Excluding the small vessels the enemy had 224 guns, the British 124!
[40] This twenty-line sentence deserves note as being perhaps the longest in modern English literature.
[41] In justice to an intrepid Gallic son of Neptune, who called forth general admiration, I must say that at the moment the Flore made the effort to board the Amphion, a seaman appeared standing on her fore yard-arm, holding a fire-grapnel ready to hurl upon our decks; nor did he quit his perilous position until dislodged by our musketry, after several balls had struck the grapnel, when he flung it, but, being too far off, without effect, and, hastening to the opposite yard-arm, jumped overboard. The ultimate fate of this heroic fellow we could never learn, but I fear he must have perished.
[42] The guns being double-shotted.
[43] This letter Captain Hoste afterwards forwarded, under a flag of truce, to the captain of the Flore, to which an answer was written by the captain of the Danaë, stating the inability of M. Péridier to reply on account of his wound, and denying that the Flore had struck; but the Danaë’s captain, as if ashamed of his name, sent his letter without a signature.
[44] See Appendix, No. II.
[45] This was the midshipman who made the sketch from which the illustration facing page 314 is reproduced.
[46] Captured by the Constitution, Aug. 19, 1812. The American frigate was decidedly a larger and stronger vessel, yet hardly enough so to justify O’Brien in calling her a “leviathan.”
| Typographical errors corrected by the etext transcriber: |
|---|
| but this was considerable preferable=> but this was considerably preferable {pg 69} |
| the goaler’s wife=> the gaoler’s wife {pg 178} |
| with it broad expanse=> with its broad expanse {pg 229} |
| quitting the territory of Wurtemberg=> quitting the territory of Würtemberg {pg 245} |