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The Novels and Miscellaneous Works (8); Memoirs of Captain Carleton. Life and Adventures of Mrs. Christian Davies
The Novels and Miscellaneous Works Memoirs of Captain Carleton Life and Adventures of Mrs Christian Davies - 8 Author:Daniel Defoe Volume: 8 General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1840 Original Publisher: Printed by D. A. Talboys for T. Tegg, London Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial a... more »ccess to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: French, we sailed directly towards the Dutch coast, where we soon got sight of their fleet; a sand called the Galloper lying between. The Dutch seemed willing there to expect an attack from us: but in regard the Charles man-of-war had been lost on those sands the war before, and that our ships drawing more water than those of the enemy, an engagement might be rendered very disadvantageous, it was resolved in a council of war to avoid coming to a battle for the present, and to sail directly for Solebay ; which was accordingly put in execution. We had not been in Solebay above four or five days, when De Ruyter, hearing of it, made his signal for sailing, in order to surprise us ; and he had certainly had his aim, had there been any breeze of wind to favour him. But though they made use of all their sails, there was so little air stirring, that we could see their fleet making towards us long before they came up; notwithstanding which, our admirals found difficulty enough to form their ships into a line of battle, so as to be ready to receive the enemy. It was about four in the morning of the 28th of May, being Tuesday in Whitsun week, when we first made the discovery; and about eight the same morning, the blue squadron, under the command of the earl of Sandwich, began to engage with admiral Van Ghent, who commanded the Amsterdam squadron; and about nine the whole fleets were under a general engagement. The fight lasted till ten at night, and with equal fury on all sides, the French excepted, who appeared stationed there rather as...« less