12

HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

though far from innocent experiment. Although it is natural to suppose that theinertness of the French fleet proceeded from its general condition being inadequateto a contest, even with an inferior enemy * ; yet several of the ships were nearlynew off the stocks-—one of them of 96 guns, which is erroneously called, inthe official account-f, Le Triumphant; the Pompeux, of 80 ; the Neptune, of76 ; the Bizarre, of 70; the Comstant, of 68; the Temeraire, of 60; and theMeduse, of 50.

The loss sustained by the btesieged, amounting to eight ships of the line—the Triumphant, of 92 guns; the Sceptre, of 90 ; the Vainqueur,. of 86 ; theNeptune, of 76; the Invincibbe, of 70; the Serieux, of 60; the Laurier, of60; and the Sage, of 54; accelerated, and completed, the almost total retire-ment of the French fleet, from the busy and dangerous theatre of war, for36 years. The Mediterranean no longer beheld, issuing from the port ofToulon, armaments, which were vainly expected to carry unlimited conquest be-fore them, and give laws to the whole universe, without the ceremony or fatigueof a contest. Thirty-eight ships of the line, however, still remained to France ;but the service effected by them was confined to little desultory expeditions,frequently unsuccessful; and when otherwise, unproductive of any solid ad-vantage. So well satisfied was the British admiral of the supineness or debi-lity of the foe with which he hard to contend, that, after the termination of theexpedition, and his consequent return to England, towards the close of the year,he left Sir Thomas Dilkes to command in the Mediterranean, with a squadron ofno greater force than 13 ships of the line, none of which were larger than thirdrates; an armament ostensibly nut equal to one-third of that which then remainedundestroyed at Toulon.

During the years 1708, and th<e early part of the ensuing, no advantage was takenof this apparent superiority, notw ithstanding little or no reinforcement was added tothe British squadron. The only 1 counterbalance to a multitude of losses sustainedby the enemy, which it were inrelative to mention here, w r as the casual capture ofthe Pembroke, of 64 guns, and the Faulcon, of 32, by three French ships of theline ; which, knowing the absence of an English force in any degree capable ofcontending with them, had, w'ithi considerable caution, ventured out of Toulon. SirGeorge Byng, who had arrive*d in the Mediterranean, and rcconnoitercd the

‘ * The largest ship in the British fleett was the Association, of 96 guns. A very large proportion

of the armament were even fourth-rates;. London Gazette, No. 4357-

t A second ship, under the same naime, carrying 952 guns, being one of the vessels destroyed bythe fire of the assailants.

harbour