Note 5 — II “KENT CLAIMS THE FIRST BLOW!”

A Kent should have been with the two Kentish admirals Rooke and Byng at the taking of Gibraltar. She was with the fleet, but during the bombardment was stationed to keep watch off Cape de Gata, for the possible appearance on the scene of the French Toulon Fleet, which Rooke fought at Malaga, a month later. From on board the Kent, as the officers’ journals describe, they heard the sound of Rooke’s guns attacking Gibraltar, and uncertain whether the Toulon Fleet might not have got round by hugging the African coast, and the firing be that of the fleet in action with them, the Kent turned back to Gibraltar, arriving in time to witness the first hoisting of the British flag on the fortress.