XLIV. 1782. corps. In the adverse camp, fear and distrust were C HA P. diffused, delufive affurances, encouraging promises, threats, and punishments, were infufficient to deter large parties from desertion into the country, and individuals into the garrifon. The vigilance and judgment of Elliot pervaded every part of his command, June. and the confidence of thofe under him rofe in proportion; they sustained with unfhaken intrepidity the tremendous and now unceafing cannonade, returning a well-directed fire, which often deftroyed the artillery, and demolished fome works of the befiegers. of floating THE duc de Crillon had formerly commanded in Conftruction the Spanish lines before Gibraltar, and was perfectly batteries. acquainted with the ftate of the garrifon; his operations were affifted by M. d'Arçon an able engineer, and Don Juan de Moreno conducted the fleet. battering ships invented by d'Arçon were vaunted as impregnable and incombuftible. They were fortified to the thickness of fix or feven feet on the larboard The fide, with great timbers bolted with iron, cork, junk, FOR fome time after the floating batteries were Preparations complete, the grand affault was deferred, the interval for defence. GG 4 being XLIV. 1782. CHAP. being employed in preparing and making additions to the approaches by land. General Elliot was with equal activity engaged in the means of defence, among the most confpicuous of which was a copious diftribution of furnaces and grates, for heating cannon balls. He had a few days before the decifive affault, a pleafing prefage of their general effect, by burning one of the most prominent and beft defended works of the befiegers. 8th Sept. 9th & 10th. land. THIS event precipitated the grand attack; the duc Attack by de Crillon, alarmed for the fate of the remaining works, opened his batteries in an unfinished state, and maintained an inceffant cannonade from an hundred and feventy pieces of ordnance, of the largest calibre. The fhips of war, gun and mortar boats, also annoyed the garrifon and the town. In the space of two days, five thousand five hundred and twenty feven fhot, and two thousand three hundred and two fhells, were expended from the land batteries alone, to which the garrison returned only a few rounds, against working parties employed in repairs. 11th and THE next day produced a ftill more vigorous dif12th Sept. charge, and on the enfuing morning, the garrifon beheld the combined fleets of France and Spain, anchored in the Bay between the Orange Grove and Algeziras. Naval force THE force of the enemy was oftentatiously paraded of the enemy. before the eyes of the garrifon, as if intended to unnerve their exertions by terror, and an armament more calculated to produce that effect, was never perhaps drawn forth. Forty-feven fail of the line, ten invincible battering fhips, carrying two hundred and twelve guns, numerous frigates, xebeques, bombketches, cutters, gun and mortar boats, with fmaller craft for the purpofe of difembarkation, were afLand force. fembled in the Bay. On the land fide were stupen In juftice to Sir Robert Boyd, it fhould be commemorated, that the plan of deftroying the battering veffels by red-hot fhot, originated with him. dous XLIV. 1782. dous batteries and works, mounting two hundred CHA P. pieces of heavy ordnance, and protected by an army of forty thousand men, commanded by a victorious and active general, and animated by the prefence of two princes of the blood, a number of officers of the first distinction, and the general expectation of the world. garrifon. To this prodigious force was oppofed a garrifon of Force of the feven thousand effective men, including the marine brigade, with only eighty cannon, feven mortars, and. nine howitzers. A prevalent fenfe of the importance of the station, and the glory which would redound from the defeat of fo powerful a foe, raised enthufiaftic ardour; and the encouragement the enemy might derive from acting under the eyes of the offfpring of their fovereigns, was more than counterbalanced by the affection which the garrifon felt toward thofe officers, who had fo long fhared with them every hardship, toil, and privation, and whofe affability, moderation, and juftice, made all confider themfelves a family, a "band of brothers." They anticipated with animated confidence the arrival of that day which would relieve them from the tedious cruelty of a blockade. Grand HAVING made requifite preparations for refiftance, 13th Sept. general Elliot fuffered the battering fhips to range attack. themselves in order, the nearest nine hundred, the most remote about twelve hundred yards from the walls. At three quarters after nine