ships being near him or taking the least notice of his signals, though Captain Fog ordered two guns to be fired at the ships ahead in order to put them in mind of their duty. The French, seeing things in this confusion, brought to and lay by their own disabled ship, re-manned and took her into tow. The Breda's rigging being much shattered she was forced to lie by till ten o'clock; and, being by that time refitted, the admiral ordered his captain to pursue the enemy, then about three miles to the leeward, his line-of-battle signal out all the while; and Captain Fog, by the admiral's orders, sent to the other captains, to order them to keep the line and behave like men. Upon this Captain Kirby came on board the admiral, and told him that "he had better desist; that the French were very strong; and that from what was past he might guess he could make nothing of it."
The brave Admiral Benbow, more surprised at this language than he would have been at the sight of another French squadron, sent for the rest of the captains on board in order to ask their opinion. They obeyed him indeed, but were most of them in Captain Kirby's way of thinking; which satisfied the admiral that they were not inclined to fight; and that, as Kirby phrased it, there was nothing to be done, though there was the fairest opportunity that had yet offered. Our strength was, at this time, one ship of seventy guns, one of sixty-four, one of sixty, and three of fifty; their masts, yards, and all things else in as good condition as could be expected, and not above eight men killed, except in the vice-admiral's own ship, nor was there any want of ammunition; whereas the enemy had now no more than four ships, from sixty to seventy guns, and one of them disabled and in tow. The vice-admiral thought proper upon this to return to Jamaica, where he arrived with his squadron, very weak with a fever induced by his wounds, and was soon after joined by Rear-admiral Whetstone, with the ships under his command.
As soon as he conveniently could, Vice-admiral Benbow issued a commission to Rear-admiral Whetstone and to several captains to hold a court martial for the trial of several offenders. On October 6th, 1702, the court sat at Port Royal, when Captain Kirby, of the Defiance, was put upon his trial. He was accused of cowardice, breach of orders and neglect of duty; which crimes were proved upon oath, by the admiral himself, ten commissioned, and eleven warrant officers; by whose evidence it appeared that the admiral boarded Du Casse in person three times, and received a large wound in his face, and another in his arm before his leg was shot off; that Kirby, after two or three broadsides, kept always out of gun-shot, and by his behaviour created such a fear of his desertion as greatly discouraged the English in the engagement; that he kept two or three miles astern all the second day, though commanded again and again to keep his station; that the third day he did not fire a gun though he saw the admiral in the deepest distress, having two or three French men-of-war upon him at a time; and that he threatened to kill his boatswain for repeating the admiral's command to fire. He had very little to say for himself, and therefore was most deservedly sentenced to be shot.
The same day Captain Constable, of the Windsor, was tried; his own officers vindicated him from cowardice, but the rest of the charge being clearly proved he was sentenced to be cashiered and to be imprisoned during Her Majesty's pleasure. The next day Captain Wade was tried, and the charge being fully proved by sixteen commissioned and warrant officers on board his own ship, as also that he was drunk during the whole time of the engagement, he, making little or no defence, had the same sentence with Kirby. As for Captain Hudson, he died a few days before his trial should have come on, and thereby avoided dying as Kirby and Wade did; for his case was exactly the same with theirs.
The reflections he made on this unhappy business threw the brave admiral into a deep melancholy, which soon brought him to his end; for he died on November 4th, 1702, of a fever engendered by his wounds and worries. The condemned captains were sent home from Jamaica on board Her Majesty's ship the Bristol, and arrived at Plymouth on April 16th, 1703, where, as in all the western ports, there lay a warrant for their immediate execution, and they were shot on board the ship that brought them home.
The mortification felt by the admiral at the failure of his officers is indicated in the answer he gave to one of his lieutenants who expressed sorrow for the fact that the admiral had lost his leg. "Why, yes," said the fine old sailor, "I am sorry for it too, but I would rather have lost them both than have seen this dishonour brought upon the English nation."