THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS. 79 



of the Algerine fleet ; but this service had already- 

 been effected by other means. Conducted by Lieu- 

 tenant Fleming, who had been commanding a gun- 

 boat near the Queen Charlotte, with Major Reed, of 

 the engineers, and Captain Herbert Powell, a volun- 

 teer on board the Impregnable, the explosion- vessel 

 was run on shore under the battery north of the 

 Light-house ; where, at nine o' clock, she blew up. 



The fleet slackened their fire towards night, as the 

 guns of the enemy became silenced, and also as the 

 ships began to feel the necessity for husbanding 

 their ammunition. Their expenditure had been 

 beyond all parallel. They fired nearly 118 tons of 

 powder, and 50,000 shot, weighing more than 500 

 tons of iron ; besides 960 thirteen and ten-inch 

 shells thrown by the bomb-vessels, and the shells 

 and rockets from the flotilla. Such a fire, close, 

 concentrated, and well-directed as it was, nothing 

 could resist ; and the sea-defences of Algiers, with 

 great part of the town itself, were shattered, and 

 crumbled to ruins. 



At a little before ten, the objects of the attack 

 having been effected, the Queen Charlotte's bower 

 cable was cut, and her head hauled round to sea- 

 ward. She continued however to engage with all 

 the guns abaft the mainmast, sometimes on both 

 sides. Warps were run out to gain an offing, but 

 many of them were cut by shot from the batteries 

 southward of the town, which had been very par- 

 tially engaged ; and also from forts on the hills out 

 of reach of the ship's guns. A very light air was 

 felt about half-past ten, and sail was made ; but the 

 ship, after cutting from her remaining warps and 

 anchors, was manageable only by the aid of her 

 boats towing ; and then the only point gained was 

 keeping her head from the land. At eleven, she 

 began to draw out from the batteries, and at twenty- 

 five minutes past, she ceased to fire. The breeze 

 freshened ; and a tremendous storm of thunder and 

 lightning came on, with torrents of rain ; while the 



