Page:The Naval Officer (1829), vol. 1.djvu/85

 often and so circumstantially related, that I cannot add much more to the stock on hand. 1 am only astonished, seeing the confusion and invariable variableness of a sea-fight, how 80 much could be known. One observation occurred to me then, and I have thought of it ever since with redoubled conviction; this was, that the admiral, after the battle began, was no admiral at all: he could neither see nor be seen; he could take no advantage of the enemy's weak points or defend his own; his ship, the Victory, one of our finest three-deckers, was, In a manner, tied up along-side a French eighty-gun ship.

These observations I have read in some naval work, and in my mind they receive ample confirmation. I could not help feeling an agony of anxiety (young as I was) for my country's glory, when I saw the noble leaders of our two lines exposed to the united fire of so many ships. I thought Nelson was too much exposed, and