as was this
discrepancy between the opponents, it was counterbalanced largely by
Howe's skilful dispositions, which his enemy could not circumvent. If
the latter once got alongside, there was little hope for the British;
but it was impossible for the French to evade the primary necessity
of undergoing a raking fire, without reply, from the extreme range of
their enemies' cannon up to the moment of closing. The stake, however,
was great, and the apparent odds stirred to the bottom the fighting
blood of the British seamen. The ships of war being short-handed, Howe
called for volunteers from the transports. Such numbers came forward
that the agents of the vessels scarcely could keep a watch on board;
and many whose names were not on the lists concealed themselves in
the boats which carried their companions to the fighting ships. The
masters and mates of merchantmen in the harbour in like manner offered
their services, taking their stations at the guns. Others cruised off
the coast in small boats, to warn off approaching vessels; many of
which nevertheless fell into the enemy's hands.

Meanwhile d'Estaing was in communication with Washington, one of whose
aides-de-camp visited his flagship. A number of New York pilots also
were sent. When these learned the draught of the heavier French ships,
they declared that it was impossible to take them in; that there was
on the bar only twenty-three feet at high water. Had that been really
the case, Howe would not have needed to make the preparations for
defence that were visible to thousands of eyes on sea and on shore;
but d'Estaing, though personally brave as a lion, was timid in his
profession, which he had entered at the age of thirty, without serving
in the lower grades. The assurances of the pilots were accepted after
an examination by a lieutenant of the flagship, who could find nothing
deeper than twenty-two feet. Fortune's favors are thrown away, as
though in mockery, on the incompetent or the irresolute. On the 22d of
July a fresh north-east wind concurred with a spring tide to give the
highest possible water on the bar.[26]

"At eight o'clock," wrote an eye-witness in the British fleet,
"d'Estaing with all his squadron appeared under way. He kept
working to windward, as if to gain a proper position for
crossing the bar by the time the tide should serve. The wind
could not be more favourable for such a design; it blew from
the exact point from whi