Howe's Attack on Quiberon.

Manawatu Herald, 28 November 1896, Page 2

Howe's Attack on Quiberon.

♦ The Review of Review* office are issuing a series of selection* from the articles entitled v Deeds that Won the Empire," now appearing in the Jrgua. The first serieß we are in receipt of, and we recommend its purchase. It is only cne shilling. The following is a precis of one of the articles : - • The British ships came rotting on, grim and silent, throwing huge sheets of spray from their bluff bows. An 80 gun French ship, Le Formidable, lay in their track; and each huge British liner, as it swept past to at* taok the main body of the French, Tomited on the unfortunate La Formidable a dreadful broadside I And upon each British ship, in turn, as it rolled past in spray and flame, the gallant Frenchman flung an answering broadside. Soon the thunder of the guns deepened, as ship after ship found its antagonist. The short November day was already darkening ; the thunder of the surf and of tempest answered in yet wilder notes the deep throated guns, the wildlyrolling fleets offered one of the strangest sights the sea has ever witnessed. Soon Hawke himself, in the Royal George of 100 guns, came on, stern and majestic, seeking some fitting antagonist. This was the great ship that afterwards sank ignobly at its anchorage at Spithead, with " twics four hundred men," a tale which, for every English boy, is made famous in Oowper's immortal ballad. But what an image of terror and of battle the Boyal George seemed, as in ths bitter November storm she bore down on the French fleet I Hawke disdained meaner foes, and bade his pilot lay him alongside Oonflan's flagship, Le Soleil Boyal. Shoals were foaming on every side, and the pilot warned Hawke he oould not carry the Boyal Georga further in without risking the ship. " You! have done your duty," eaid Hawke, " in pointing out the risk ; and now lay me alongside of La Soleil Royal." A French 70 gun ship, La Su^ perbe, threw itself betwixt Hawke and Conflans. Slowly the huge mass of the Royal George bore up, so as to bring its broadside to bear

on Ls> Superbe ; and then the English guns broke into a tempest of flame. Through spray and mist the masts of the unfortunate Frenchman seemed to tumble ; a tempest of cries was heard ; the British sailor 3 ran back their guns to reload. A sudden gust cleared the atmosphere, and La Superbe had vanished ! Her toptnosts gleamed wet for a moment through the green seas, but, with her orew of 650 men, she had sunk, as though crushed by a thunderbolt, beneath a single broadside from the Royal George! Then from the nearer hills, the crowds of French spectators saw Hawke's blue flag and Conflans white pennon approach each other, and the two great ships, with slanting decks and fluttering oanvas, and rigging blown to leeward, began their fleroe duel.