[On the left are the French frigates in a body to windward. The two leading British ships are the Bellerophon and the Brunswick, the slowest sailers of the squadron. To the right centre is the Royal Sovereign bearing down to help the Triumph and the Mars. On the right is the Pallas frigate (Captain the Hon. H. Curzon), Cornwallis's repeating frigate.]

BILLY BLUE

A BALLAD OF THE FLEET

It was just at break o' day,
We were cruising in the Bay,
With Blue Billy in the Sov'ren in the van,
When the French fleet bound for Brest,
From Belleisle came heading West—
'Twas so, my lads, the saucy game began.
Billy Blue—
Here's to you, Billy Blue, here's to you!
Washing decks was hardly done,
When we heard the warning gun,
And we saw 'em, black and clear against the sky;
Twelve big ships of the line,—
And with frigates, twenty-nine,
On the easterly horizon drawing nigh.
Billy Blue, etc.
We'd the Triumph and the Mars,
And the Sov'ren—pride of tars,
Billy Ruff'n, and the Brunswick, known to fame;
With the Pallas, and the Phaeton,
Frigates that the flag did wait on—
Seven ships to uphold Old England's name.
Billy Blue, etc.
From the Phaeton frigate first,
In a flash the numbers burst,
As the signal bunting 'broke' and fluttered free;
But we cheer'd from ship to ship,
And we set the guns to strip,
For to fight 'em we could trust old Blue Billee!
Billy Blue, etc.
He was shavin', so they say,
When he heard the news that day,
And his skipper came his wishes for to larn;
But he only said, 'All right,
Let 'em bark, for we can bite,
For all they're like to try on us, I don't care a darn!'
Billy Blue, etc.
'No, I don't care a rap
For any Frenchy chap,
When they come they'll get the dressing they deserve;
I've the best four in the fleet,
That the Frenchmen well could meet,
With the "Fightin' Billy Ruff'n" in reserve.'[73]
Billy Blue, etc.
'As she broke the line with Howe,
So she's game to do it now,
And repeat her "First o' June" here in these seas;
With their name for dauntless pluck,
And the Billy Ruff'n's luck,
I will fight as many Frenchmen as you please!'
Billy Blue, etc.
But it wasn't merely bluff,
For he saw the job was tough,
And the signal promptly flew to 'Go about':
With the slowest ship in front,
And his own to bear the brunt,—
So we headed back for England, guns run out.
Billy Blue, etc.
To the Sov'ren's lads he told
Like some hero chief of old,
As he bade 'em from the quarter-deck 'Good luck';
'To no foe upon the sea.
You may take it, men, from me,
Is the ensign of the Sov'ren to be struck!'
Billy Blue, etc.
'Let the odds be what they will,
We must go on fighting still,
For the honour of the Sov'ren's old renown;
And when, men, all is done,
As we fire our last gun,
With our colours flying still, we'll go down!'[74]
Billy Blue, etc.
Soon we heard the Branle-bas
What cheers up the Frenchy tar,
And their 'Vives' for 'La Nation!' and 'La Patrie!'
'Tis the way, as you should know,
With the maritime Crappo,
When he's got to do his fightin' on the sea.
Billy Blue, etc.
Then they came on, looking slaughter,
Like to blow us from the water,
As they near'd to port and starboard and astarn;
But we put in double shot,
And we paid 'em back so hot,
That they looked at one another with consarn.
Billy Blue, etc.
'Just a broadside or two—Certainement,
For the honour of their flag—cela s'entend,
But it's more than very fine, seven ships to twenty-nine!—
Most decidedly 'no go,'
Not at all comme il faut,
And a bit of British insolence for punishment condign!'
Billy Blue, etc.
'Just a broadside, if they like,
Then forthwith their colours strike
Having rendered to their flag the homage due:
It's sheer madness to pretend,
They can fight us to the end—
There's no other course the Rosbifs can pursue!'
Billy Blue, etc.
Next the Triumph they attacked,
And the Mars got badly whacked,
'Twas the Sov'ren with her broadsides beat 'em back:
Her three tiers all aflame,
Sweeping round the flagship came,
Leaving death and Frenchmen's wreckage in her track.
Billy Blue, etc.
And they didn't let us rest,
For they did their level best,
Fighting on and off from eight till after five;
Till at length they seemed to see,
That it wasn't going to be,
That they shouldn't take us dead, nor yet alive.
Billy Blue, etc.
How it ended, is a story,
Not at all to France's glory,
Of a little game the Phaeton's men did play;
Making Mossoo go in fear,
That the Channel Fleet was near,
And think perhaps he'd better run away.
Billy Blue, etc.
For Blue Billy sent the Phaeton,
When the pass looked like a strait one,
To cruise out in the offing,—just in sight:
'At a fitting time,' said he
'You will signal down to me,
That Lord Bridport will be with us before night.'
Billy Blue, etc.
'You will fire guns, you know,
And to'gallant sheets let go,
As the custom is, reporting fleets at sea;
With a signal that they're 'friends'—
Which I think will serve our ends,
To humbug those chaps astarn with Monsieur V.'[75]
Billy Blue, etc.
The Frenchmen cried 'Morblo!'
And they shuffled to and fro,
Till they judg'd they'd haul their wind and go about;
To Belleisle back all the way,
At anchor there to stay,
Till they learnt the coast was clear to venture out.
Billy Blue, etc.
Yet no Channel Fleet was near,
To excuse the Frenchmen's fear,
For Lord Bridport was still cruising leagues afar,[76]
And a well-worn ruse de guerre
Was a hardy game to dare,
With French frigates—seventeen—the plot to mar.
Billy Blue, etc.
It so happened, for the rest,
Just to point the Phaeton's jest,
By the merest chance—it wasn't meant at all—
Distant coasters passing by,
Chanced to fleck the evening sky,
And still faster to impel the flying Gaul.
Billy Blue, etc.
Here's to Stopford of the Phaeton,
And Flag-Captain Whitby bold,
To Fitzgerald of the Brunswick, tried and true,
Gallant Gower of the Triumph,
Gallant Cotton of the Mars,
Lord Cranstoun—Billy Ruff'n—here's to you!
Billy Blue, etc.
Aye, Blue Billy:—here's to him, with three times three,
To the honour of his name upon the sea!
'He upheld Old England's credit,' said the country in its pride:
'Cornwallis's Retreat,'
Greek Xenophon's great feat,
In its spirit we may claim to set beside.
Billy Blue, etc.
E'en our foes, the Parley Voos,
At this feat of Billy Blue's
Professed to be astounded—'Etonnés':—
'Hors de ligne' 'twas, so to speak,
'Une affaire trop héroïque,'
'Le Déterminé,' they call him to this day.
Billy Blue—
Here's to you, Billy Blue, here's to you!

