MEMOIR OF HER MAJESTY'S STEAM SHIP THE MEDEA. 89 



It was found that in adopting this clever expedient of working only one wheel with such an 

 insignificant expenditure of fuel, very little inclination of the helm was required to preserve 

 the line of the ship's course. In steady breezes on this passage she frequently, under sail 

 alone, beat the large ships "on a wind;" and during a moderate gale on the "quarter," 

 without any assistance from the steam, she averaged ten knots for twenty-four successive 

 hours, the only vessel having an advantage over her being the Columbine, which ship 

 out-sailed her in a slight degree. On arriving near Malta on the J8th of January, the fleet 

 were becalmed about ten or twelve miles from the port, when the Medea, having "got the 

 steam up," took the ships successively in tow and brought them into the harbour, towing the 

 Caledonia at the rate of three and a half, and the two-decked ships four miles an hour, the 

 speed being much impeded by a heavy north-west swell. We may here state that in a calm, 

 with smooth water, the Medea could tow a line-of-battle ship at the rate of six miles an hour; 

 but the influence of the slightest wave on the hull of a large ship caused a more than 

 corresponding diminution of progress. 



The squadron now remained at Malta until the 8th of February, when intelligence arrived 

 from the Levant of such a nature as to render it expedient that the fleet should forthwith 

 proceed to sea. The wind, which had been violent from the north-east, was still blowing 

 freshly up the harbour, and the heavy swell, which, rolling in from the Mediterranean, spread 

 over the whole surface of the narrow entrance, rendered it impracticable for the ships to 

 " beat" through. Thus if an enemy's force had been outside the port, it would have been 

 impossible for the most able officer or skilful tactician to have suggested any means by which 

 the British fleet could have been extricated from their land-locked position, and they must of 

 necessity have been idle spectators of any devastation, which a squadron, possibly of inferior force, 

 might have been committing outside the harbour. Here then an important -case occurred, in 

 which was to be proved how far the agency of steam would be effectual, in rendering 

 assistance to large ships of war under some of those peculiar circumstances, to which, by 

 casualties, or the nature of their service, they are not unfrequently exposed. 



It was nothing new for steam-vessels to tow ships in and out of port under ordinary 

 circumstances, and most naval officers had contemplated the advantages that a fleet would 

 derive in a general action, from the co-operation of a few steamers ; still it was doubtful if it 

 would be possible to tow a first-rate ship against any considerable force of wind and wave, or 

 that it would have been in the power of any steam-vessels to have prevented the calamitous 

 wrecks which occurred after the battle of Trafalgar. The facts, however, we have now to state 

 fully prove that, had three or four such ships as the Medea been attached to Lord Nelson's 

 fleet, most of those prizes which in their dismantled state were either wrecked in the neighbour- 

 hood of Cadiz, or recaptured by drifting within its bay, would have reached a British port as 

 proud trophies of that eventful day. All required was the removal of the disabled hulks to 

 such a distance from the land as to place them in safety during a temporary refitment, and to 

 afford time for rigging jury-masts, &c. ; which service might therefore have been effectually 

 rendered to three or four ships successively, by one steamer. 



In thus referring to the co-operation of steam-vessels in a sea-fight, we have supposed them 

 to be kept aloof during the action, prepared only to give assistance afterwards, either by 

 securing prizes or rendering aid to disabled ships ; but the history of our naval warfare affords 

 many instances in which the presence of a few steamers might have changed the whole tide 



