On the Ocean 239 



erence to a victory won by the French in the year 

 of the Battle of the Nile. On the I4th of Decem 

 ber, 1798, after two hours' conflict, the French 24- 

 gun corvette Bayonnaise captured, by boarding, the 

 English 32-gun frigate Ambuscade. According to 

 James the Ambuscade threw at a broadside 262 

 pounds of shot, and was manned by 190 men, 

 while the Bayonnaise threw 150 pounds, and had 

 on board supernumeraries and passenger soldiers 

 enough to make in all 250 men. According to 

 the French historian Rouvier'* 1 the broadside force 

 was 246 pounds against 80 pounds; according to 

 Troude 32 it was 270 pounds against 112. M. Leon 

 Guerin, in his voluminous but exceedingly preju 

 diced and one-sided work, :j:{ makes the difference 

 even greater. At any rate the English vessel was 

 vastly the superior in force, and was captured by 

 boarding, after a long and bloody conflict in which 

 she lost 46, and her antagonist over 50, men. Dur 

 ing all the wars waged with the Republic apd the 

 Empire, no English vessel captured a French one 

 as much superior to itself as the Ambuscade was 

 to the Bayonnaise, precisely as in the war of 1812 

 no American vessel captured a British opponent as 

 much superior to itself as the Chesapeake was to 

 the Shannon. Yet no sensible man can help acknowl- 



81 "Histoire des Marins Frangais sous la Republique," par 

 Charles Rouvier, Lieutenant de Vaisseau, Paris, 1868. 



M "Batailles Na vales." 



n "Histoire Maritime de France" (par Leon Guerin, His- 

 torien titulaire de la Marine, Membre de la Legion d' Hon- 

 neur), vi, 142 (Paris, 1852). 



