some Spanish ships by which he had been reinforced, amounting in the whole to nine sail of the line, two of which were 3-deckers, besides frigates, gun-boats, &c. This movement was no sooner observed than the British squadron, consisting of only five 2-decked ships, two frigates, and two smaller vessels, got under weigh; and the moment the enemy had cleared Gibraltar Bay, bore up in pursuit, Sir James Saumarez directing Captain Keats to lead on and attack the enemy’s rear.
Captain Keats performed this service in the handsomest manner; at about 11h 20’ P.M. he got within two or three cables’ length of the Real Carlos, a Spanish 3-decker, and opened a tremendous fire upon her, which had so good an effect, that the Superb’s shot passing over her, and striking two others which were in a line a-breast of her, they commenced firing on each other. In a quarter of an hour Captain Keats perceived the ship he was engaging to be on fire, upon which he quitted her, and proceeded on to the next a-head, the San Antonio, of 74 guns, bearing the broad pendant of Commodore Le Roy, which ceased firing after a contest of about thirty minutes. Shortly afterwards the Caesar and Venerable came up in succession; and, deceived by the San Antonio’s broad pendant (the halliards of which had been shot away and got entangled among the rigging) being still flying, fired into her, as did also the Spencer and Thames. In a few minutes the discovery was made that the San Antonio had already struck to the Superb, and the firing at her discontinued.
A little after midnight, Captain Keats’s former opponent, the Real Carlos, blew up; but not until she had fallen on board of and set fire to the San Hermenegildo, of 112 guns; which also exploded soon after. The wind at this time blew extremely hard, and the situation of the hostile squadrons precluded all posibility of rendering the miserable people on board these vessels the least assistance; the whole of whom, with the exception of 84, were thus launched into eternity[1].
In this action the Superb had not a man killed, and but 15,
- ↑ The destruction of the Spanish 3-deckers is supposed to have originated in the use of furnaces for the purpose of heating shot.
