The Sun.
London, England, 1844-09-13 00:00:00

\T'-'777

TANGIERS AND IVIOGADORE.

The Me. -ages of Monday evening publishes a retort
received from the Prince de Joinville, giving in more de-
tail than hitherto an account of his proceedings against
; Morocco, with a notice of the affair of the 23d, already,
mentioned in the Toulon journals. The report is ad-
dressed to the Minister of the Marine :
" On board the Pluton steamer, Mogadore, Aug. 21.
" Monsieur le Ministre,—l am about to render you an
account of the purely military part of the operations upon
the coasts of Morocco, in the course of August, by the
squadron under my command. On the sth in the even-
ing the resolution to attack Tangiers was formed, and all
the preparations were made. On the 6th at day-break,
the steamers Ve!oce, Pluton, Gassendie, Phare, Rubis,
and Var came and moored close alongside of the Jem-
mapes, Suffren, Triton, Cassard, and Argus, in order to
be ready to tow them to the posts assigned them. The
calm, which generally prevails in the morning in the
Bay of Tangiers, rendered this necessary. About eight
in the morning the squadron was in motion. I pre-
scribed that they should take their stations running from
east to west, mooring with two anchors, one with a strong
warp to the east, on account of the bad quality of
the ground and the east wind, which had for some time
blown with violence in the day. The Jemmapes was the
first to come into line, but after her first anchor was fast,
her tow-boat was not able to stretch her chain to its full
length. The Jemmapes, however, succeeded in bringing her
broadside to bear upon the place within four cables'
length. The Suffren and Pluton, perfectly directed by
Captains Lapierre and Bouet, also took up excellent po-
sitions. The Argus found a compensation for her long
and painful winter station at Tangiers, by laying her-
self to at the extremity of her draught of water, in a po-
sition where she could give much and had much to re-
ceive. I cannot give too high praise to her commander,
Lieutenant de Vaisseau Jean Gerard, and the officers
and crew of this small vessel, for their zeal and devoted-
ness excited the admiration of all. The Cassard placed
herself so as to play on the scarp marked L on the map I
send you, and whose fire enfiladed our line. The weak-
ness of tug-ships, added to the force of the currents, pre-
vented the Triton and Belle Poule from immediately
fixinr, themselves at their posts. The Iriton came up
with her sails, and the Belle Paulo, after being ably ex-
tricated from a critical position by Captain Massin, of the
Gassendi, came into line about ten o'clock, but, as the
fire of the town was nearly silenced, the presence of these
ships became useless, and I sent them to cannonade
forts Abdel Selim and El Arbi el Saidi, which fired some
balls upon us. All our movements were made without
any opposition from the enemy. At half-past eight we
opened our fire, which was answered with vivacity.
However, at the end of a quarter of an hour, the
Arab gunners deserted their batteries, the parapets
of which were beaten down by the remarkable cor-
rectness of our fire. The batteries only prolonged the
defence of the place. One of these was casemated and
situated at the upper part of the Marine Fort, and the
other was that of the Casbah. The fire of the Suffren
was solely directed against the casemated battery, and
in the end put it completely out of condition to act
against us, while the Jemmapes drove the people from
the Casbah. At ten o'clock in the morning all was
over. I remained with the Suffren before the town
till five o'clock, when, finding it made no further at-
tempt at defence, I withdrew. You know with what ob-
ject I attacked Tangiers. According to your instruc-
tion I was not to occupy it. My object was obtained
the moment that, by the silence of its batteries, the town
acknowledged itself vanquished. As I have already had
the honour to inform you, the quarter in which were
the residences of the Europeans was scrupulously re-
spected. The town was on fire in several places from
the rockets thrown from the steamer Rubis. Through-
out the day every man rivalled his fellow in zeal and
coolness. I have nothing but praise to bestow. At the
point of day the posts of the ships were marked by
buoys. Captain Duquesne acquitted himself of this
duty, which was attended with risk, with his usual cou-
rage and intelligence. We have three killed and seven-
teen wounded. The ships have sustained some slight
damages. The Suffren, which was the worst treated,
' received scarcely fifty balls. The enemy's loss is stated
at 150 killed and 300 wounded. The busi-
ness being done, the steam-boats towed the ships
to their mooring-grounds. The 7th was passed in re-
storing the ships to a condition to go to sea. On the Bth
I was joined by the steam-boat Groenland, whose ser-
vices I required to go to Cadiz for water, provisions, and
coals, for the squadron. On the 11th the squadron was
assembled before Mogadore. New difficulties, and of
more than one kind, here awaited us. For four days the
violence of the wind and the roughness of the sea pre-
vented us from communicating with each other. An-
chored upon a rocky bottom, our anchors and cables
broke, and the loss of them deprived us of resources
which were indispensable, in order to obtain our object.
Some vessels had only one chain and one anchor, and the
latter deprived of one of its flukes. 'We could not think
of maintaining ourselves before Mogadore under sail.
The violence of the currents and of the gale would pro-
bably have carried us too far, and we should have lost
the opportunity of acting. Besides, in causing the
steamers to get ready to proceed with us, they would
have consumed their fuel, and in leaving them by them-
selves they would be exposed to run short of provisons
and water. It was therefore necessary to remain at
anchor. At last, on the 15th, the wind abated, and
there remained of the hurricane of the preceding days
but a great swell from the N.N.W. Knowing how rare
fine days are at this season of the year in those latitudes,
I immediately made my arrangements ; but a new inci•
dent occurred to thwart our designs--the wind fell com-
pletely. Our vessels, tormented by the swell, were un-
