Note 188 — Chapter IX
Reading edition
Letter of Brueys to Bonaparte, July 13, 1798; La Gravière, Guerres Maritimes, vol. i. p. 367. This is a somewhat singular example of following a rule, the principle of which is not grasped. The rear of a column of sailing ships under way was the weaker end, because less easily helped by the van; but in a column of ships at anchor, head to wind, the weather ships were incomparably more exposed, the lee having a very hard pull to get up to them.