wilmington gazette published wf.ekly 3tf allmand hall tuesday october 15 1805 ment of clear weather i was able to pereetve to leeward of the line a ship carrying spa nish colours standing to windward under her lower sails and struck top-sails near her were two ship which i perceired to be of the enemy one of which with all her masts car ried away and the other a tliree decker dis masted of her foie-lop-mist and very much unrigged both steering witn the wind ubaft the dismasted ship appeared to be in great con i u ion ami hardly tosuaice to the working of all her pumps the thickest f>gat this time covered all the van-guard of the rea of the sipiadron • i'l deprived me of the faculty of getting any movement executed and as far a 1 per ceived all ilie advantage of the battle was on our ide there was no clear weather ihe rest of the evening during the night the two squa drons remained in presence of each other nriking their nfpal !• k.cp in company i thought however i perceived that thcene bit withdrew as s,oon as day appeared we descried him a great way to leeward of js all the reports received from the french shipswvre satisfactory those of admiral grivina shewed themselves fully determined to pursue and again attack the enemy as since the weather has cleared up we did not perceive two spanish ships the firm and the st raphael i ordered all the ships to rally and having formed the line of battle on the larboard lack i bore down upon the enemy the wind slackened the i:a was high the enemy stood away to leeward and it was im possible for me all day to bring him to an en gagement as i wished 1 occupied myself during the night to keep the fleet in order so as to be ready to re commence the ingagement at break of day as'soon as it appeared i bore down upon the enemy who had attained a great distance and was crowding sail for tiie purpose of a voiding a new engagement finding it impossible to force him to a bat tle i thought it adviseable not to withdraw any farther from the place of my destination and to shape my course to effect my junc tion with the squadron off ferrol conforma bly to my instructions i experienced con trary winds from n e to e x e which yesterday blew with the greatest violence the following are the only tidings 1 have had of the two ships missing fwm the spa nish squadron cao cosman commander of his impcrinl majesty's siiip the pluto gave me an account that from the beginning of the nction the firm had lost her mizen and mainmasts that he had covered nnil protected her as long as he perceived her by placiug himself between that ship and the enemy ; but that after wards he l'jst sight of her in thefog with regard to the san raphael it ap pesrs certain t!ia she was not dismasted ; but being a bad suiler miking a great deal of lee way must have fallen to leeward ui we lost siglit of her the first ni^ht the fog was to constant and thick that i was not able to distinguish the enemy's force hut the morning after the engagement 1 saw 14 thtps 3 of which were three deckers the greater number of which appeared to me to have sustained great damage ; and if what the captain of la didon assures me be true that he counted li sail of enemy's ships be fare the action tliurc is renson to believe t!-at one of them disappeared in it at all event this contest has been sn ro norable one to the arms of the two powers and but for the thick u which continued to favor the motions and retreat of the enemy he would not have escaped the efforts of a decisive action iamasyet ignorant of thenumber killed se wounded,whoarc however i believe but lew i have to regret the ions r.f captain c ivr ronc of his majesty's ship l'llitrepide who was killed captain rolland ofthe atlas was wounded i shall have the honor to give you a more detailed account of this entjattniciu very shortly i intreat your excellency to accept my re spect villeneuve the late naval engagement after stating the particulars of ihe late nr tion between the british fktt under ad i'al ler and the french and spanish combined nert which have appeared in this gazette bell's messenger of the 4th aucubt re marks : w e must here lie somewhat technical in order to explain to our readers the general methods of sea engagement truisms aie sometimes necessary and we hope lo escape ridicule in stating a self-evident thing that oil ships must l m to each other windward or leeward and in their lacks either star board or larboard a fttet to>indward has invariably borne down in a slanting line on another to ueword each ship inn line abreast of the other tiii they brought up within a proper distant for a close and general en gagcip«ut from van to rear a fleet to lee j ward therefore desirous tuaxml a peneral j ciiga k enitri ; hus full kuurc to uisauc a late foreign news from french papers t the hth of alight received at charleston