goeernable, and I could not think of employing the
steamers to take the ships of the line to their post. The
preparations which were being made on land proved that
we would not be permitted to approach as easily as at
Tangiers. A single ball could put the engines of a
steamer out of order, and force it to stop in a critical
poSition, from which we might not have been able to
withdraw it, and where it could not defend itself. The
steamers were, besides, a resource which we were bound
to take great care of, in order to bring off our ships of
the line from their position over a rocky bottom, with the
swell of the currents running in shore, and it being cer-
tain that, as soon as the wind should begin to rise, it
would blow from the offing. At last, in the afternoon of
the 15th, a feeble breeze from the N.N.N. having arisen,
we took advantage of it, and the squadron set sail. I
had communicated to all the captains a plan of attack,
and assigned to each his post, once that the signal to
execute the orders was given. Tam only, an eye-witness,
endeavouring to act the part of a faithful historian, and
relate with a lively admiration, and a profound acknow-
ledgment, with what zeal, what devotedness, and what
intelligence, on the part of every one, the orders were
executed. The soundings of the hoe of position had
been executed in the open day, by Captain Maissin, of
the Gassendi, and Lieutenant Touchard, belonging to my
staff. The three ships of the, line first reached their
moorings, the Triton, Captain Bellanger, in advance, lead-
ing on the squadron under the fire of all the enemy's bat-
teries. She let go the anchor within 700 metres of the
town, without having fired a shot in return. The Suf-
fren and the Jemmapes followed. The latter vessel
and the Triton placed themselves opposite the batteries
of the west of the town. The Suffren took up her posi-
tion on the northern channel, firing in a slanting direc-
tion on the marine batteries, and, in front, on the round
fort, situated on a little isle, at the entrance of the chan-
nel, whilst with her sternchasers she answered the bat-
tery on the island, the raking fire of which annoyed her.
The entering on this delicate position under the enemy's
fire, without any of us deigning to offer any reply, does
great honour to the captains who executed it. Once in
our place, we opened our fire. The marine batteries
were quickly abandoned, but that of the west presenting
about two score of guns, well sheltered behind stone
epaulments upwards of six feet thick, held out for a
considerable length of time. The Jemmapes, Captain
Montagnies, which was the object aimed at by all these
guns, at last got the better of them, though not without
a serious loss caused by well-directed shell. Twenty
men were killed or wounded on board this vessel, amongst
whom was a young midshipman ofgreat promise, M. Noel,
mortally wounded by a splinter of a shell, grave in-
juries to the rigging, and a number of balls in the hull,
are proofs of the energetic resistance of the enemy's
gunners. Once that the fire of the ships of the line was
well opened, orders were given to the Belle Poule frigate,
and the Cassard, Volage, and Argus brigs, to enter the
harbour. The frigate was to engage with the marine
batteries and the brigs with those of the island. Tlie
Belle Pottle and brigs passed under the stern of the
bottom
on
Suffren. Capt. llernoux took the thhaed
of a bey, where she scarce
the
firingfrhigeratbeertotht,he
those of the island. Large rifles placed the round
one side on the batteries of the andtown,inn other
on
tops, fired at six hundred yards at the gunners of the
island. The effect of this bold _ manoeuvre was such that
the marine batteries were immediately deserted. The
brigs anchored in a line before the three batteries which
protected the landing;-place
engaged in. all animated conflict with them. At
of the island, and inue-
seeing that the tire was slackening, I ordered three
dlaisatt,ely
steamers, the Gassendi, the Pluton, and the Phare' to
enter the port. They carried on board, 500 men for
landing, under the command of Capt. Duquesne and
Lieut.-Col. Chauchard. These steamers posted them-
selves between the openings of the line of brigs, giving
their fire to that of the other vessels, whilst the landing
flotilla was being formed. At half-past five, the flotilla
advanced, under a sharp fusillade. The men
,jumped on
shore with enthusiasm, the wounded in the boats dash-
ing forth the first, and, clearing with a run a steep
talus, they carried the first battery. The second
master of the Phare, named Toche, entered the
first, and planted the French flag. From this.
battery, two detachments, one led by Lieutenant-
Col. Chauchard, and the other by Captain of Engineers.
Coffinieres, were dispatched to make a circuit of the
island, and to rout out 300 or 400 Moors from the posts
which they occupied in the houses and the batteries.
They drove them to a mosque, where a great number of
them took refuge. The door was battered in with cannon
balls, and the men rushed in. The resistance was sharp-
M. Pottier, an artillery officer, a young man of greatmerit, was killed, and several officers were wounded,
viz., Capt. Duquesne, Lieut. Ceupvent-des-Bo d uis,
u tart!
Sous-Lieut. des Palli&Ts. Our men were engage
obscure vaults in the midst of a smoke which preventede
anything from being seen. The men of the Argus and
Pluton, however, persisted in penetrating. I judged
that we should lose a great many men for no purpose,
and withdrew them. We surrounded the mosque,, and
picked up nearly
a 0 We
next day 140 men surren(
the night coming on bivouacked the troops. At daylight.
a
of the dead bodies on the island. This being taken,
the fire of the town completely silenced, I gave
orders to the Asmod6s to take the ships from the
coast, which was done during the night. The wea-
lier was tine. 1 kept the Belle Poole in the pass. She
Continued during the whole night to fire on the marine
ports, to prevent their bring re .eeenpierl. -On the 1 c.th
the steamers Af;rucoit,, Pluton, and Gassendi. and
the brigs Cassard and Pandour, laid their broad-
side; frent of the tengue of sand on which are the
forts of the Marine that I was extremely desirous of

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