escape. No doubt the French had, by this time, both handled and weighed several of the Glatton’s shot; at all events, the formef tacked, and thus left an opening for Captain Trollope to pass to the offing. The Glatton immediately bore up, under easy sail; and, keeping just without random-shot, hauled round to the lee beam of the French ships; both parties then hove too. In this manner they remained viewing each other for upwards of an hour; when the enemy made sail away, and Captain Trollope to the northward, he still hoping, by the junction of some friend, to bring the encounter to a favourable issue. The night passed in disappointment; but our officer could not bring himself to quit the coast, without another peep at his shy antagonists. He therefore, in the morning, stood back; and then saw the French squadron, close hauled, standing for Flushing. The Glatton kept the enemy’s ships in sight during the day; and it was not until her commander found that they were near to their port, and that the wind was beginning to blow hard on the shore, that he reluctantly steered for the British coast.
The Glatton’s affair, says Mr. James, from whose Naval History the account of this gallant action is extracted, like many other drawn battles, is imperfect in its details, for the want of any correct information as to the names, force, damages, or loss of the ships which she had engaged. One vessel was known to be the Brutus, a cut-down 74, mounting from 46 to 50 guns. A second is stated to have been the Incorruptible, of 50 guns, the largest frigate ever launched in France. The Magicienne, of 32 guns, 12-pounders, is named as the third frigate; and the remaining two of the five engaged ships were probably similar in size and force to the British 28-gun frigate. The name and force of the frigate in company with the brig is of no consequence. That the French ships sustained considerable damage in their hulls, may be inferred from the size of the Glatton’s shot, the closeness of the action, and the shyness ultimately evinced by the former; moreover, on the morning succeeding the battle, the Glatton’s people plainly saw men, on stages, over the sides of the enemy’s vessels, plugging their shot holes.
Viewed in every light, the action was highly honourable to the officers and crew of the Glatton. The prompt decision of
