her anchors, and drove nearly under the Spanish batteries on the opposite side of the bay before she could be brought up. It being necessary to retire from this dangerous situation, the Courageux weighed, and, under close-reefed topsails, stood over towards the Barbary coast, Lieutenant Burrows feeling averse, as it has since appeared, to run through the gut, lest he should fall in with M. Villereuve's squadron. * Towards evening the wind increased to a perfect hurricane, and the weather became very thick. The rain, also, poured down in torrents, and there came on a tremendous storm of thunder and lightning. Soon after 8 p.m. the crew, who had been harassed the whole day, were suffered to go to dinner, and the officers, except a lieutenant of the watch, also retired below to take some refreshment. At 9 p.m., while stretching across under her courses, to get well to windward of her port, the Courageux struck on the rocks at the foot of Ape's hill (Mons Abyla), on the coast of Barbary, and in a very few minutes was a complete wreck. Of about 593 officers and men that were on board, 129 only effected their escape ; five by means of the launch that was towing astern, and the remainder by passing along the fallen mainmast to the rugged shore. Many perished in the attempt, and those who did reach the shore were compelled to undergo very severe privations ere they got back to Gibraltar. †

The same gale of wind in which the Courageux was lost nearly proved fatal to the 80-gun ship Gibraltar, Captain John Pakenham, and the Culloden 74, Captain Thomas Troubridge. The latter drove from her anchors, and narrowly escaped being cast

* Captain Brenton (vol, ii., p. 139) says, "the combined fleet," not knowing, seemingly, that Admiral Langara had stopped at Carthagena.

† In the first edition, the date of this melancholy accident was stated to be the 17th. Steel makes it the 18th, and Marshall (Royal Nav. Biog., vol. i., p. 468) the 19th ; but it really happened on the night of the 10th. Captain Brenton enumerates the number saved from the wreck, "by jumping from the side of the ship to the shore," at 160. That the account, as we have stated it, is correct, will appear by the following abstract taken from the ship's pay-book at the Navy-office:

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