S P R 



S P R 



1 can difcover, where he was born, of what family, or how- 

 he attained his firil preferment." 



We find him a captain in the firft ensragement with the 

 Dutch, after the reftoration of Charles II., viz.. on the 3d 

 of June, l66j, in which he behaved with great reputation, and 

 on account of which he was knighted. He was hkewife in 

 the four-days' battle in June 1666, at which time lie was 

 particularly noticed by the duke of Albemarle ; and in the 

 fucceeding battle, which was fought on the 24th of July, 

 he carried a flag under fir Jeremiah Smith, admiral of the 

 blue fquadron, who engaged Van Tromp, (battered his vice 

 admiral, fo that Ihe was abfolutely dilablcd, and having 

 ruined the rigging of the rear admiral, and killed the com- 

 mander, contributed very much to the glory of that day. 

 He greatly diftinguifiied himfelf when the Dutch daringly 

 ventured up the Thames in 1667 : he was employed on this 

 occafion to maintain the fort of Sheernefs, which he de- 

 fended with gallantry, till it would have amounted to an att 

 of raflincfs to expofe his garrifon any longer : and when he 

 could aft no more by land, he began to collctt as great a 

 force as poffible by fea. This amounted to no more than 

 live frigates, feventeen lire-fhips, and fome tenders ; and yet 

 when the Dutch admiral Van Nes came up the river, fir Ed- 

 ward engaged him, and burnt eleven or twelve of his (hips, 

 with only fix of his own. The wind, after this, obliged 

 him to Ihelter himfelf from the enemy's fuperior force, under 

 the cannon of Tilbury fort. The next day, the weather 

 being more favourable, he again attacked the Dutch, and 

 drove them difgracefully out of the river. 



In 167 1 he was employed againft the Algerines, and de- 

 ilroyed feven of their men of war, and did them other 

 damage which was efteemed irreparable. They had picked 

 cut their chief and molt renowned commanders, on purpofe 

 to meet fir Edward Spragge ; had furnilhed them with their 

 bell brafs ordnance from on board all the reft of their veffels, 

 with nearly 2000 chofen men double officered, of whom 

 about 400 were killed, the caftles and towns miferably torn, 

 and a vail i\umber of people in them (lain and wounded ; and, 

 which increafed the misfortune, all their furgeons' chells 

 were burnt on board their (hips, fo that numbers died for 

 want of having their wounds drefled. In this engagement 

 fir Edward Spragge had but 17 men killed, and 41 wounded. 

 Dr. Campbell mentions it as honourable to the Englifh name 

 and heroifnri, that in all our wars with the pirates of Algiers 

 at that period, the Spaniards allowed us the free ufe of the 

 harbour of port Mahon, as to the champions of the Chrif- 

 tian caufe, and proteftors of the commerce of the Mediter- 

 ranean, and thither fir Edward repaired to refit before he 

 returned liome. 



Sir Edward Spragge was raifed to the rank of admiral of 

 the blue in the year 1673, having in the preceding year 

 been employed by the duke of York to alTemble the fleet in 

 order to attack the Dutch, and in that year he was piefent 

 jn the Solebay fight. May 28th, and in it diftinguilhed him- 

 felf by finking a Dutch fliip of fixty guns. 



Before the fleet put to fea in 1673, fir Edward was fent, 

 with the charafter of envoy extraordinary, to Fiance, where 

 he was received with all pofTible refpeft, and at his taking 

 leave, had a prefent made him of great value. 

 _ On the 28th of May, 167s, he took a moil gallant part 

 IB the engagement with the Dutch : he fought Van Tromp 

 feven hours, forced him from the Golden^ Lion into the 

 Prince on Horfeback, and thence into the Amllerdam, and 

 from that into the Comet, where he would iiave been killed 

 or taken if he had not been relieved by De Rnyter. Sir 

 Edward alfo twice changed his (hip. Thefe circumltances 



were not mentioned in the aacouut publifhed by order of 

 government, but the matter is fairly Hated by prince Rupert, 

 notwithttanding there had been a private quarrel between 

 the prince and admiral. " Sir Edward," fays his highnefs, 

 " did on his fide maintain tlie figlrt with fo much courage 

 and refolution, that their whole body gave way to fuch a 

 degree, that, had it not been for fear of the (hoals, we (hould 

 have driven them into their harbours, and the king would 

 have had a better account of them." 



On the 4th of June he behaved with great refolution, 

 forced Van Tromp to change his fiiip twice, and finally 

 obliged him to retreat. In the third battle, which took 

 place on the nth of Auguft, fir Edward Spragge, with 

 the blue fquadron, was in the rear, but being provoked by 

 Van Tromp, he laid his fore-top fail to the malt to wait for 

 him, and having engaged his fquadron, continued fighting 

 many hours, at a diilance from the body of the fleet. Sir 

 Edward was at tirll on board the Royal Prince, and Van 

 Tromp in the Golden Lion ; but after a difpute of about 

 three hours, fir Edward's (hip was fo difabled, that he was 

 forced to go on board the St. George, as Van Tromp for the 

 fame reafon went on board the Comet. Then the fight be- 

 tween them began again with greater fury than before : at 

 lall the St. George was fo battered, that fir Edward thought 

 it right to leave her, in order that he might go on board the 

 Royal Charles ; bat before his boat had rowed many yards 

 it was pierced by a cannon (hot, and the admiral was 

 drowned. 



Bifhop Parker Jefcribes this laft fcene in the following 

 words : " There was a remarkable fight between Spragge 

 and Van Tromp ; for thefe having mutually agreed to at- 

 tack each other, not out of hatred, but through a third of 

 glory, they engaged with all the rage, or, as it were, with 

 all the fport of war. They came fo clofe to one another, 

 that, like an army of foot, they fought at once with their 

 guns and fwords. Almoll at every turn, both their (hips, 

 though not funk, were yet bored through and through, their 

 cannon being difcharged with common gun-fhot : neither 

 did our ball fall in vain into the fea, but each (hip pierced 

 the other, as if they had fought witli fpears. But at length, 

 three or four (hips being (battered, as Spragge was pafling 

 in a long boat from one ftiip to another, the boat was over- 

 turned by a chance-fhot, and that great man, not being 

 (killed in fwimming, was drowned, to the great grief of his 

 generous enemy, who, after the death of Spragge, could 

 hardly hope to find an enemy equal to himfelf. But thus it 

 happened, that when that brave man had overcome fo many 

 dangers, his country being now viftnrious and fafe, no 

 honour remained for him to receive, but the reward of a 

 glorious death." The bilhop adds, in another part of his 

 hiftorv, that fir Edward Spragge was a perfon the love and 

 delight of all men, as well for his noble courage, as the 

 gentle fweetneis of his temper. See Stockdale's edition of 

 Campbell, vol. ii. 



SPRAIN, in Surgery, fignifies an injury done to a joint, 

 which has had its ligaments violently llietched, wuliout 

 there being any fenfible luxation. 



The motion of the articulations cannot be carried beyond 

 their natural limits, without the ligaments, intended for 

 uniting the bones and bounding their movements, being 

 either forcibly ilretched or lacerated. A iprain, therefore, 

 is always accompanied with the firft of thefe circumllances, 

 and fometimes with the fecond. 



Cuftom has limited the term diajlafts to the lateral fepara- 

 tion of two long bones, articulated together by correlpond- 

 ing furfaces at their extremities, and, efpecially, to fuch in- 

 juries. 



