[10]. Coarse red wine of any country, but very commonly Spanish or Portuguese.
[11]. The brass knockers, when met with, were probably trophies of a night’s foray. Such things have been known within the memory of not-very-old men.
[12]. Samuel Reeve died a vice-admiral, in 1802. Cf. N.R.S. xx. 111.
[13]. The names are filled in from Beatson.
[14]. Sc. the foot-rope.
[15]. Commander-in-Chief of the French fleet in the battle of the 12th April.
[16]. The very persistent way in which this story of the loss of the Royal George was spread abroad from the first, the entire suppression of the evidence (on oath) to the contrary, as given at the court martial, and the fact (here and elsewhere so strongly commented on) that care was taken to prevent the success of the proposed attempts to raise her, all point to one conclusion from which it is difficult to escape—the conscious guilt of some high-placed and influential officials of the Navy Board. Cf. Naval Miscellany (N.R.S. xx.) p. [216]; and D.N.B. s.nn. Durham, Sir Philip; Kempenfelt, Richard; Waghorn, Martin.
[17]. Sc. of France and Spain.
[18]. A ‘scuttle’ is defined by Falconer as ‘a small hatchway cut for some particular purpose through a ship’s deck, or through the coverings of the hatchways’; ‘scuttling’ is ‘the act of cutting large holes through the bottom or sides of a ship.’ A ‘scuttle butt’ was a large cask, whose bung-hole had been cut into a small scuttle, secured on the main deck in some convenient place, to hold water for present use. It may be well to say that ‘scuttles’ to light the orlop deck were quite unknown till long after the great war.
[19]. October 11th. Cf. N.R.S. xx. 217 seq.