'The words had not been long out of his mouth when a shot cut his head right in two, leaving the tip of each ear remaining on the lower part of the cheek.' Dillon noted that 'The head of the seaman was cut so horizontally that anyone looking at it would have supposed it had been done by the blow of an axe.' His words are a graphic reminder of the horrendous damage which could be inflicted by a single cannon ball. Codrington observed that one French shot went clean through 7 feet of oak timbers and then struck a gun with such force that it dented the barrel. On the frigate Phaeton a 36-pounder shot went through her quarter gallery, took off a man's head, broke both the thighs of another man and wounded several others.
The battle lasted for more than four hours. By 12.30 many of the ships had fought themselves to a standstill and Lord Howe hoisted the signal for ships to close and join the Admiral. The fourth of Pocock's aerial views shows the scene an hour later with those French ships which were not totally disabled retreating 'in tolerable good order'. Scattered across a wide expanse of ocean are dozens of wrecked and dismasted vessels. The Bellerophon can be seen on the extreme left of the picture, 'Fore and main topmast gone and much shattered.' On board the ship Captain Hope and his officers were attempting to produce some order from the chaos. The ship was strewn with the debris of shattered spars, sails and rigging and the boats and spars which were stored on the main deck were almost destroyed by shot and falling debris. The men began clearing away the wreckage, and carrying out urgent repairs to the standing rigging supporting the mainmast which was in a dangerous condition.
Considering the ferocity of the gunfire which she faced during the first part of the battle the Bellerophon suffered surprisingly few casualties, with four men killed and thirty wounded. Other ships did not fare so well. The Queen had thirty-six killed and over sixty wounded but the highest British death toll was the Brunswick's which had forty-four men killed, including her captain, John Harvey. The Brunswick was engaged in a prolonged and ferocious duel with the French ship Vengeur du Peuple. According to Lieutenant Bevan, 'We did not fire a single gun untill we were within point blank shot and 10 minutes after ten we lay'd the Vengeur, an 84, alongside. Sometimes their guns running into our ports, at other times ours into theirs.'
The anchors of the two ships had become hooked and the ships were so closely locked in combat that the Brunswick was unable to open her lower deck ports and had to blast them off with her guns. After four dreadful hours the Vengeur hauled down her flag and surrendered, her masts going by the board soon afterwards. The Brunswick succeeded in extricating herself from the wreckage and sailed clear of the Vengeur which was sinking. Boats from the Culloden and the Alfred managed to take off the French ship's captain and about 130 of her crew before she went down. Her final moments were vividly recorded by Mr Baker of the Orion:
At half-past five o'clock, we were witness to the most shocking scene possible. Le Vengeur, being very much mauled between wind and water in the action, filled with water and lay upon her beam ends. Numbers of unfortunate wretches were seen clinging to her side. Soon they were floating in the water and crying for assistance. In a minute's time, she heel'd right over and went to the bottom. Numbers were seen floating in the water, of whom the Rattler cutter picked up several, but much the greater part of the crew were lost.
The sinking of the Vengeur made a great impression on all present because it was extremely rare for warships of this period to be sunk by gunshot unless the magazine caught fire and exploded. Normally their massive oak hulls could take several hours of bombardment and still remain afloat. When news of the heroic defence of the Vengeur reached France her crew were hailed as martyrs in the cause of the Revolution and the ship became the subject of numerous pictures and patriotic ballads.
Before they retreated from the scene of the battle the French frigates succeeded in towing away four or five damaged ships of the line but they were unable to prevent six dismasted warships from falling into the hands of the British. Two of these, Le Juste and Sans Pareil, were 80-gun ships, the others were 74s. It was the largest number of prizes captured during a sea battle in the eighteenth century up till that date and was considered a glorious triumph when the news eventually reached England. But the victory was achieved at a heavy cost. The total casualty list for the British fleet was 287 men killed and 811 wounded. The French were reckoned to have lost 1,500 killed and 2,000 wounded, with 3,500 men made prisoner.
As the smoke drifted away and the prizes were taken in tow, Lord Howe retired to bed, totally exhausted. For four days running he had masterminded the movements of a large fleet by day and night. On three of those days his ships had been in action and on two of them his own flagship had led by example: on 29 May the Queen Charlotte was the first British ship to cut through the French line, and on 1 June she had to force her way between the 120-gun Montagne and the 80-gun Jacobin while under fire from both ships. It would have been a gruelling enough experience for a young man but for a man of sixty-nine it certainly took its toll. A few captains remarked at the time that the victory would have been even more spectacular if Howe had not called a halt to the fighting and had allowed his captains to chase down and secure more of the disabled French ships. With hindsight, and the knowledge of what Nelson was to achieve in the years to follow, there is clearly some truth in this. But in defence of Howe it has to be remembered that the battle was fought 600 miles out in the open ocean and a number of his ships required dockyard repairs before they could fight again. He had achieved a decisive victory over a French fleet whose officers and men may have lacked the experience and expertise of the British, but who fought, like the armies of the French Revolution, with a patriotic and almost fanatical fervour. Captain Collingwood, who was in command of the Barfleur and would later be Nelson's second in command at Trafalgar, considered the action on 1 June was 'as compleat a victory as ever was won upon the seas, more decided than we had just reason to expect, for the enemy was superior to us in strength and fought with a savage ferocity.'
SIX
The Aftermath
1794
Twelve days passed before the people of London learnt of the battle which had taken place out in the Atlantic. News travelled at the speed of a galloping horse on land but at sea it all depended on the vagaries of wind and weather. On the morning after the battle, Lord Howe had sat down at the table in his great cabin and compiled his report. He had headed it, 'Queen Charlotte at Sea, June 2, 1794. Ushant E.Half N.140 Leagues.' He outlined the main events of the previous day and provided details of the French ships which had been captured. When he had completed the despatch he gave it to his flag captain, Sir Roger Curtis, to deliver to the Admiralty. Curtis boarded the frigate Phaeton and headed for England, leaving the fleet to limp slowly home with its prizes in tow. The Phaeton arrived in Plymouth at 5 pm on 9 June and was met by the Cockchafer, an armed lugger on hire to the navy, which carried Curtis ashore so that he could take an express postchaise to London. No other boats were permitted to approach the Phaeton which immediately weighed anchor and headed eastwards up the Channel under a crowd of sail.