i — vienna july 13 it appears that all the regiments have or ders to hold themselves in readiness to march the two regiment destined for trannsylva tiia are already on their march and have ta ken with them their recruits whom they have not had time to clothe the corps of artil lery which is at buclweis will be conveyed in carriages into the interior of austria be mdcit the troops which will be united in italy two considerable camp will be formed one near i'ettau in ktiria and the other near wa usdin they will be united until the end of autumn aschaffenuuro july so the russian general winzingerode set ofton the istli iust for petersburg after ha ting had several conferences with the impe rial minister at vienna the austrian court invariably persist in their pacific sys tem nor are a/ty hostile dispositions whate ver remarked on the russian frontiers what ever may be said to tke contrary by the inde fatigable gazetteer of lenibertf wlio for these thirteen years past appears to have the army of xerxes ut his ui<durs paris august 12 the news which we give to-day cannot fail to engage tjic attention df every reader we re borry that the want of room prevents our adding any thing to the reflations of the monitcur what is most astonishing in this engagement is that its result changes no thing in the situation of the belligerent pow ers the cuptufe of iwo spanish ships which were iiuaolc to keep up with the fleet i no doubt to be regretted but this is a ai^lu advantage for england and very for from compensating the losses she has sus tained in her colonies and her trade after the long discouragement of the french navy it is glorious for this squadron to have carried ruin and desolation throughout the english colonies to have displayed the imperial flap through the european and american seas and to have hid defiance to five different fleets bf the enemy by which it was pursued it is glorious we say for this squadron to have o long txerci»cd its new sailors in so peri lous an expedition } to h.ive maintained an action with an enemy wiiomay well boast of every advantage of numbers and experi ence and to have kept the sea the next day without the pretended vanquisher during to dispute this honor with it and in fine to have fully accomplished its design the effect of this engagement far from disceuraging the allies must animate them to further ex titions such a beginning is the sure gua rantee uf an approaching victory ministry of thk marine on b^srd ids imperial majesty's ship the fiucentaurc tht th i'/termidor >.•<«• 1 40 tturuei w s w ef cab /» . u:;trrrc . . ., mnr.sciyneur i have the honor to render you an account that the combined fleet quit ted martinique the 1 6th prairial on the 20ih mes«idor being of jcape fi aistevre i was taken by the e x e and n e winds blowing with violence the indoniptable carried away her miin-top-mast and the fleet sustained coi.-siilerable damage in their yards and sails the winds grow ing calm did not vary bu 1 . continued in the ame quarter and i remained in this situa tion without being able to rise struggling against contrary winds until hie 3d thermi i'»r when 1 descried twctity-one sail of ihe iemv i immediately iyw up the squadron in line ol battle upon the larboard tatk admiral t.ravm made signal to the spanish squa dron to take the head of the line and placed himself ahead of the combined squadron the weather w excessively foggy 5 we steered towardsthe enemy who also steered towards us in a scattered line with the np jiarent intention of closing the wind upon our rear guard and of placing it between t o ties by a couiher-mnrch with t'.e wind a head as soon as i saw him to leeward of t>t our quarter i made signal to stand about tack for tack with the counter-mart h the fog began to thicken as soon as my tfnitl had reached admiral gravina he has tened to execute it with great resolution unit was successively followrd by all the ships in ine squadron as seon iw he arrived near the extreme ship he commenced the engage n nt with some oi the enemy's ships which a<l already begun their movement with the wind ahead but by this time ihe fog be tiniesoimnenetralhe that it wftl impossible forme to perceive any tiling more and each ship had scarcely any thing more than htr second the cannonade successively commenced lone almost the whole line we fiied by the imhti.f the tiieiny's fire almost always without seeing him it wm only towards the wu t uie aflgageo»e*t u^t m , a shotv m u . it is positirely stnttd that the british ship twice or thrice by mistake fired into each o thrr and thai five f the enemy were t ones upon the windsor it it thus evident that not above two or three ships succeeded iri pissing the line of the enemy ; the rest were prevented by not perceiving the signals an 1 nut knowing what impresiion the leading hips wtre