ut half an hour after it had struck, and before being
taken into possession--said to be occasioned by a box of combustibles in
the fore-top--and the whole ship was soon in a blaze. Several boats,
from our fleet, were instantly dispatched to rescue as many as possible
of the unhappy crew from the devouring flames; and, by great exertion,
three hundred were saved: the remainder, consisting of about four
hundred, had the melancholy fate of being blown up with the ship.

The Agamemnon, with it's usual good fortune, had none killed in this
action, and only one wounded. It received, however, several shot under
water, which kept the hands pretty well employed at the pumps: but this,
Captain Nelson insisted, must have happened by accident, as he was very
certain they only fired high.

The six ships engaged were the Victory, Admiral Mann, and Captain
Reeve; Agamemnon, Nelson; Defence, Wells; Culloden, Troubridge;
Cumberland, Rowley; and Blenheim, Bazeley.

After anchoring for a few hours at St. Fiorenzo, with the fleet, Captain
Nelson was again dispatched, in the Agamemnon, with orders to sail as
before directed, when he had been chased back. Accordingly, with a light
squadron under his command, consisting of the Inconstant, Meleager,
Southampton, Tartar, Ariadne, and Speedy, he proceeded to co-operate
with the Austrian General De Vins: and, being informed by the general,
that a convoy of provisions and ammunition was arrived at Alassio, a
place in the possession of the French army, he proceeded thither on the
25th of August; where, within an hour, he took nine vessels, burnt a
tenth, and drove another on shore. Some of the enemy's cavalry fired on
the boats when boarding the vessels near shore, but not a single man was
killed or wounded. The French had two thousand horse and foot soldiers
in the town, which prevented his landing and destroying their magazines
of provisions and ammunition.

Captain Freemantle of the Inconstant, was sent, in the mean time, with
the Tartar, to Languelia, a town on the west side of the Bay of Alassio;
where, Captain Nelson observes, in his dispatches to Admiral Hotham,
published October 3,1795, in the London Gazette, that commander executed
his orders in a most officer-like manner. "I am indebted," he concludes,
"to every officer in the squadron, for their activity: but, most
particularly so, to Lieutenant George Andrews, first-lieutenant of the
Agamemnon; who, by his spirited and officer-like c