16 THE SEA. 



the bombardment. Lyons brought the Agamemnon, followed by half a dozen other vessels, 

 to within 700 yards of Fort Constantino, the others staying at the safer distances of 1,800 

 to 2,200 yards. The whole fleet opened with a tremendous roar of artillery, to which 

 the Russians replied almost as heavily. Fort Constantine was several times silenced, and 

 greatly damaged ; but, on the other hand, the Russians managed to kill forty-seven and wound 

 ?,34 men in the English fleet, and a slightly smaller number in the French. They had an 

 unpleasant knack of firing red-hot shot in profusion, and of hitting the vessels even at 

 the distance at which they lay. Seyeral were set on fire, and two for a time had to retire 

 from the action. These were practical shots at our wooden walls. This naval attack 

 has been characterised as " even a greater failure than that by land " meaning, of course, the 

 first attack. 



Here we may for a moment be allowed to digress and remind the reader of the important 

 part played by red-hot shot at that greatest of all great sieges Gibraltar. As each accession 

 to the enemy 's force arrived, General Elliott calmly built more furnaces and more grates for 

 heating his most effective means of defence. Just as one of their wooden batteries was on 

 the point of completion, he gave it what was termed at the time a dose of " cayenne 

 pepper;" in other words, with red-hot shot and shells he set it on fire. When the 

 ordnance portable furnaces for heating shot proved insufficient to supply the demands of the 

 artillery, he ordered large bonfires to be kindled, on which the cannon-balls were thrown ; and 

 these supplies were termed by the soldiers " hot potatoes " for the enemy. But the great 

 triumph of red-hot shot was on that memorable 13th of September, 1782, when forty-six 

 sail of the line, and a countless fleet of gun and mortar boats attacked the fortress. 

 With all these appliances of warfare, the great confidence of the enemy or rather, com- 

 bined enemies was in their floating batteries, planned by D'Arcon, an eminent French 

 engineer, and which had cost a good half million sterling. They were supposed to be 

 impervious to shells or red-hot shot. After persistently firing at the fleet, Elliott started 

 the admiral's ship and one of the batteries commanded by the Prince of Nassau. This 

 was but the commencement of the end. The unwieldy leviathans could not be shifted 

 from their moorings, and they lay helpless and immovable, and yet dangerous to their 

 neighbours; for they were filled with the instruments of destruction. Early the next 

 morning eight of these vaunted batteries " indicated the efficacy of the red-hot defence. 

 The light produced by the flames was nearly equal to noonday, and greatly exposed the 

 enemy to observation, enabling the artillery to be pointed upon them with the utmost 

 precision. The rock and neighbouring objects are stated to have been highly illuminated 

 by the constant flashes of cannon and the flames of the burning ships, forming a mingled 

 scene of sublimity and terror."* "An indistinct clamour, with lamentable cries and groans, 

 arose from all quarters." f 



When 400 pieces of artillery were playing on the rock at the same moment, Elliott 

 returned the compliment with a shower of red-hot balls, bombs, and carcases, that filled 

 the air, with little or no intermission. The Count d'Artois had hastened from Paris to 



* Gust, " Annals of the Wars of the Eighteenth Century." 

 t Drinkwater, " Siege of Gibraltar." 



