320

HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

ships which he commanded in a constant state of certain security. Whilesuch was the naval situation of France, in that quarter where she had madeher greatest efforts to establish a superiority, it becomes natural to expect, thather condition was much more desperate where less exertions had been made.Her ports on the side of Britain and the Atlantic became the constant objecton which the fury of war found its vent. The destruction of St. Maloes Wasthe short forerunner of a similar vengeance executed on Granville. Dunkirk,Calais, and Brest itself, were exposed to the temporary terrors which thesedesultory visits of necessity occasioned; and though the want of completesuccess, on some occasions, may argue a degree of rashness and precipitationon the part of the assailants, it weakens not, in the smallest degree, that evi-dence and proof which naturally results from it, that the blaze which thesudden explosion of the naval power of Louis had occasioned, was on the pointof subsiding into the feeble and tremulous light proceeding from the embersof a conflagration, little dangerous in so declining a state, and creating no otheremotion in the minds of the beholders than that of compassion for its fataleffects.

Different was the system pursued by Louis on the side of the Atlantic, fromwhat had been adopted on the opposite shores of his dominions. The shipsbelonging to the royal navy, instead of being collected together in one body,were formed, as again became the custom in the subsequent war, into distinctsquadrons, each of which were put under the orders of the ablest officers thatcould be procured. The Marquis de Nesmond, and that more celebrated navalpartisan, John du Bart, were at the head of two distinct armaments, whichwere equipped at Dunkirk. The latter in particular, notwithstanding hisbeing closely blockaded by an English squadron, under the orders of one of thebravest and most distinguished officers* in the British service, contrived to sailunder cover of a thick fog with a fair wind, and used so much diligence as torender pursuit useless. Falling in with the homeward bound Baltic fleetbelonging to the Dutch, he not only captured the ships which convoyed theirmerchant vessels, but also made himself master of more than one hundredsail of the latter. This success was indeed lessened by a second contest imme-diately subsequent to the first. Several of the prizes were retaken and de-stroyed ; but the French Chef-d’Escadre contrived to reach Dunkirk with

* Admiral Benbow.

several