[Footnote 125:  She is thus rated in the British Navy Lists published between the time of her capture and the receipt of news of her loss; but she seems to have carried 120 guns.]

[Footnote 126:  Letters of Lord Hood, pp. 103, 104.]

[Footnote 127:  See letter of Sir Howard Douglas, son to Sir Charles; “United Service Journal,” 1834, Part II, p. 97.]

[Footnote 128:  Author’s italics; Mundy, “Life of Rodney,” ii. 248.]

[Footnote 129:  Troude.  Chevalier says sixteen, differing with.  Troude as to the whereabouts of the Brave.]

[Footnote 130:  Letters of Lord Hood, p. 136.]

[Footnote 131:  Letters of Lord Hood, p. 134.]

[Footnote 132:  Ibid., p. 104.]

CHAPTER XIII

HOWE AGAIN GOES AFLOAT.  THE FINAL RELIEF OF GIBRALTAR

1782

The fall of Lord North’s Ministry, besides occasioning the recall of Rodney, drew Lord Howe out of his long retirement, to command the Channel Fleet.  He hoisted his flag on the 20th of April, 1782, on board the Victory, 100.  Owing to the various directions in which the efforts of Great Britain had to be made, either to defend her own interests or to crush the movements of the many enemies now combined against her, the operations of the Channel fleet were for some months carried on by detached squadrons,—­in the North Sea, in the Bay of Biscay, and at the entrance of the Channel; Howe having under him several distinguished subordinates, at the head of whom, in professional reputation, were Vice-Admiral Barrington, the captor of Santa Lucia, and Rear-Admiral Kempenfelt.  In the North Sea, the Dutch were kept in their ports; and a convoy of near 400 merchant ships from the Baltic reached England unmolested.  In the Bay of Biscay, Barrington, having with him twelve of the line, discovered and chased a convoy laden with stores for the fleet in the East Indies.  One of the ships of the line accompanying it, the Pegase, 74, surrendered, after a night action of three hours with the Foudroyant, 80, Captain John Jervis, afterwards Earl St. Vincent.  Of nineteen transports, thirteen, one of which, the Actionnaire, was a 64-gun ship armed en flute,[133] were taken; a weighty blow to the great Suffren, whose chief difficulty in India was inadequate material of war, and especially of spars, of which the Actionnaire carried an outfit for four ships of the line.  After Barrington’s return, Kempenfelt made a similar but uneventful cruise of a month in the Bay.