"I did not fire on the smooth-bores at all until I had silenced the heavy guns which were annoying Invincible, Monarch, and Penelope. The men fired splendidly. I put all down to the lectures I have given them at target practice, telling them never to throw a shot away, but always to wait until they got the sights on.
ON BOARD H.M.S. "CONDOR," 11TH JULY, 1882.
FROM A DRAWING BY FREDERIC VILLIERS
"Hedworth Lambton told me afterwards that the admiral had just sent on the signal for the Monarch to go to Fort Marabout as soon as she could be spared, when he heard a cheer from his own men. He asked, 'What's that?' and they told him they were cheering the Condor. Just then our three guns were fired, and each shot hit in the middle of the heavy battery, and the Invincible's men burst into a cheer. The admiral said, 'Good God, she'll be sunk!' when off went our guns again, cheers rang out again from the flagship and the admiral, instead of making 'Recall Condor; made 'Well done, Condor' ... at the suggestion of Hedworth Lambton, the flag-lieutenant.
"We then remained there two and a half hours, and had silenced the fort all except one gun, when the signal was made to all the other small craft to assist Condor, and down they came and pegged away. I was not sorry, as the men were getting a bit beat. We were then recalled to the flagship, 'Captain repair on board,' and the admiral's ship's company gave us three cheers, and he himself on the quarterdeck shook me warmly by the hand, and told me he was extremely pleased.... I never saw such pluck as the Egyptians showed. We shelled them and shot them, but still they kept on till only one gun was left in action. It was splendid.... Nothing could have been more clever than the way the admiral placed his ships.... The wounded are all doing well. One man had his foot shot off, and he picked it up in his hand and hopped down to the doctor with it.... The troops hoisted a flag of truce the day after the action; and while we waited I sent to find out why it was they were marched away, having set fire to the town in many places. It has been burning ever since." ...
The day after the bombardment, Captain Wilson (now Admiral of the Fleet Sir A. K. Wilson, V.C., G.C.B., O.M., G.C.V.O) hauled down the flag of the Marabout Fort and presented it to me. It is now in the Museum of the Royal Naval College, Greenwich. The commandant of Fort Marabout was so excellent an officer that when I was appointed provost-marshal and governor of the town by the admiral, I placed him on my staff to assist me in restoring order.