making this is evident from the circumstance of some ship having suffered greatly and some triflingly ; the fact is the line can scarcely b said to have been cut jt all ; the fleet irv dced passed each othrr upon opposite tacks but from the circumstances of the wrnther a id the signals not being noticed the british fleet were never alilu to form a new line to leeward or in returning on the contrary tack to ruke the enemy ms each iliip passed every advantage therefore of cutting the line in a leeward attack was lost o sir robert calder because his ships could not act under his sti|)ciif;tcin!ance or with that unanimity of attack which ulone can lead to decisive victory and which must ever depend on a quick perception and obedience of mgnul in each ship in respect to the admiral's terminating the engagement in order to cover the two pi'itcs lictiit mint nirhollsont recount is most satisfactory he says " th two ships which had struck were dropping fast to lee ward and the enemy by a successful manoeu vre might easily lave recovered possession of them if our squadron had not brought to in ordtr to cover them great-britain london are 1 thequeen charlotte packet we have in a former paper noticed the french account of the contest which preceded the loss of the queen charlotte packet capu mudpcon the ! 6th of may last.on her passage from halifax to falmnuth we rjave now an opportunity of laying before our readers a more circumstantial detail of that action so honorable to capt mudge his officers and men with which we have been favored ly an officer of that ship as follows : " at 7 in the morning of the 16th of may 1805 in lat 48 00 n ion 1 1 20 w we discovered a sail on the letbow standing to the n w she fetched so near us that we could plainly perceive her to be a brigcruucr and tlint of an enemy at 9 she tacked and stood after us ; at noon she got so near tint it was thought best to shorten sail and bring her to action ; with a view of cutting away her ma»ts or rigging previous arrangements for that purpose having bten made a few minutes after we got very near to each other whrn an exceedingly hot fire commenced on both sides with round grape k musketry & was continued for 1 hour l 5 a minute lie whole time not out of the range of pistol shot the queen charlotte bring now a perfect wreck and quite ungovernable we were under the painful necessity of sinking the mail and striking our colors to the privateer brig of war l'hirondelle of dunkirk mounting 16 long carriage guns and a crew of 1 10 men capt alkmas.—the damage w sustained befon we surrendered was a follows i 3 gum on the sidr engaged disabled i from shot and the other 2 which were carronades and very bad guns in action recoiling they being very badly constructed j jibstay halyards and out-hauler ; foretopmast staysail stay and halyards ; fore and foretop bowlines foretacks and sheet foot of tho foresail in two places foretopgallant and ioretopsail ties 1 fore and > foretopsail brace and 1 sheet 1 main brace both topvail braces and bowlines 1 main brace both topsail braces and bowline topgallant tye cross-jackbraces and bowlines pctk halyards and both topping lifw all the bobstays 3 fore shrouds on the engaging uide all the topmast shrouds,and 1 back-stay i topmast shroud and i backstay on the other side 3 main shrouds and 1 of the topmast shrouds and all the backstays on the en gaging side and on the other 1 lower shroud and 2 topmast hhroud the mizzen rigging much cut the foremast had sround shot quite through it and sticking in it the main-matt much damaged scthe mizzenmas'.much more so with several shot which struck her bull the privateer had several shot in her hull and the fore mast badly wounded tail and i nigging very murh cut but none of her head sails came down ; she had 9 princihl officers on board and 5 experienced solcjitra at small arms the captain of her let he crew most part are flemings who i under stand have been employed in the smuggling trr.de the queen charlotte had on board 24 o her own crew one distressed subject and 14 invalids from halifaic debilitated paralisis age nnd long service but their hearts were good and they behaved with true english courage our captain was well supported by his officers and the men behaved very well the queen charlotte had 1 man killed and 4 slightly wounded l'hirondelle had the pilot ar.d 2 others kil led and 2 very badly and 4 slightly vounded her damage is such that it will occasion her some time to remain in port and refit the french captain treated capt mwdge his oflu era and erew,tery i>onor»bij wbikoabetri windward fleet during its approach to battle and when the latter hut assumed n situation far close encounter the former miriit t>cnr u w*y at interval whilst enveloped with smolie or by making more sail might shoot a-head nd pour its whole fire