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Article VICTORY OF ADMIRAL NELSON. ← Page 4 of 6 →
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Victory Of Admiral Nelson.
his fleet under sail ; so that every ship might have had a chance of coming into action . As the case stood , his line was so disposed as to lie in the direction of the wind , ' while the British Admiral had the option of attacking the line to windward ; and , of course , of throwing out of the action all the leeward ships , which being tied down at anchor by their faulty dispositioncould not come up to the assistance
, of those which were attacked ; so that the different parts of their line were beaten in succession ; and on this manoeuvre the decisive nature of the victory turned . * Had they been cast loose , in all probability many ships would have escaped ; nor could Admiral Nelson have ventured to attack them with his ten ships that evening . It may be likewise considered a fortunate circumstance that the
British fleet did not fall in with the enemy on their way from Malta to Alexandria ; the utmost it could have done , would have been to beat or destroy the ships of war ; but the transports , & c . would have escaped back to Francs and Italy ; for not one of them could , in all probability , have been taken , because our fleet would have had work enough of a different kind .
In order to make this narrative as circumstantial as possible , Admiral Nelson ' s official lettter to Earl St . Vincent , Commander in Chief , must not be omitted . A copy of this letter was dispatched , overland , to the Lords of the Admiralty , by the Honourable Captain Capel , of his Majesty ' s sloop Mittine . Tire note which inclosed it is dated at the mouth of the Nile , on the 7 th of August , and ad-. VOL . xr . x 1 .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Victory Of Admiral Nelson.
his fleet under sail ; so that every ship might have had a chance of coming into action . As the case stood , his line was so disposed as to lie in the direction of the wind , ' while the British Admiral had the option of attacking the line to windward ; and , of course , of throwing out of the action all the leeward ships , which being tied down at anchor by their faulty dispositioncould not come up to the assistance
, of those which were attacked ; so that the different parts of their line were beaten in succession ; and on this manoeuvre the decisive nature of the victory turned . * Had they been cast loose , in all probability many ships would have escaped ; nor could Admiral Nelson have ventured to attack them with his ten ships that evening . It may be likewise considered a fortunate circumstance that the
British fleet did not fall in with the enemy on their way from Malta to Alexandria ; the utmost it could have done , would have been to beat or destroy the ships of war ; but the transports , & c . would have escaped back to Francs and Italy ; for not one of them could , in all probability , have been taken , because our fleet would have had work enough of a different kind .
In order to make this narrative as circumstantial as possible , Admiral Nelson ' s official lettter to Earl St . Vincent , Commander in Chief , must not be omitted . A copy of this letter was dispatched , overland , to the Lords of the Admiralty , by the Honourable Captain Capel , of his Majesty ' s sloop Mittine . Tire note which inclosed it is dated at the mouth of the Nile , on the 7 th of August , and ad-. VOL . xr . x 1 .