THE REVENGE.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XLIX, Issue 12635, 24 October 1905, Page 7

THE REVENGE.

But of all the dramatic fights that ever ware waged, that of the little' ship of war Revenge, with the Spanish fleet, at the Azores, is the delight of every Briton. The story has been told ire-st picturesquely by tho late poet laureate. The Revenge, with five sister ships of war, lay at Flores, when news came that fifty-three Spanish ships of war had been sighted in the neighbourhood. Sir Richard Grenville, who was in command of tho Revenge, declined to accompany his fivo companion vessels in an immediate Sight, on the ground that he had ninety men lying sick ashore whom he would not leave to the devilries of the Inouis'tion. So he remained behind, while his comrades put to sea, and hastily brought his sick aboard. Thr-i. od sailed away, only to run right into tho heart of "the Spanish fleet. And so:

Tho little Revengo ran on sheer into the heart of the foe, With her hundred fighters on deck, and her ninety sick below : For half of their fleet to the ri^ht and half to the left were seen, And the little Revenue ran en thro' the long sea-lane between. Thousands of their soldiers looked down from their decks and laughed, Thousands of their seamen made mock at the mad little craft. But when the battle began, and fou* Spanish galleons had separated /themselves and closed in on the plucky little ship, there was a different story: For anon the great San Philip, she bethought herself and went, Having that within her womb that had left her-ill-content. Ship after ship, the whole night long, with her battle thunder and flame, Ship after ship, the whole night long, drew back with her dead and hei shame i For some were sunk and many wero shattered, and so could fight us no more— God of Battles! was ever a battle liko this in the world before? But numbers told, and when the Spanish fleet lay all around with broken sides, not daring to touch the maimed and shattered vessel, lest she should sting again, Sir Richard Grenville called upon his gunner to sink the Revenge. But, the crew demurring, she was surrendered to the enemy, who, in all honour, manned her with an alien crew. And then came the proper poetic justice, for as the poet tells:

0: ever that evening ended a great gale blew. And a wavo like the wave that is raised by tho earthquake grew, Till it smote on their hulls and then' sails and their masts and their flags, And the whole sea plunged and fell on the shot-shattered navy of Spain, And the little Revenge herself went down by the island crags To be lost for evermore in the main.