For the magnificent display made by one and all on the occasion, Admiral Cornwallis and the captains of his squadron were thanked by both Houses of Parliament, while every ordinary seaman on board the ships was specially rated 'A.B.'[77] Of his men, indeed, Cornwallis himself said in his official despatch, 'Could common prudence have allowed me to let loose their valour on the enemy, I hardly know what might not have been accomplished by such men.' The last survivor of Cornwallis's squadron, one of the midshipmen of the flagship Royal Sovereign, died in the year 1869.

'Billy Blue'[78] himself lived to command the Channel Fleet in the great war with Napoleon, and, in conjunction with Nelson at the head of the Mediterranean Fleet, to save England from invasion in 1805, when the Grand Army stood on the heights above Boulogne every day expecting an opportunity to cross over, 'battling,' in the words of Captain Mahan, 'the wild gales of the Bay of Biscay in that tremendous and sustained vigilance concerning which Collingwood wrote that "Admirals need be made of iron."' A man-of-war of 74 guns, a model of which is one of the treasures of the Royal United Service Institution at Whitehall, was in 1813 named the Cornwallis in honour of Admiral Cornwallis, and that ship's immediate successor is our fine modern battleship the Cornwallis of to-day.

THE 'FIGHTING' TÉMÉRAIRE TUGGED TO HER LAST BERTH TO BE BROKEN UP