admiral's intentions to be
quickly understood. To provide for the case of the enemy being met at
sea, the force had been organized into three squadrons,--a subdivision
of command which, while surrendering nothing of the admiral's
initiative, much facilitated the application of his plans, by
committing the execution of major details to the two senior captains,
Saumarez and Troubridge, each wielding a group of four ships. Among
the provisions for specific contingencies was one that evidently
sprang from the report that the enemy's fleet numbered sixteen or
seventeen of the line,--an impression which arose from there being in
it four Venetian ships so rated, which were not, however, fit for a
place in the line. In that case Nelson proposed to attack, ship for
ship, the rear thirteen of the enemy. That he preferred, when
possible, to throw two ships on one is evident enough--the approaching
battle proves it; but when confronted with a force stronger,
numerically, than his own, and under way, he provides what was
certainly the better alternative. He engages at once the attention of
as many ships as possible, confident that he brings against each a
force superior to it, owing to the general greater efficiency of
British ships over French of that date, and especially of those in his
own squadron, called by St. Vincent the _elite_ of the Navy.

The position of the French fleet, and the arrangements made by its
commander, Admiral Brueys, must now be given, for they constitute the
particular situation against which Nelson's general plan of attack was
to be directed. Considering it impracticable for the ships-of-the-line
to enter the port of Alexandria, Brueys had taken the fleet on the 8th
of July to their present anchorage. Aboukir Bay begins at a promontory
of the same name, and, after curving boldly south, extends eastward
eighteen miles, terminating at the Rosetta mouth of the Nile. From the
shore the depth increases very gradually, so that water enough for
ships-of-the-line was not found till three miles from the coast. Two
miles northeast of the promontory of Aboukir is Aboukir Island, since
called Nelson's, linked with the point by a chain of rocks. Outside
the island, similar rocks, with shoals, prolong this foul ground under
water to seaward, constituting a reef dangerous to a stranger
approaching the bay. This barrier, however, broke the waves from the
northwest, and so made the western part of the bay a fairly conveni