NELSON'S CAPTURE OF LE GENEREUX.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 8354, 6 September 1890, Page 2 (Supplement)

NELSON'S CAPTURE OF LE GENEREUX.

The deck is hailed from aloft, and a man-of-war reported—a line-of-battlo ship apparently going large on the starboard tack. "Ah, an enemy, Mr. Staines!" exclaimed Nelson. " I pray God it may be Le Genereux. The signal for a general chase, Sir EJ'ard [the Nelsonian pronunciation for Sir Edward, addressed to Sir Edward Berry J. Make the Foudroyant fly !" The Northumberland was now taking the lead, with the flagship close on her quarter. "This will not do, Sir Ed'ard !" cried Nelson ; "it is certainly Le Genereux, and to my flagship she can alone surrender. Sir Ed'ard, we must and shall beat the Northumberland !" Every effort was made, Parsons tells us. " I will do the utmost, my lord," answered Sir Edward Berry, and gives the following orders :—" Get the engine to work on the sails—hang butts of water on the stayspipe the hammocks down, and each man place shot in them—slack the stays, knock up the wedges, and give the masts playstart off the water, Mr. James, and pump the ship." Then, addressing whom it may concern, Sir Edward exclaims The Ac miral is working his fin" (the stump of his right arm) ; " do no cross his hawse, I advise you !" The advice was good, for at that moment Nelson opened furiously on the quartermaster at the wheel —" I'll knock you off your perch, you rascal, if you are so inattentive ! Sir Ed'ard, send your best quartermaster to the weather wheel !" "A strange sail ahead of the chase!" called the look-out man. " Youngster, to the masthead ! What ! going without your glass, and be to you! Let me know what she is immediately 1" "A sloop-of-war or frigate, my lord!" shouted the young signal midshipman. " Demand her number !" " The Success, my lord, Captain Peard." " Signal to cut off the flying enemy ! Great odds, thoughthirty-two small guns to eighty large ones." "The Success has hove-to athwArt hawse with tho Genereux, and is firing her larboard broadside ! The Frenchman has hoisted his tricolour, with the RearAdmiral's flag !" "Bravo! Success, at her again 1" "She has wore round, my lord, and firing her starboard broadside. It has winged her, my lord, her flying kites are flying away altogether. The enemy is close on tho Success, who must receive her tremendous broadside!"

The Genereux opens her fire on her little enemy, and every person stands aghast, afraid of the consequences. The smoke clears away, and there is the Success, crippled, it is true, but, bull-dog like, bearing up after the enemy. "Signal for the Success to discontinue the action and come under my stern," said Lord Nelson. "She has done well for her size. Try a shot from the lower deck at her, Sir Ed'ard." " It goes over her." '' Beat to quarters, and fire coolly and deliberately at her masts and yards." At this moment, Parsons goes on to tell us in this lively sketch, which may be accepted as a very real and correct portrait, a shot from the Genereux passed through tho mizzen staysail. Nelson, patting one of the little midshipmen on the head, asked him. jocularly how he relished the music. The lad was pale and alarmed, and, observing this, Nelson told him that Charles XII. ran away from the first shot he heard, though he was afterwards called " The Great" because of his bravery. "I therefore," said Nelson, "hope much from you in future."

Shortly after this the enemy hauled down his colours, and Sir Edward Berry was sent on board the prize, where he found RearAdmiral Perree dying on his quarter-deck, having had both his legs shot off by the raking broadsides of the little Success. Nelson, who appears to have been incessantly in spirit with the Court of Naples, sent the French admiral's flag as a gift to young Prince Leopold.— " Nelson," by W. Clark Russell.