Page:Lesbia Newman - Dalton - 1889.djvu/231



after eight o’clock on the morning of Monday the 13th of October 189—, Admiral St George, in command of as large a fleet as could be spared from the several maritime places about the world which it had become necessary to defend, passed Roche’s Point and was piloted into the harbour under some vigorous objections in the form of shells from Fort Carlisle, which the enemy held almost overhead starboard. However, he not only ran the gauntlet of this fire without crippling damage, but even survived the far more serious ordeal of torpedoes; and shortly the two fleets were hot at it inside the basin between Queenstown and Whitegate, the Allies having this great advantage over the British, that they delivered their fire from a position sheltered on its flanks and taken up at leisure, while the English admiral had no time to make any arrangements, and hardly to come to the attack in any order whatever.

At the sound of the cannonade inside the harbour, which commenced a few minutes before nine, the defending forces on land were ordered to advance against an enemy who desired nothing better than to give them the warm reception upon which he had founded all his plans. The first shots were exchanged on the British left, where an onset was made against the wood immediately above Trabolgan