umbled.

Jack Deane on hearing these things felt as if, had he been present, he
should have been very much inclined to challenge those who showed this
disrespect to a sovereign whom he had learned to honour and love.

The fleet had taken its departure some time before John Deane reached
Portsmouth, but he found a fast frigate on the point of sailing to carry
despatches to the admiral, the "Venus." Admiral Benbow's object in
going out to the West Indies had been to detain the Spanish galleons.
When war was declared on the accession of Queen Anne, a French admiral
had also sailed from Brest for the same station, with fourteen sail of
the line and sixteen frigates, to meet the galleons and convoy them to
Cadiz. Although the brave Benbow's squadron was far smaller than that
of the French, he kept a sharp look-out for the enemy. He had performed
many services in the West Indies to the merchants by capturing
privateers and protecting their settlements from the attacks of the
enemy.

Admiral Benbow's ship was the "Breda," of seventy guns, and her youngest
lieutenant having died of fever, Jack Deane, greatly to his
satisfaction, found himself appointed to that ship. Early in July, the
admiral sailed from Jamaica, with seven sail of men-of-war, in the hope
of joining Admiral Whitstone, who had been sent from England with a
reinforcement to endeavour to intercept the French squadron which had
sailed under Monsieur Du Casse. The admiral on the 10th of August,
being off Donna Maria Bay, received advice that Du Casse had sailed for
Carthagena and Portobello. He instantly went in quest of him, and in
the evening of the 19th, discovered off Santa Martha ten sail of ships.
On his nearer approach he found the greatest number of them to be French
men-of-war. Four ships of from sixty to seventy guns, one great Dutch
ship of about thirty or forty guns, and another full of soldiers, the
rest being of a smaller size. They were steering along shore under
their topsails. The admiral made a signal to form a line of battle
ahead, and bore away under an easy sail, that those to leeward might the
more readily get into their station. It was the admiral's intention not
to make the signal of battle but only of defiance, when he had got
abreast of the enemy's headmost ship. Before he reached his station,
however, the "Falmouth," which was in the rear, began to fire, as did
also the "Windsor" and "Advance," and soon after the Vice-Admiral