DISCOVERY 



313 



exactly calculated for the intended service."' The 

 Admiralty, however, seems to have been dilatorj', and 

 while Grey fumed at Canterbury the plan grew, the 

 feasibility of bombarding Flushing was discussed, 

 while it was decided to send some of the troops, after 

 the raid, to capture the island of Ameland and help 

 to blockade the Te.\el. On May 8 the necessary secret 

 instructions were issued to Popham, who was to com- 

 mand the fleet, and emphasis was laid on the fact that 

 the main objective was the destruction of the canal 

 gates. One sentence deser^'es to be noticed: " You 

 are to endeavour to destroy by shells whatever ships 

 or boats may be in the port [Ostend], but if there should 

 not be any vessels which may be so destroj-ed, j'ou are 

 not to throw shells into the town, which though it 

 might distress Individuals, would produce neither 

 honor nor advantage to His Majesty's arms." 



The troops were embarked upon the 14th, but a 

 gale of wind forced them to anchor off the North 

 Foreland, and Grey was left fretting ashore, writing 

 letter after letter to town, and, when the last post was 

 gone, even sending a dragoon thundering along the 

 London road by night with the good news that the 

 fleet was ready to sail. In the early dawn of the i6th 

 the expedition got under weigh, and Grey's excitement 

 burst forth in his letter to Huskisson, Dundas's 

 secretary : " I beg he [Dundas] will, in the meantime and 

 untU the issue is knowTi (which shall be successful) be 

 planning in his own mind another entertainment for our 

 neighbours, following the one, just gone forth, vigor- 

 ously up, and I will answer for liis making tliis great (or 

 rather unprincipled) nation sick of Invasion, and cause 

 the People to revenge themselves of the Directory, 

 plundering Paris, in the room of England, so insolently 

 held out to them. Mr. Dundas will have the goodness 

 to excuse this freedom, for I must have my say." 



The troops which were embarked for this expedition 

 were made up as follows : Eight Light Infantry com- 

 panies from the Guards ; four from the First Guards, 

 and two each from the Coldstreams and the Tlnird 

 Guards. The whole of the nth Foot, and the Grena- 

 dier and Light Infantry companies of the 23rd and 49th 

 regiments. There was also a detachment of some 100 

 men of the Royal Artillery with guns, and in addition 

 there were ten miners chosen from Welsh militia regi- 

 ments, to help with the demolition party. ^ Sir Eyre 

 Coote, the nephew of the famous Indian General, was 

 chosen by Grey to command, and his selection was 

 doubtless due to his previous service with Grey in the 

 West Indies, and to his brilliant conduct during the 

 attack on a fort in Guadeloupe. Besides Popham's 



> The nth Foot are now the Devons, the 23rd the Royal 

 Welch Fusiliers, and the 49th the Royal Berkshire Regiment. 



2 The miners came from the followmg militia regiments ; 

 Somerset, i ; Denbigh, 2 ; Glamorgan, 7. 



intimate knowledge of the port of Ostend and its 

 neighbourhood, Coote had the help of two local guides, 

 one who had been harbour master of Ostend during 

 the British occupation, and the other a refugee. 



The expedition had been timed to arrive in the early 

 morning, and the enemy's coast was approached with 

 great caution. By i a.m. on the 19th the ships were 

 anchored, but the wind had shifted to the west and 

 began to freshen ; while Coote and Popham were dis- 

 cussing the postponement of the attempt, a boat from 

 the Vigilant came alongside with the Ostend pilot boat, 

 which she had just cut out from under a shore battery. 

 The pilots, upon examination, confirmed the previous 

 information that there were but few French troops on 

 the coast, and Coote begged Popham " that he might 

 be landed to accomplish his great object of destroying 



DIAGRAM OP ATTACK ON OSTEND CANAL GATES. 



Ad-upUJ from the 1 : Utndas by General Grey. 



Note. — The Grcuadicri a:-. ;.:,..: I. .:.»nlr\' were the iJank companies of the 

 three foot regiments. The actual disposition o( troops at the landing had to 

 be modified, as fotir companies of Guards did not land. 



the canal, even if the surf should prevent his retreat 

 being so successful as he could wish." Popham 

 agreed, and the troops were hastily landed on the 

 sand-dunes to the east of the harbour, %vithout waiting 

 for the Minerva, who, with the four companies of the 

 First Guards aboard, had failed to keep touch with the 

 convoy. 



So secretly was the landing carried out that the 

 French w-ere not aware of what was going on until 

 most of the men were ashore. Then a heavy bombard- 

 ment began from the forts, to which the frigates and 

 bomb-ships replied. Coote pushed forw'ard some 

 Guards to seize the lock gates, which they succeeded in 

 doing after a skirmish, and a screen of troops was 

 thrown out to cover the working party : to the East, 

 the village of Breedenc was occupied and the Blanken- 

 berghe-Ostend road covered, while on the west detach- 

 ments held the two ferries which crossed the harbour 

 from Ostend. But the old black powder of those days 

 was a very different thing from the high explosive of 



