d with the
blood of her slaughtered crew, she broke off to windward. The iron
line of the British was unpierceable! The leading three-decker of the
Spanish lee division in like manner bore up, as though to break through
the British line to join her admiral; but the grim succession of
three-deckers, following swift on each other like the links of a moving
iron chain, was too disquieting a prospect to be faced. It was not in
Spanish seamanship, or, for the matter of that, in Spanish flesh and
blood, to beat up in the teeth of such threatening lines of iron lips.
The Spanish ships swung sullenly back to leeward, and the fleet of Don
Cordova was cloven in twain, as though by the stroke of some gigantic
sword-blade.

As soon as Sir John Jervis saw the steady line of his fleet drawn fair
across the gap in the Spanish line, he flung his leading ships up to
windward on the mass of the Spanish fleet, by this time beating up to
windward. The _Culloden_ led, thrust itself betwixt the hindmost
Spanish three-deckers, and broke into flame and thunder on either side.
Six minutes after her came the _Blenheim_; then, in quick succession,
the _Prince George_, the _Orion_, the _Colossus_. It was a crash of
swaying masts and bellying sails, while below rose the shouting of the
crews, and, like the thrusts of fiery swords, the flames shot out from
the sides of the great three-deckers against each other, and over all
rolled the thunder and the smoke of a Titanic sea-fight. Nothing more
murderous than close fighting betwixt the huge wooden ships of those
days can well be imagined. The _Victory_, the largest British ship
present in the action, was only 186 feet long and 52 feet broad; yet in
that little area 1000 men fought, 100 great guns thundered. A Spanish
ship like the _San Josef_ was 194 feet in length and 54 feet in
breadth; but in that area 112 guns were mounted, while the three decks
were thronged with some 1300 men. When floating batteries like these
swept each other with the flame of swiftly repeated broadsides at a
distance of a few score yards, the destruction may be better imagined
than described. The Spanish had an advantage in the number of guns and
men, but the British established an instant mastery by their silent
discipline, their perfect seamanship, and the speed with which their
guns were worked. They fired at least three broadsides to every two
the Spaniards discharged, and their fire had a deadly precision
co