Towards the latter end of the year 1803, Captain Foley had the misfortune to lose his brother; an event which we are
Captain Inman, who raked her, and for other assistance from the Polyphemus, the Isis would have been destroyed. Both her and the Bellona had received serious injury by the bursting of some of their guns. The Monarch was also suffering severely under the united fire of the Zealand, 74, and Holstein, 60; and only two of the English bombs could get to their station on the Middle Ground, and open their mortars on the arsenal, directing their shells over both fleets. The gun-brigs, impeded by currents, could not, with the exception of one, come into action. The division under Sir Hyde Parker could only menace the entrance of the harbour. The Elephant was warmly engaged by the Dannebrog, and by two heavy praams on her bow and quarter. Signals of distress were flying on board the Bellona and Russell, and of inability from the Agamemnon. In short, the contest in general, although from the relaxed state of the enemy’s fire, it might not have given room for much apprehension as to the result, had certainly, at this juncture, not declared itself in favour of either side.
Either by a fortunate accident, or intentionally, the signal for close action was not displaced on board the Elephant; and at about 2 P.M. the greater part of the Danish line had ceased to fire; some of the lighter ships were adrift, and the carnage on board of the enemy, who reinforced their crews from the shore, was dreadful. The taking possession of such ships as had struck, was however attended with difficulty; partly by reason of the batteries on Amak island protecting them, and partly because an irregular fire was made on the boats, as they approached, from the ships themselves. The Dannebrog acted in this manner, and fired at the Elephant’s boat, although she had struck, and was on fire. A renewed attack on her by the Elephant and Glatton, for a quarter of an hour, not only completely silenced and disabled the Dannebrog, but by the use of grape, nearly killed every man who was in the praams, a-head and a-stern of that unfortunate ship. On the smoke clearing away, she was observed to be drifting in flames before the wind, and about half-past three she blew up.
After the Dannebrog was adrift, and had ceased to fire, the action was found to be over, along the whole of the line a-stern of the Elephant; but not so with the ships a-head, and with the Crown batteries. Whether from ignorance of the custom of war, or from confusion on board the prizes, the English boats were, as before mentioned, repulsed from the ships themselves, or fired at from Amak island. Lord Nelson naturally lost temper at this, and observed, “That he must either send on shore and stop this irregular proceeding, or send in the fire ships and burn them.” He accordingly retired into the stern gallery and wrote, with great dispatch, the following letter to the Crown Prince, with the address, To the brothers of Englishmen, the brave Danes: and in order to shew that no hurry had ensued upon the occasion, he sent for a candle to the cockpit, and affixed a larger seal than usual. “Vice-Admiral Lord Nelson has been commanded to spare Denmark, when she no longer resists. The line of defence which
