The three British ships were the Augusta, Captain Forrest; the Dreadnought, Captain Maurice Suckling; and the Edinburgh, Captain Langdon. The three had been sent by the admiral at Jamaica to cruise off Cape François, in order to intercept a large French homeward merchant convoy reported to be weakly guarded. The available French naval force on the station was believed to be too weak to face our little squadron. But, unknown to Admiral Cotes at Port Royal, fresh men-of-war had just arrived from France purposely to see the convoy home. In the result, when our three ships arrived off Cape François, seven French ships stood out to meet them. In spite of the odds the British three held on their course.
These were the forces on either side, in ships and men:—
| British Line of Battle. | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dreadnought | 60 | guns | Capt. Suckling | 375 | men | |
| Augusta | 60 | ” | Capt. Forrest | 390 | ” | |
| Edinburgh | 64 | ” | Capt. Langdon | 467 | ” | |
| 184 | guns. | 1232 | men. | |||
| French Line of Battle. | ||||||
| La Sauvage | 30 | guns | 206 | men | ||
| L’Intrépide (Commodore) | 74 | ” | 900 | ” | ||
| L’Opiniâtre | 64 | ” | 640 | ” | ||
| Le Greenwich (formerly British) | 50 | ” | 400 | ” | ||
| La Licorne | 30 | ” | 200 | ” | ||
| Le Sceptre | 74 | ” | 750 | ” | ||
| L’Outarde | 44 | ” | 350 | ” | ||
| 366 | guns. | 3446 | men. | |||
Directly the French came in sight the senior officer, Captain Forrest of the Augusta, signalled to the other two captains to come on board for a council of war. They came, and, the story goes, arrived alongside the Augusta together and mounted the ship’s side together. As they stepped on to the Augusta’s gangway, Captain Forrest, it is related, addressed the two officers in these terms: “Gentlemen, you see the enemy are out; shall we engage them?” “By all means,” said Captain Suckling. “It would be a pity to disappoint them,” said Captain Langdon. “Very well, then,” replied Forrest; “will you gentlemen go back to your ships and clear for action?” The two captains bowed, and turned and withdrew without having, as it was said, actually set foot on the senior officer’s quarter-deck.
Within three-quarters of an hour they were in action, the Dreadnought leading in and attacking the French headmost ship as the squadrons closed. Captain Suckling opened the fight by throwing the Dreadnought right across the bows of the Intrépide, a 74, and much the bigger ship, forcing her to sheer off to port to avoid being raked.
Backed up by the Augusta and the Edinburgh, the Dreadnought was able to overwhelm the French commodore with her fire, and force the crippled Intrépide back on the next ship, the Opiniâtre. That vessel in turn backed into the fourth French ship, and she into another, the Sceptre. The four big ships of the enemy were accounted for. Our three ships seized the opportunity. Well in hand themselves, they pounded away, broadside after broadside, into the hapless Frenchmen, who were too much occupied in trying to disentangle themselves to do more than make a feeble and ineffective reply. By the time that they got clear the British squadron had so far got the upper hand that the French drew off, leaving the British squadron masters of the field. All of our three ships suffered severely, the Dreadnought most of all.
In Nelson’s lifetime the day was always observed by the family at Burnham Thorpe with special festivities, and Nelson himself often called it, it is on record, “the happiest day of the year.” More than that too, Nelson himself more than once half playfully expressed his conviction that he too might some time fight a battle on another 21st of October, and make the day for the family even more of a red-letter day. As a fact, during the last three weeks of his life on board the Victory off Cadiz, in October, 1805, Nelson, with a prescience that the event justified, used these words both to Captain Hardy and to Dr. Beatty the surgeon of the flagship: “The 21st of October will be our day!”
Captain Maurice Suckling’s “Dreadnought” sword was bequeathed to Nelson and was ever kept by him as his most treasured possession. He always wore it in battle, it is said; notably at St. Vincent, when he boarded and took the two great Spanish ships the San Nicolas and the San Josef; and his right hand was grasping it when the grape shot shattered his arm at Teneriffe.
The Dreadnought of Boscawen and Maurice Suckling ended her days at perhaps England’s darkest hour of national trial—at the time of the American War. She was doing harbour duty at Portsmouth at the time, as a guard and receiving ship.