ace which the enemy were said
to have rendered almost impregnable at an expenditure of some million and
a quarter pounds. They looked upon it as second only to Quebec in its
importance to the safe keeping of the colony. In order to carry out this
design a fleet was prepared under Admiral Boscawen (known to his men as
Old Dreadnought, and, from a peculiar carriage of the head, said to have
been contracted from a youthful habit of imitating one of his father's
old servants, Wry-necked-Dick), to convey a small army under
Major-General Amherst to the scene of action. Boscawen sailed with his
fleet, one member of which was the Pembroke, for Halifax, where they
arrived, via Madeira and the Bermudas, on 8th May.

Having completed his arrangements, Boscawen left Halifax on 28th May with
17 sail of the Royal Navy and 127 transports, picking up 2 more
men-of-war and 8 transports just outside, and a couple more of the latter
a few hours later. He had to leave behind at Halifax, with orders to
rejoin him as soon as they were fit, several ships, the Pembroke being
one, as their crews were so weakened by scurvy during the voyage from
England. The Pembroke had lost 29 men, but was sufficiently recovered to
be able to sail with 3 transports, 2 schooners, and a cattle sloop on 7th
June, and arrived off Louisburg on the 12th, four days too late to take
part in the landing which had been successfully carried out in the face
of great difficulties caused by the roughness of the weather, the rocky
coast, and the opposition of the enemy. In fact, James Wolfe, who was a
Brigadier throughout the siege, and on whose shoulders a very large
portion of the work seems to have fallen, says: "Our landing was next to
miraculous." There were 3 officers and 49 men killed; 5 officers and 59
men wounded of the army; 11 men killed, and 4 officers and 29 men wounded
of the navy; and 19 men wounded of the transport service. The weather was
so bad that no stores or artillery could be landed for several days, the
first gun being got ashore on the 16th, so Cook was in plenty of time to
take his share in the difficult task of landing supplies; a task so
dangerous that the fleet lost one hundred boats in this duty alone. As
well as forming the supply base for the army, the fleet also provided 583
men to act as gunners and engineers ashore; but none of these were from
the Pembroke. The nature of the ground rendered the work of constructing
the approaches and batteri