(and of which class, by-the-by, there were not so many as here represented,) of knowing "nothing of the mode of conducting a ship of war," it meets an answer in the noble conduct of Captain Lamel, of the Indomptable, on the 29th of May, * who had very recently been promoted from the merchant-service, in which he had acted as master during a number of years.

That Lord Howe did not consider his fleet to be very numerously manned, may be inferred from his destroying so many valuable prizes and recaptures, in preference to sending them in for adjudication ; and, respecting the quality of his crews, there appears to be a diversity of opinion, even among naval men. "Much has been said, by various writers on naval subjects, of the manner in which the French fleet was manned ; but no mention has been made of the ineffective state of the British ships when they first put to sea to meet the republicans. An idea thereof may be formed from the Montagu having joined the grand fleet with only 13 men, including the quartermasters, able to take the helm ; seven in one watch, six in the other. The captain of her foretop had only been 15 months at sea. The Ramillies was equally destitute of able seamen; and many others nearly so." † We have thus shown, as we trust, that the alleged disparity in the manning of the two fleets had no foundation in fact; not at least to the extent wished to be inferred by the post-captain, in whose work the assertion is contained.

The writer who states, also, that five of the ships which the French carried off " required no more than a summons from a frigate" ‡ to induce them to surrender, appears to have been as much misinformed of what befel the Phaëton, while running past the dismasted, apparently silenced, and subsequently captured, Impétueux, as of the age of Lord Howe's prizes, which he designates as "a few old ships," and regrets were not destroyed. The fact is, two only of the seven captured ships, the Northumberland and Achille, could be called old, and they could find ships of equal if not greater age in the British fleet, but not one ship of their own rate, except the Brunswick, that equalled them in size. The Vengeur, Impétueux, and America, had only been launched the preceding year; and the two latter were considered as the finest 74s that had ever been seen in a British port. But what shall we say of the Sans-Pareil ? Here was a ship, also newly launched, nearly equalling in size the Queen-Charlotte herself ; and which subsequently proved to be so fast a sailer, that her facility in overtaking French privateers, although dead in the wind's eye, and practising every possible manœuvre to escape, would scarcely be credited even of a frigate.

The same writer, who has laboured so hard to disparage the

* See p. 137.

† Marshall, vol. i., p. 663.

‡ Brenton, vol. i., p. 303.

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