into the opposite tan as it pasted and wore in succession to form a new line to leeward on the opposite tuck the mystery of the erench tactics was for merly n .) mote than this : they never made an attack but always courted n leeward situ ation ; thus they h.irc invariably disabled the british fleets in coming down to action ami upon seeing it disabled have made sail and demolished the van in passing keeping clear of close engagement e.nd never lying ship a brea*t on the other hind the british from an irresistable desire of attack have as con stantly courted the windward position ; have had their ships constantly disabled and sepa rated and hate never been able to close wiih the enemy 01 make u capture such was the system by which the frencjj succeeded from the naval engagement wit 1 * admiral byng in the mediterranean 17ss to the rencounter with admiral gravel off the chesapcak 1781 it admiral byron's engagement off grenada our fleet bore down to windward whilst the enemy bearing awuj , prevented an attack upon their rear or a cluie engagement in the van our headmost ihips were either disabled in making the at tack as they received the whole fire of the c nemy's line as each ship ol the latter passed and wore in succession in order to liirm to leward upon ihe opposite tack tlie french adhered so closely to this system that to a void all chance of close or general engage ment they forbore even to intercept our dis abled ships which had necessarily fallen to leeward such was the superiority of the enemy's tactic that till the year 1722 above tinny years passed without any conspicuous natal victory ship indeed engaging with ship the british always succeeded ; but the advan tage was never extended to a general engage ment rodney set the first example of'nn attack to leeward and cutting off the line since then in all general battles we have uni formly triumphed rodney opened a new xra and with the ex ception of the battle of the nile where the french heel was at anchor the tame manoeu vre of attacking to leeward and cutting the line have uniformly succeeded in lord howe's victory the signal was given the first we believe that was ever given for rod ney was rather accident than design for the british fleet to leeward to tack succes sively and cut the line ; the two fleets were instantly intermixed the battle was that of ship to ship and the event was evidence of the hkill of the attack ; indeed so sensible were the french of the cause of our victory that the convention passed a decree of death against that captain who should ever suffer the line to he cut lord st vincent indeed disregarded the regular system from laying greater advan tage in i drying his plan of attack ; b-n lord duncan in the victory off campcrdown cut the dutch line immediately in the centre such being the approved system of tactics and the invariable success of adopting th«m it is asked did sir kobert calder conform to them ? had he or had he not the opportunity of applying them or did he reject them from choice i at noon on the 22d july our gallant ad miral discovered the combined fleet to wind ward ; he immediately concerted his plan of attack iudeed but o plan presented itself having made signals forthe closest order he bore down upon the enemy and upon closing with them made the signal for attacking the centre when he had reached ihtir rear he tacked his ships in succession evidently meaning to intercept them and bring on a close engagement of ship to ship it was impossible to devise a plan of attack more promising ; we venture to pronounce lord nelson would hive done the same ; lord st vincent did the tame ; when that il lustrious man perceived the spanish fleet to windward consisting of 27 sail of the line he instantly cut off a division of it though h could not bringon a general engagement as the enemy in great trepidation chose rather tony than s'jecour any part of their squa dron " when i had reached their rear says sir robert " i lacked the squadron in succession this brought me close up under their lee and when our headmost ihipe had reached their centre the enemy were tack ing in succession ; tins obliged me agui to make the same manoeuvre by which i bro't on an action of four hour hours when i found it necessary to bring to the squadron tg se cure the two captured ships sir kobert then proceeds to observe which is n porfect vindication of hi nut being hble to do more that the enemy had evety ad vantage of wind and weather ; that the fog was so great that he could scarcely perceive the ship ahead or astern of h.m : thii rerijer ed it impo-.sil.le to take 8fl vantage of the ene my by proper signals : " had tlie weather he continues been more favourable ! am led to believe the victory would have been more complete ia irnny of the recounts we iiayc receive p voll'mf ix a'o 46 "~ "