It was nearly eleven hours from the commencement of the action, when Lieutenant Bell, who was quartered on the forecastle, and who had kept the ship’s reckoning through the night, satisfied himself that they were near the French coast, and ordered one or two sailors to keep a good look-out.  One of these men thought he saw land, and reported it to his officer; who, perceiving it distinctly, went aft, and told the captain.  Immediately the tacks were hauled on board, and the Indefatigable stood to the southward, after making the night-signal of danger to the Amazon, which, with equal promptitude, wore to the northward.  The enemy, who did not yet see the danger, thought they had beaten off the frigates, and poured a broadside into the Indefatigable, the most destructive she had yet received.  Seven shot struck her hull, the three lower-masts were wounded, and the larboard main-topmast shrouds were all cut away close to the seizings of the eyes at the mast head.  It required extraordinary activity and coolness to save the topmast, the loss of which, at that time, would have made that of the ship inevitable.  Under the direction of Mr. Gaze, who immediately sprang aloft, the captain of the main-top cut away the top gallant-yard; while Mr. Thompson, acting master, got up the end of a hawser, which he clinched around the mast-head.  Thus they saved the main-topmast, and probably prevented the mainmast itself from being sprung.  Mr. Gaze, who received a master’s warrant a few weeks after, continued with Lord Exmouth to the last day of his command.  He was master of the fleet in the Mediterranean, and it was he who carried the Queen Charlotte in such admirable style to her position at Algiers.

None at this time knew how desperate was their situation.  The ships were in the Bay of Audierne, close in with the surf, with the wind blowing a heavy gale dead on the shore, and a tremendous sea rolling in.  To beat off the land would have been a difficult and doubtful undertaking for the best and most perfect ship.  The Indefatigable had four feet water in the hold, and her safety depended on her wounded spars and damaged rigging bearing the press of sail she was obliged to carry; while the crew, thus summoned to renewed exertion, were already quite worn out with fatigue.  The fate of the other ships was certain; for the Amazon had all her principal sails disabled, and the Droits de l’Homme was unmanageable.

The Indefatigable continued standing to the southward, until the captain of the mizen-top gave the alarm of breakers on the lee-bow.  The ship was immediately wore in eighteen fathoms, and she stood to the northward till half-past six, when land was again seen close a-head on the weather-bow, with breakers under the lee.  Running again to the southward, she passed the Droits de l’Homme lying on her broadside in the surf, at the distance of about a mile, but without the possibility of giving the