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Derry and Limerick women of Derry, who had been carrying ammunition and food to the fighting line, now joined boldly in the fray, and hurled stones upon the Grenadiers, who were, in turn, beaten out of the works and pursued across the meadows with great slaughter.

About this time a gleam of hope came with the appearance below Culmore of three ships, the advanced guard of Kirke's fleet. On the 8th of June the Greyhound frigate opened fire upon the fort, and encountered a heavy cannonade from both sides of the river. In beating out of the narrow channel she grounded, but got off in a sinking condition, with seventeen shots below water and fifty more in her upper works. This warm reception was not calculated to encourage Kirke, who arrived with his fleet a few days later. Colonel Richards, who had been on the Greyhound, reported that it was probable boats were sunk in the channel, and he had seen through his glass an obstruction stretching across the river.

This was the great boom, made of fir timbers chained together, and bound round with cable a foot thick, which had been thrown across the Foyle above Brook Hall, between Charles Fort and Grange Fort, about half way between Culmore and Derry. 218