Page:Battles of the Nile and Alexandria.pdf/8

 with admiration by all who remember it. Captain Hallowell, in the Swiftsure, a 74, as he was bearing down, fell in with what seemed to be a strange sail Nelson had directed his ships to hoist four lights horizontly [sic] at the mizen peak as soon as it became dark, and this vessel had no such distinction. Hallowell, however, with great judgment ordered his men not to fire: if she was an enemy, he said, she was in too disabled a state to escape, but from her sails being loose, and the way in which her head was, it was probable she might be an English ship. It was the Bellerophon overpowered by the huge Orient; her lights had gone overboard, nearly 200 of her crew were killed or wounded, all her masts and cables lead been shot away, and she was drifting out of the line towards the lee side of the bay. Her station at this important time, was occupied by the Swiftsure, which opened a steady fire on the Franklin, and the bows of the French admiral. At the same instant Captain Ball, with the Alexander, passed under his stern, and anchored within-side on his larboard quarter, raking him, and keeping a severe fire of musquetry upon his decks. The last ship which arrived to complete the destruction of the enemy was the Leander. Captain Thomson, finding that nothing could be done that night to get off the Culloden, advanced with the intention of anchoring athwart-hawse of the Orient, The Franklin was so near her a-head that there was not room for him to pass clear of the two, he therefore took, his station athwart-hawse of the latter in such a position as to rake both. This masterly manœuvre, by which he dreadfully annoyed the enemy, whilst his own ship remained in comparative safety, consisted in his placing his ship between the bow and stern of two of the enemy's vessels; which, being