HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

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ships of the line, two frigates, and ten other vessels, British, with seven Dutchships of the line, to watch the motions of that fleet which passed from Brest toToulon. This force was considered as sufficient for the winter service, for itwas not then the practice, among the maritime powers, to venture any oftheir largest ships to sea during so dangerous, and usually inclement a season.Added to this consideration, hopes were entertained that Spain, who was thenin alliance with England, might furnish something like a reinforcement ; butSir Francis, on his arrival at Cadiz, found, to his great mortification, that nota single ship belonging to the Spaniards was ready, nor, such was their stateof repair, would it have been prudent to have sent them to sea, had they beenrigged, manned, and apparently fitted with an intention for active service.The voyage was extremely disastrous : in a violent storm which overtook thefleet on the 18th of February 1694, the Sussex, a new third rate, which wasthen the flag ship of Sir Francis Wheeler himself, together with the Cam-bridge, of the same force—the Lumley Castle, also a new ship, a fifth rate offorty guns—a bomb-ketch, and two other inferior vessels of war, were, toge-ther with the greater part of their respective crews, totally lost. Notwith-standing this disaster, and certain diminution of the British force, the count deTourville manifested no intention of moving from Toulon, or adding, by anysudden attack, to those disasters which Britain had already experienced. Thearrival of admiral Russel in the streights, and the consequent increase of theconfederated armament, in that quarter, to sixty-three ships of the line, con-verted that inactivity of the count de Tourville, which had previously been anact of choice, or of instruction, into one of necessity; so that from this time,till the conclusion of the year 1695, when Mr. Russel was ordered to return foEngland, the naval operations of both countries, far as extended to their prin-cipal fleets commanded by Russel and Tourville, which latter comprehendednearly the entire force of the French navy, might be considered as almost aperfect blank.

Liberated from every apprehension of naval attack, the allied powers turnedtheir thoughts to every species of warlike molestation, by which they might beenabled to harass the mind of Louis, distracted as it must have been in con-templation of the demolition of his favourite project, the acquisition of mari-time consequence. His ports on the side of the Atlantic, not excepting evenBrest itself, left destitute of a fleet to protect them, were continually assailedby the cannon of his combined foes, who roamed, unopposed, from Cape-

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