The New York herald., 1870-11-15
France and Germany-A Naval Prize Fight
In the Gulf of Mexico.

One of the most inexplcable facts of the
present war has been the utter inaction OF both
the French and German fleets. The former,
created by Louis Philippe and literally fos-
tered by Louis Napoleon, was known to be
formidable, and the latter may boast of some
of the finest iron-clads afoat. Yet scarcely
ANYTHING has been heard of either since the
declaration of war.
At length, however, the long, strange silence
has been broken. 1t was reserved for Ameri- |
can waters to be reused by the first thunders
of the seas. As the great naval battle Of our
civil war-that of the Alabama and Kear-
sarge-was fought on the eastern verge of the
Atlantic, 80 have the French and German
Vikings brought their dispute to Its western
verge, seeking to emulate in the new
world what Americans had achieved in
the old. The famous battle between the
Serapis and the Bonhomme Richard was
the antetype of that between the Kearsarge and
the Alabama; but no other similar naval
engagement had since occurred, until the other
day the French gunboat Bouvet and the Prus-
other for an hour in the Gulf of Mexico. Both
these gunboats entered the port of Havana on
the 7th inst The Meteor sailed out again after
the departure Of the French mail steamer
Nouveau Monde, which Immediately returned,
fearing capture. On the night of Tuesday,
the 9Th inst, the Bouvet left port, but waited
outside for the Meteor, which followed after
the expiration of twenty-four hours-the time
prescribed by lava naval duel having been
previously arranged between the officers of the
two vessels. The Spanish war steamer Her.
nando Cortez also went out, bearing as umpire
the Governor General of Cuba. The crew of
the Meteor numbered sixty men; that Of the
Bouvet eighty. The Meteor carried three
guns and the Bouvet five. Upon the coming
out Of the Meteor the Bouvet, which was ten
miles beyond the ofiug, steamed inward
toward the neutral line. The Bouvet opened
the contest by firing five shots, which the
Meteor promptly returned. The Bouvet then
attempted to board the Meteor. In this she
was unsuccessful. Her rigging became entan-
gled, carrying away her main and mizzen
masts. The rigging falling with the masts
became entangled in the Meteors screw. At
the same moment the Meteor sent shell into
the inside Of the Bouvet, smashing her steam
pipe. The Meteor, by reason of the disabling
of her screw, became unmanageable, and the
Bouvet, finding the quarters hot and capture
certain if she waited until the Meteor could
disentangle herself quickly made for port
under, it Is said, both steam and sail, the
Meteor continuing to fire meanwhile. The
Bouvet succeeded In crossing into Spanish
waters before the Meteor could disentangle her
screw. At this time the fernando Cortez
fred gun as a signal that the combat had
closed. The telegram which announces this
news adds that s'both fought bravely." Vic
tory was accorded to the German gunboat
whose three guns reem to have been too much
for the French gunboat's five, thus calling to
mind the old English brag that one John Bull
was a match for three Johnny Crapeaux.
Both vessels are now in the port of
Havana, repairing severe damages, but eager
for ano ther fight. The Meteor had three men
killed-whose funeral the German merchants
in Havana all attended-and one man
wounded. The Bouvet had three men
wounded and, perhaps, one man killed. The
German residents were greatly elated, and
were arranging grand banquet for the officers
of the Meteor.
This unvarnished tale of the battle of the
gunboats offers no sensational horrors. There
are no scuppers running blood, no magazines
exploding and darkening the air with the de-
tached limbs Of grilled Prussians and frizzled
Frenchmen; no shoals of sharks following in
the wake Of s'huge leviathans afoat" to gorge
their maws with Gallo or Teutonic tidbits.
There is nothing, in fine, that would do for
yellow covered literature or the crimsoned
boards Of Old Bowery. We hear, indeed, the
thunder of guns, the angry shrek of
masses of metal hurled innocuous against
iron plates, the scream Of the Gallo cock and
the triumphant cry Of the German eagle, while
above the asphyxiating volumes of belching
smoke rises sublime, like another Don Quixote,
the figure Of that chivalric hidalgo, Captain
General De Rodas, who has come forth to
''see fair" between the two belligerents. It is
naval duel between France and Germany,
with Spain for umpire. But, after ali, were it
not for the loss of three or four lives and the
groans of few wounded, the fight would be
but farcical fzzle.
The friends Of peace may rejoice at the
result of this combat, since it demonstrates
that ocean warfare, at least has reached
point where scientific defences have reduced
the loss Of life to the minimum, and made the
deck of ship in action much safer place
than many an American railroad car.
But the question Of supremacy is not yet
settled. The beligerents are bent on renew
ing the struggle. Having given the riparians