THE 17TII OF OCTOBER. 381 only two si lips under Lyons now remaining in chap. line ; and the fire from the cliff, which had been •^"^' doing great harm from the first, was now very ?'^'^^*"^' heavy npon her. Galled, just as Eden had been, by the sense of not being able to do anything against the Telegraph Battery, Captain Dacres determined to shift the position of his ship. He got up his anchor, and tried so to place his ship as to be able to lay a broadside upon the cliff batteries in a way more effective than before.* Still remaining near the Agamemnon, the Sans- pareil, for an hour and a half, was kept in her place by steam-power ; -f- but at the end of that time there sprang up a light breath of wind, which caused her to forge ahead ; and, the bow of the ship coming into such a position that her foremost guns failed to bear clear of the Aga- memnon, Dacres wore his ship round. Eeceiv.- ing at nearly this time an order from Lyons ' to ' close in and support, he returned to liis old station under the stern of the Agamemnon, and again let go his stream anchor. The position of the Sanspareil, from the first, had been such as to subject her to heavy loss, and mainly, it would seem, from those small cliff
- It was imagined — see the log of the Agamemnon — that
during the period of probably some ten minutes which it took to effect this movement, the Sanspareil lost a number of men ; but it seems that this idea was a mistaken one. Only one shot struck the ship at the time, and that was the one which, strik- ing a table and driving it with violence against Captain Dacres, knocked him down and stunned him. + One hour and thirty-five minutes, according to the log of the Sanspareil.
