The Sun.
London, England, 1805-12-30 00:00:00

PRPonT

RtASONS FOR suRRENDERING THE
FRENCH SHIA) LE REDOUBTABLE.

Proces Verbal. or Report. otlthe famous ADion by the Ship
, • • Le Rettoubtible, comma:id:4 hr, capwitt Luc:\ s . •
" This day, October c23d„ _we, the undersigned,
• Captain and Officer Of. the Legion of Honour, hay--
,
. ing the command of .Majesty's 'ship Le 11e.7
dwindle, together with theeefficerssof the Staff,
under Officers, .&c. finding ourselves united on.
board the English ship Su,,ips:;re, and having stir-
'. vived the Toss -of our own vessel,' have drawn up
the following Report, containing the reasons and
circitnistances which occasioned the loss of Le Re.
"On the ist ofOtaober, at half past ten, P. M.
the Combined Squadron found itself to wilicrward of
the Enemy, fOrming in Line of Battle, When Le
&dwindle, according to the order of seniority, be-
ing the third Ship to the rear of the 'Admiral's Ship,
.• the Bucentaure, the two headmost Ships,. in COIISO.
quence of a breeze springing up, after having begun
to manoeuvre, left the Admiral's Ship 'exposed, just
at the moment when the Enemy had made his
position for attacking our centre. The viaor.y, of
to guns, under Admiral Neesme, and the Tenie-
raire, oldie same. rate, were at the head of the di-
vision which bore down upon the Admiral's Ship, to
surround it. Captain Lc:ens very soon perceiving
the Enemy's design, immediately manoeuvred, for
the purpose of falling into the rear of the Bacentaure,
in which he happily succeeded, and though the
Admiral called to us several times to make Sail, we
had all unanimously determitred rather to lose our
Own Ship than witness the capture of our Admiral.
At a quarter before twelve the firing commenced on
both. sides between the Shipping that were within
gun-shot. The Enemy's two three-deckers aired-
ed all their efforts to the forcing of our' Line in the
rear of thellucentaure, and toforce Le &dwindle
on board her, in order to make the Admiral's
Ship cease her firing; but not being able to move us,
we were'ordercd to lay ourselves alongside the Ad-
miral;and in that situation gave and received a num-
ber of broadsides, but uhich, however, did not pre-
JJ us from lashing ourselves to the ViCiore. Our
'Commandant then giving order; to board, our
brai7e crew, with their Officers at their head, in-
stantly put themselves in nation. Theeconflio
was ironed iately begun with small,arms, and tip-
wards of -two hundred grenades were thrown on
board the. Viaory. Aclm I<il NEesele ;fought at,
I the head of his Crew but still "as ,our fire was
I much more vigorous than that of the English; We
silenced them. in about a quarter of an hour. The
deck of the Piaorte was covered with the dead,
and Admiral NELSON killed. Still' it was difficult
to board the Ifiehey, its upper deck being so much
higherthan that of Le lkdoutialle ; however, the
Enein,Yov, and four seamen, climbing up by the
anchors; succeeded, and 'would have been followed
by the rest of their hrwe comrades on the larboard
j side, but the English Ship Temeraire, perceiving
that the fire of. the Admiral's Ship had ceased,
enediately fell ripen • our starboard 'side, and after
raking us, with a heavy fire,. the slatighter that ene
sued was not to be described ; more than two hun•
dred of our men being killed, the Captain ordered
the remainder to board the. Temeraire, which was
only prevented by the arrival of another of the
Enemy's Ships within pistol shot of us, in which
station it remained till we had struck our colours,
and which took place about half-past three P.M. for_
the following reasons :
' " Because, out of the crew, consisting of six hun-
'tired
and forty-three men, five hundred'and-twenty-
two were no longer in a situation to continue the
conflia, three hundred being killed, and two hull-
Ared and twenty-two badly wounded. Among the
latter were the whole of the Staff, and ten interior:
Officers. •
" Because the main and mizen-masts were gone-
by the board ; the first fell on board the Teriieraire,
and some of the yards of that Ship fell on board.
Le i?edaubiatie.
" Because th 6 bowsprit, and a part of the rudder,.
were shot away, and several of guns distnount-\
ed ; and 'in - cOnseqeetice of the • bursting of an
.eighteen-pounder on the second deck, and .a carve-
nade,of poimders in the stern. • •
Because almost all the pores were knocked in,
and the decks entirely bored through by the upper-
deck gutes of the Viaory and Demeralre.
"Because both sides of the Ship were shot through
in such a manner that numbers of the ,wotunkd
were killed by the. Enemy after they had been re-.
moved from their quarters.
Becanse part of the Ship was on fireerted had
a number of leaks, so' that, notwithstanding • all
the ptimps were set 'a going, 'she must have sunk.
" Throughout the whole of the fight the Vielory
and the. ',l.eincraire never ceased their attacks upon
Le Perbut 6te ; nor did ,we. 'separate final each
other foiesofne time after the battle lifiti ce:Keti be-
! tween the, ri.:!,t of the .Fleets, The tidier!' ..,lostitsi
Mizen-n eeit ; its rigging was nearly cut to piece 3,
and a great part of its crew were disabled. Adtniml
NELSON, was 'killed by a musket-ehot .during the •
attempt to board. At seven in the • evening the
Swiltsare took Us in tow, and in the morning sent
a pa rty.on board to tike eltirge of Captain LUC Ali,
Lieutenant DOrnsti,, and M. DuotAREST., About
noon, the leaks had increased so much, that the
pvize7Mniter for assistance, tile Si,yiseee.
sent its Boats to save the remainder'' of our crew,
fret had scarcely time to,.remeve above one hundred
and nineteen Preneh, . About seven in the evening,
the whole of the stern being under watet, the Ves-
sel sunk, with all the wounded men on board. Ott
tle.•. _Jed the Captain of the SivU'lsure seeing some
peo* at a ditame:.upon a wreck, cau.e them to
lac betitigit in, to the number of fifty ; but, includ-
ing seventy of the Wounded that were tat:en Op,
not More than one hundred and shitv-iiine were
saved out of four- hundred and sie..ty-three.
On board the Sa,Uisnro: Slig,ed by the Officers
of the quarter-deck, and cutllinwtcl by
• " CAPTAIN LUCAS,"

On Tuesday GILBMIT I-N.vracorn's annual
gift of one hundred 6tone of bet and twenty saoks
of pot and Lady Efr.XTEICOneS gift. Gf sixteen
gowns, were distributed aniongq the poor of &op-
Ingham, in the county of Rutland.