35 SEA MONSTERS UNMASKED. 



safely. Five months afterwards, however, a convoy of nine 

 line-of-battle ships (amongst which were Rodney's prizes), 

 one frigate, and about a hundred merchantmen, were dis- 

 persed, whilst on their voyage to England, by a violent 

 storm, during which some of them unfortunately foundered. 

 The various accidents which preceded the loss of these 

 vessels was related in evidence to the Admiralty by the 

 survivors, and official documents prove that De Montfort's 

 fleet-destroying poulpe was an invention of his own, and 

 had no part whatever in the disaster that he attributed 

 to it* 



* De Montfort endeavoured to support his statements by so many 

 inaccurate details, which by a considerable number of ill-informed 

 persons of his own nation have been accepted as true, that I think 

 some particulars of the events above referred to may be interesting. 

 My information is obtained from Rodney's despatches, and paragraphs 

 of contemporary naval news published in the Gentlemarfs Magazine 

 of 1782 and 1783 ; from the Annual Register of 1783 ; and from Capt. 

 J. N. Inglefield's own account of the loss of his ship the " Centaur," 

 in a rare pamphlet of thirty-nine pages, " published by authority," and 

 dated " Fayall, October I3th, 1782." 



In Sir G. B. Rodney's action with the French fleet under the Count 

 de Grasse, off St. Domingo, on the I2th of April, 1782, the manoeuvre 

 of breaking the enemy's line, and separating some of his ships from 

 the remainder, was for the first time successfully put in practice. The 

 following captures were made by the British, viz. : The admiral's 

 ship, Ville de Paris, 104, which was a splendid present from the City 

 of Paris to Louis XV. ; the Glorieux, 74 ; Casar, 74 ; Hector , 64 ; 

 Caton, 64; Jason, 64; Aimable, 32; and Ceres, 18 ; besides one 

 ship of 74 guns, sunk during the engagement. The Ccesar, one of the 

 best ships in the French fleet,took fire on the night of the action, 

 and, before the prisoners could be removed from her, blew up. By 

 this accident a lieutenant, the boatswain, and fifty Englishmen belong- 

 ing to the " Centaur," together with about four hundred Frenchmen, 

 perished. The remainder of the prizes were sent into Port Royal, 

 Jamaica, to repair damages, and on the $th of May, 1782, Rodney 

 wrote to the Admiralty announcing their safe arrival in that harbour. 



On the 26th of July following, a fleet and convoy, amongst which 



