“The ship carries twenty-eight twelve-pounders and the brig twenty nine-pounders,” replied Bainbridge in a matter-of-fact way.
That was double their real weight of metal, and it was a weight that outmatched the Insurgent. Greatly alarmed, Captain St. Laurent, who was the senior French officer, ordered the Insurgent recalled.
When she got back within hail her captain shouted:
“Sir, if it had not been for your signal I should have had those vessels in ten minutes more.”
“Citizen Captain, you do not know, sir, what vessels you were chasing. Your ship is not able to contend with a force of twenty-eight twelve-pounders and twenty nine-pounders,” said Captain St. Laurent.
At that the Insurgent’s captain chopped the air violently with his hands and replied:
“Sir, they have nothing heavier than sixes, and do you suppose that this ship could have anything to fear from such guns?”
A French Vessel of 118 Guns, a Century Ago.
From an engraving by Canali.