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THE TWO ADMIRALS.
A Tale BY James Fenimore Cooper
THE AUTHOR OF
"THE PILOT," "RED ROVER," "WATER-WITCH," "HOMEWARD BOUND," ETC.
COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUMEREVISED AND CORRECTEDWITH A NEW INTRODUCTION, NOTES, &c,By the Author.
NEW YORK:GEORGE P. PUTNAM & Co., 10 PARK PLACE.1852.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1851, bySTRINGER & TOWNSEND,In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States forthe Southern District of New York.
STEREOTYPED BYBILLIN & BROTHERS,10 NORTH WILLIAM STREET, N.Y.R. CRAIGHEAD, PRINTER
Come, all ye kindred chieftains of the deep, In mighty phalanx round your brother bend; Hush every murmur that invades his sleep, And guard the laurel that o'ershades your friend.
_Lines on Trippe._
PREFACE.
It is a strong proof of the diffusive tendency of every thing in thiscountry, that America never yet collected a fleet. Nothing is wanting tothis display of power but the will. But a fleet requires only onecommander, and a feeling is fast spreading in the country that we oughtto be all commanders; unless the spirit of unconstitutional innovation,and usurpation, that is now so prevalent, at Washington, be controlled,we may expect to hear of proposals to send a committee of Congress tosea, in command of a squadron. We sincerely hope that their firstexperiment may be made on the coast of Africa.
It has been said of Napoleon that he never could be made to understandwhy his fleets did not obey his orders with the same accuracy, as totime and place, as his _corps d'armee_. He made no allowances for thewinds and currents, and least of all, did he comprehend that allimportant circumstance, that the efficiency of a fleet is necessarilyconfined to the rate of sailing of the dullest of its ships. More may beexpected from a squadron of ten sail, all of which shall be averagevessels, in this respect, than from the same number of vessels, of whichone half are fast and the remainder dull. One brigade can march as fastas another, but it is not so with vessels. The efficiency of a marine,therefore, depends rather on its working qualities, than on its numberof ships.
Perhaps the best fleet that ever sailed under the English flag, was thatwith which Nelson fought the battle of the Nile. It consisted of twelveor thirteen small seventy-fours, each of approved qualities, andcommanded by an officer of known merit. In all respects it was efficientand reliable. With such men as Hallowell, Hood, Trowbridge, Foley, Ball,and others, and with such ships, the great spirit of Nelson wassatisfied. He knew that whatever seamen could do, his comparativelylittle force could achieve. When his enemy was discovered at anchor,though night was approaching and his vessels were a good deal scattered,he at once determined to put the qualities we have mentioned to thehighest proof, and to attack. This was done without any other order ofbattle than that which directed each commander to get as close alongsideof an enemy as possible, the best proof of the high confidence he had inhis ships and in their commanders.
It is now known that all the early accounts of the man[oe]uvring at theNile, and of Nelson's reasoning on the subject of anchoring inside andof doubling on his enemies, is pure fiction. The "Life" by Southey, inall that relates to this feature of the day, is pure fiction, as,indeed, are other portions of the work of scarcely less importance. Thisfact came to the writer, through the late Commodore (Charles Valentine)Morris, from Sir Alexander Ball, in the early part of the century. Inthat day it would not have done to proclaim it, so tenacious is publicopinion of its errors; but since that time, naval officers of rank havewritten on the subject, and stripped the Nile, Trafalgar, &c, of theirpoetry, to give the world plain, nautical, and probable accounts of boththose great achievements. The truth, as relates to both battles, wasjust as little like the previously published accounts, as well could be.
Nelson knew the great superiority of the English seamen, their facilityin repairing damages, and most of all the high advantage possessed bythe fleets of his country, in the exercise of the assumed right toimpress, a practice that put not only the best seamen of his owncountry, but those of the whole world, more or less, at his mercy. Hisgreat merit, at the Nile, was in the just appreciation of theseadvantages, and in the extraordinary decision which led him to go intoaction just at nightfall, rather than give his enemy time to prepare tomeet the shock.
It is now known that the French were taken, in a great measure, bysurprise. A large portion of their crews were on shore, and did not getoff to their ships at all, and there was scarce a vessel that did notclear the decks, by tumbling the mess-chests, bags, &c, into the insidebatteries, rendering them, in a measure, useless, when the Englishdoubled on their line.
It was this doubling on the French line, by anchoring inside, andputting two ships upon one, that gave Nelson so high a reputation as atactician. The merit of this man[oe]uvre belongs exclusively to one ofhis captains. As the fleet went in, without any order, keeping as muchto windward as the shoals would permit, Nelson ordered the Vanguardhove-to, to take a pilot out of a fisherman. This enabled Foley, Hood,and one or two more to pass that fast ship. It was at this criticalmoment that the thought occurred to Foley (we think this was theofficer) to pass the head of the French line, keep dead away, and anchorinside. Others followed, completely placing their enemies between twofires. Sir Samuel Hood anchored his ship (the Zealous) on the inner bowof the most weatherly French ship, where he poured his fire into,virtually; an unresisting enemy. Notwithstanding the great skillmanifested by the English in their mode of attack, this was the onlytwo-decked ship in the English fleet that was able to make sail on thefollowing morning.
Had Nelson led in upon an American fleet, as he did upon the French atthe Nile, he would have seen reason to repent the boldness of theexperiment. Something like it _was_ attempted on Lake Champlain, thoughon a greatly diminished scale, and the English were virtually defeatedbefore they anchored.
The reader who feels an interest in such subjects, will probably detectthe secret process of the mind, by which some of the foregoing factshave insinuated themselves into this fiction.
THE TWO ADMIRALS