1811     ACTION OFF MADAGASCAR     21

killed and 24 wounded. The disabled state of the Galatea's masts and rigging has already been described. The ship had 55 shot-holes in her hull, 29 on the starboard and 26 on the larboard side ; and her stern was also much shattered. Her loss, out of a complement the same as that of either of her consorts, was her first lieutenant of marines (Hugh Peregrine), eight seamen, and five private marines killed, her captain with a lacerated wound by a splinter, but his name does not appear in the official return, second lieutenant of marines (Henry Lewis), 14 seamen (two mortally), five private marines, severely, and her first lieutenant (Thomas Bevis), two midshipmen (Henry Williams and Alexander Henning), 17 seamen, four private marines, and three boys slightly wounded ; total, 16 killed and 46 wounded. The Racehorse, notwithstanding that some chance shot had knocked away her fore topmast, appears to have escaped without any loss.

With respect to the French ships, the Renommée, according to the French official account, sustained a loss, out of a complement, including troops, of 470 officers and men, of 93 killed and wounded. Among the former, was her gallant captain, M. Roquebert, and among the severely wounded, Colonel Barrois, the senior officer of the troops ; also her first lieutenant, Louis-Auguste Defredot-Duplanty, who only went below to have his wound dressed, and fought the ship in the bravest manner. The Néréide, upon the same authority, had her captain and 24 seamen, marines, and soldiers killed, and 32 wounded ; and the Clorinde, occasioned probably by the fire of the Galatea when the latter got her broadside to bear, had one man killed and six wounded. The British official account states the killed and wounded of the Renommée at 145, and that of the Néréide, at 130.

The relative force of the parties in this contest requires a few observations. The three British frigates were all of the same class, and of nearly the same size, the Astrea measuring 956, the Phoebe 926, and the Galatea 945 tons. The forecastle and quarterdeck establishment of the Astrea and Galatea was, 14 carronades, 32-pounders, and two long nines, making the total number of guns 42. The Phoebe appears to have mounted two more nines, making her number of guns 44. The complements have already been enumerated. With respect to the Renommée, Néréide, and Clorinde, they were not quite so formidable as some of the French frigates which have been named in these pages. When it is known that the French 36-pounder carronade weighs seven per centum more than the English 42, it will be readily conceived, that 10 or 12 of the former were too much for the quarterdeck of a French frigate of 1080 or 1100 tons; especially, in the usual contracted state of that deck and the comparative flimsiness of its barricade. It appears, therefore, that in the year 1810 the establishment of the French 40-gun

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