The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-11-01


 do This the English had to permit. for they could neither suffer their own vessels to run to leeward to destroy her nor could they hope to carry her off as q prize.
 The second French ship, La Victoire. did not even share the slight fortune of the first The Plantagenet, whirling at her on the summit of a hill of foam. sent a blasting broadside into her at the same moment that the Carnatic. driving to her lee. poured all the fire from her batteries Into the other side. Coming swiftly up tn the wind, the Plantagenet raked the Frenchman be- fore he had recovered from the effect of The two fires. Shortening sail, the two English ships drove oT with .neir antagonist between them, firing so hard and furious that they cut down every spar and left nothing standing. except the lower masts. Forging on, their places were taken by the Achilles and the Thunderer. Seeing the Blen- helm and the Warspite coming up astern to take up the work the others should have passed, the French com mander lowered his ensign. fi A prize crew was put abord. with orders to run to windward of the fleet. instructions that could readily be obeyed, as the ship could get all the advantage of her lower sails without the drift inseparable from the naked spars overhead that the sound vessels had to bear. ts -'v -'-e,E
 Soon after the action the gale began to moderate. Both fleets ran steadily on their course, with the French, how ever. quite nine miles to leeward, ow- ing to the necessity of keeping com pany with their crippled fellows. AS soon as the sea went down these be- gan making repairs and by sunset La Wn while jury spars had so far repaired Lle Scipio that she was able to keep her place measurably well.
 The 'Frenchmen then tackled and stood to the northeast. a course fol- lowed at once by the English, who. though determined to keep their val uable position to windward and not attempting to close again. had no in in tention of letting the enemy sail out of their sight. They ran down to within league of the French and there held.
 The night passed thus and when day came the shipsa still held the same po- Sition: but far to windwsrd and com Ing down with extraordinary slowness those on the English ships saw Rear Admiral Bluewater's squadron. It was edging along under topsails in close order. There was loud wonder at tne slowness of the Rear Admirals ap- proach, but as Sir Gervaise did not make any remarks or order signals set. 1t was assumed that there was reason for Bluew ater's delay.
 Meantime, the French showed that they were prepared to give battle. anu the English ships cleared. Oakes waited only for his friends ships to join before he ran down to the French line; yet an hour passed with the men at their stations. and still b.uewater's squadron was far away.
 At last however. the Caesar set pri- vate signals, which onIy Bluewater and Oakes could read. Sir Gervaise took down the numbers and referred to his private book. He made out the mes- sage: Gods sake--make no signal engage not"
 Tearing the paper on which he had figured the message into minute frag mcnts, Sir Gervaise walked up and down In his cabin. his heart heavy and his head in a whirl. He cast another look to windward and saw to his dis may that Bluewater's ships had hauled their wind and were actually standing away!
 Instantly his mind was made up. He set signals. and. followed by his own division, ran down to the French hne As he sailed he saw five ships of the enemy detach themselves and work to windward and northward.
 The Plantagenet soon gained a posi- tion abreast of Le Foudroyant. and each ship opened up, flame. roar and smoke bursting from both as with one breath. The second English ship, sh eering outside of the Plantagenet and then closing in. took her position alongside of the second Frenchman in line. and so on till all the cruisers on each side were engaged.
 The furious cannonadlng in so small a space soon killed the wind. and the ships drifted in dense curtain of smoke. in which men coughed and gasped for breath, but without ceas- ing for a moment to fight. Soon the foes were invisible to each other. and only the flashes Of their guns and the smiting of the iron tempest showed that the ships were still at work. At last it seemed to Oakes that the fire of the unseen French admiral had | begun to slaeken a little. While he was commenting on 1t. Wychecombe came down from the main top and re- ported that the French division that had aheered off in the heginning of the action. was coming down on them