Page:The Naval Officer (1829), vol. 1.djvu/86

 think so now. Experience has confirmed what youthful fancy suggested; the enemy's centre should have been Macadamised by our seven three-deckers, some of which, by being placed in the rear, had little share in the action; and but for the intimidation which their presence afforded, might as well have been at Spithead. I mean no reflection on the officers who had charge of them: accidental concurrence of light wind and station in the line, threw them at such a distance from the enemy as kept them in the back ground the greater part of the day.

Others, again, were in enviable situations, but did not, as far as I could learn from the officers, do quite as much as they might have done. This defect on our part being met by equal disadvantages, arising from nearly similar causes on that of the enemy, a clear victory remained to us. The aggregate of the British navy is brave and good; and we must admit