gain commanded
by two ships of seventy guns, and a large frigate, in the inner
road of Copenhagen; and two sixty-four gun ships, without masts,
were moored on the flat on the starboard side of the entrance into
the arsenal. The day after, the wind being southerly, we again
examined their position, and came to the resolution of attacking
them from the southward. Vice-Admiral Lord Nelson having offered
his services for conducting the attack, had some days before we
entered the Sound shifted his flag to the Elephant; and, after
having examined and buoyed the outer channel of the Middle Ground,
his lordship proceeded, with the twelve ships of the line named in
the margin--[Elephant, Defiance, Monarch, Bellona, Edgar, Russell,
Ganges, Glatton, Isis, Agamemnon, Polyphemus, and Ardent]--all the
frigates, bombs, fire-ships, and all the small vessels; and, that
evening, anchored off Draco Point, to make his disposition for the
attack, and wait for the wind to the southward. It was agreed,
between us, that the remaining ships with me, should weigh at the
same moment his lordship did, and menace the Crown Batteries and
the four ships of the line that lay at the entrance of the arsenal;
as, also, to cover our disabled ships, as they came out of action.

"I have, now, the honour to inclose a copy of Vice-Admiral Lord
Nelson's report to me of the action on the 2d instant. His lordship
has stated so fully the whole of his proceedings on that day, as
only to leave me the opportunity to testify my entire acquiescence
and testimony of the bravery and intrepidity with which the action
was supported throughout the line. Was it possible for me to add
anything to the well-earned renown of Lord Nelson, it would be by
asserting that his exertions, great as they have heretofore been,
never were carried to a higher pitch of zeal for his country's
service. I have only to lament, that the sort of attack, confined
within an intricate and narrow passage, excluded the ships
particularly under my command from the opportunity of exhibiting
their valour: but I can with great truth assert, that the same
spirit and zeal animated the whole of the fleet; and I trust, that
the contest in which we are engaged will, on some future day,
afford them an occasion of shewing that the whole were