APPENDIX to the CHRONICLE. 



545 



lords comniissioners of the admiral- 

 ty, file procircdings of his majesty's 

 squadron on the day of the action, 

 and that prcccdins it, since which 

 I have had a canfinnvd series of 

 nisfortunL'S ; but they are of a kind 

 that human prudence could not pos- 

 sibly pro\ii.ie against, or my skill 

 prevent. - 



On the 22d in the morning a 

 strong southerly wind blew, with 

 squally weather, which, however, 

 did not prevent the activity of the 

 officers and seamen of such ships as 

 were niana-jeablc from getting hold 

 of many of the prizes (13 or 14) 

 and towing them off to the west- 

 ward, where I ordered them to ren- 

 dezvous round the Koyal Sovereign, 

 in tow by the Neptune; but on tlie 

 23d the gale increased, and the sea 

 ran so high, that many of them 

 broke the tow rope, and drifted far 

 to leeward before they v\ere got 

 hold of again, and some of them 

 taking adv;iutage in the dark and 

 boisterous night, got before the 

 wind, and have perliaps drifted upon 

 the shore and sunk ; on the after, 

 noon of that day the remnant of the 

 combined fleet, ten sail of ships, 

 who had not been much engaged, 

 ^tood up to leeward of my shatter- 

 I'd and straggled cliarge, as if mean- 

 ing to attack them, which obliged 

 me to collect a force out of the least 

 injured ships, and form to leeward 

 for their defence; all this retarded 

 the progress of the hulks, and the bad 

 weather continuing, determined me 

 to destroy all the l.;eward-most that 

 could he cleared of the men, consider- 

 ing thatkeepingpossessionof the ships 

 was a matter of little consequence 

 compared with the chance of their 

 falling again into the hands of the 

 enemy ; but tsvcn this was an ardu- 



VoL. XLVII. 



ous task in the high sea which was 

 running. I hope, however, it has 

 been accomplished to a considerable 

 extent ; I entrusted it to skilful offi- 

 cers, \vho would spare no pains to 

 execute what was possible. The 

 captains of the Prince and Neptune 

 cleared the Trinadada, and sunk 

 her. Captains Hope, Oayntun, .ind 

 Malcolm, who joined the fleet this 

 moment from Gibraltar, had the 

 charge of destroying four others. — 

 The Redoubtable sunk astern of the 

 Swil'tsure while in tow. Th? Santa 

 Anna, I have no doubt, is sunk, as 

 her side was almost entirely beat in ; 

 and such is the shattered condition 

 of the whole of them, that unless the 

 weather moderates, I doubt whether 

 I shall be able to carry a ship of 

 them into port. I hope their lord- 

 ships will approve of what I (having 

 only in consideration the destruc- 

 tion of the enemy's fleet) have 

 thought a measure of absolute ne- 

 cessity. 



I have taken admiral Villeneuve 

 into this ship; Vice admiral Don 

 Aliva is dead. Whenever the tem- 

 per of the weather will permit, and 

 I can spare a frigate (for there were 

 only four in the action with the 

 fleet, Euryalus, Sirius, Phoebe, and 

 Naiad; the Melpomene joined the 

 22d, and the Eurydiee and Scout 

 the 23d), I shall collect the other 

 {lag officers, and send them to 

 England, with their flags (if they 

 do not all go to the bottom), to ba 

 laid at his majesty's feet. 



There were four thousand troops 

 embarked under the command of 

 general Contamin, who was taken 

 with admiral Villeneuve in the Bu- 

 centaure. 



(Signed) C. CoUingwood. 



Nn 



[^Last 



