Note Back to Main Text — REAR-ADMIRAL SIR FREDERICK LEWIS MAITLAND, K.C.B. (continued 2)

He next said, "I can see no sufficient reason why your ships should beat the French with so much ease. The finest men of war in your service are French; a French ship is heavier in every respect than one of yours, she carries more guns, those guns of a larger calibre, and has a great many more men." I replied, "I have already accounted for it to you, in the superior experience of our men and officers." "I understand," said he, "from some Frenchmen who were on board your ship for several days,[5] that you take great pains in exercising your guns, and training your men to fire at a mark." I answered, "I did so, because I considered it of the greatest importance;" and I added, "that if the frigates had attempted to put to sea, he would probably have had an opportunity of seeing the effect of it." He asked me "if I thought two frigates, with four-and-twenty pounders on their main decks,[6] were a match for a seventy-four gun ship; and whether it was my opinion, if he had attempted to force a passage in the ships at Isle d'Aix, it would have been attended with success." I replied, "that the fire of a two-deck ship was so much more compact, and carried such an immense weight of iron, in proportion to that of a frigate, and there was so much difficulty in bringing two or three ships to act with effect at the same time upon one, that I scarcely considered three frigates a match for one line-of-battle ship;—that, with respect to forcing a passage past the Bellerophon, it must have depended greatly on accident, but the chances were much against it; as the frigates would have had to beat out against the wind for three or four leagues, though a narrow passage, exposed to the fire of a seventy-four gun ship, which, from being to windward, would have had the power of taking the position most advantageous for herself." He then said, reverting to what had passed before about firing at marks, "You have a great advantage over France in your finances: I have long wished to introduce the use of powder and shot in exercise; but the expense was too great for the country to bear." He examined the sights on the guns, and approved of them highly; asked the weight of metal on the different decks, disapproving of the mixture of different calibres on the quarter-deck and forecastle. I told him the long nines were placed in the way of the rigging, that they might carry the fire from the explosion clear of it, which a carronade would not do: he answered, "That may be necessary, but it must be attended with inconvenience." His enquiries were generally much to the purpose, and showed that he had given naval matters a good deal of consideration.