o'clock, the cannonade commenced; the enemy were completely moored in lefs than ten minutes, and the fpectators who crowded the neighbouring hills, witneffed a continued discharge on the garrifon from four hundred pieces of the heavieft artillery'. The battering fhips were found to be not lefs formidable than they were reprefented. Against them, the garrifon directed 1 The garrison afterwards learned with fatisfaction, that at this crifis the Moors at Tangier repaired to their mofques, and offered up fervent fupplications for the deliverance of their old allies. their XLIV. 1782. CHAP. their whole exertion, regardless of annoyance from the land batteries, but they obferved with astonishment that the heavieft fhells rebounded from their tops, while thirty-two pound fhot made no vifible impreffion on their hulls: a momentary fire was always extinguished by the application of water. The dif appointment of their firft exertions only ftimulated the garrifon to greater vigour; inceffant fhowers of red-hot balls; carcaffes, and fhells flew from all quarters; the mafts of feveral fhips were fhot away, and in the afternoon, the floating batteries began to exhibit fymptoms, that the skill difplayed in their conftruction could not withstand the furious cannonade to which they were expofed. The confufion on board the admiral's battering fhip and her fecond, and the increafing fmoke, demonftrated that combuftion raged unfubdued; in the evening their firing was confiderably abated, and before eight o'clock it had intirely ceafed, except from the two remotest floating batteries, which had sustained and could effect the leaft injury. Deftruction ing batteries. DURING the night, the cannonade from the garrifon of the float was alfo abated, from the neceffity of allowing repofe to the wearied artillery-men, and the impoffibility of directing the guns with certain effect. This interval was rendered awful by the fignals of diftrefs thrown up from the Spanish fleet, and the indiftinct clamour, the lamentable cries, and agonizing groans which proceeded from every quarter. A little before midnight 14th Sept. Humane exertions a wreck with twelve men, the furvivors out of threefcore, floating in, apprized the garrison that they had gained fome advantage, but at one o'clock they faw with joy the effect of their perfeverance, and the termination of the hopes of the enemy, in the flames which burft at once from every part of the admiral's battering fhip, while another to the fouthward burnt as fatally, though with lefs fury. THE light of the conflagration enabled the garrison to direct their artillery with unerring aim, and the 8 calmnefs XLIV. Curtis. calmnefs of the fea permitted captain Curtis", with CHA P. his gun-boats, to flank the battering fhips, and intercept affiftance. At four o'clock, fix other floating 1782. batteries were in flames; all hope of affifting the of captain failors was abandoned by the enemy, but British humanity was glorioufly exercifed in this tremendous crifis. Captain Curtis, with the marine brigade, actively feconded by captain Sir Charles Knowles of the navy, was indefatigable in his efforts to rescue the miferable wretches, no longer confidered as foes, from the difmal alternative of meeting death in flames, or in the waves. THE gallant Curtis exerted his pious bravery till the explosion of a floating battery imminently endangered his own life and thofe of his followers, and he gained the immortal glory of refcuing from the grafp of death three hundred and forty-five of his fellow-creatures. THE deftruction of eight battering fhips removed every alarm from the garrison, and hopes were entertained of faving the two which remained as trophies, but one fuddenly burft into flames and blew up, and after a furvey, it was found neceffary to burn the other". The lofs of the enemy in killed and prifoners, was calculated at two thousand, while the garrifon, in fo furious an attack, had only one officer, two fubalterns, and thirteen privates killed, and five officers and fixty-three privates wounded. The damage fuftained by the fortrefs itself was fo fmall, that the whole fea line was put in ferviceable order before night. THE failure of this unparalleled attack drew on those who had fo confidently vaunted of certain fuc m He received the occafional rank of brigadier. The deftruction of thefe battering fhips has been imputed to the thickness of the timber; the red hot balls lodged in the fides, and it was impoffible to get at, remove, or quench them. If the fides of the fhips had been of the ordinary thickness, and the red-hot fhot had paffed through, they might not have been burnt. cefs, Public honours to the garrifon. |