Page:The Development of Navies During the Last Half-Century.djvu/40

 some time previously, and two of our frigates, the 'Pique,' Captain Boxer, and the 'Talbot,' Captain Codrington, had been employed in surveying the water approaches. This work was admirably carried out; the positions of the shoals were ascertained, and buoys placed to mark their positions. No impediment was offered by the garrison to this proceeding, and apparently the officer in command treated such preparations with contempt. But it was not so in reality, for he had the distances to the buoys carefully measured, and detailed the guns so that the vicinity of each buoy was commanded by a portion of the defence. Fortunately the ships, as it happened, did not take up the prearranged positions, and the casualties on our side were much reduced in consequence. The force about to attack Acre consisted of seven line-of-battle ships, the ’Princess Charlotte,' 'Powerful,' 'Bellerophon,' 'Revenge,' 'Thunderer,' 'Edinburgh,' and 'Benbow'; four frigates, the 'Castor,' 'Pique,' 'Carysfort,' and 'Talbot'; two sloops, the ' Wasp' and 'Hazard' ; and four paddle steamers, the 'Gorgon,' ’Stromboli,' 'Phoenix,' and 'Vesuvius.' Admiral the Hon. Sir Robert Stopford was Commander-in-Chief, and flew his flag in the ’Princess Charlotte,' and Commodore Charles Napier, in the 'Powerful,' was second in command. There were also three Austrian ships and the Turkish flagship co-operating in the attack. Admiral Stopford was an officer of long and meritorious service. He had entered the navy in 1780, and as captain of the 'Aquilon' participated in Lord Howe's action on the 1st of June 1794. In 1804, when