as the French ships hauled off to the southward, lookout vessels
followed them, and preparations continued (notably of fireships) for
pursuit. The last ship that joined from England crossed the bar at New
York on the 30th of July. On the 1st of August the fleet was ready for
sea, with four fire-ships. The accident of the wind delayed his next
movements; but, as has been seen, he came up only one day after the
entrance of the enemy into Newport, which his inferior force could not
have prevented. But the object of the enemy, which he could not
oppose, was frustrated by his presence. D'Estaing was no sooner in
Newport than he wished himself out. Howe's position was strategically
excellent. With his weatherly position in reference to the prevailing
winds, the difficulty of beating a fleet out through the narrow
entrance to the harbor would expose the French ships trying it to be
attacked in detail; while if the wind unluckily came fair, the admiral
relied upon his own skill to save his squadron.

Cooper, in one of his novels, "The Two Admirals," makes his hero say
to a cavilling friend that if he had not been in the way of good luck,
he could not have profited by it. The sortie of the French, the
subsequent gale, and the resulting damage were all what is commonly
called luck; but if it had not been for Howe's presence off Point
Judith threatening them, they would have ridden out the gale at their
anchors inside. Howe's energy and his confidence in himself as a
seaman had put him in the way of good luck, and it is not fair to deny
his active share in bringing it about. But for him the gale would not
have saved the British force in Newport.[132]

D'Estaing, having repaired his ships, sailed with his whole force for
Martinique on the 4th of November; on the same day Commodore Hotham
left New York for Barbadoes, with five sixty-four and fifty-gun ships
and a convoy of five thousand troops, destined for the conquest of
Sta. Lucia Island. On the way a heavy gale of wind injured the French
fleet more than the English, the French flag-ship losing her main and
mizzen topmasts. The loss of these spars, and the fact that twelve
unencumbered ships-of-war reached Martinique only one day before the
convoy of fifty-nine English transports reached Barbadoes, a hundred
miles farther on, tells badly for the professional skill which then
and now is a determining feature in naval war.

Admiral Barrington, commanding at Barbadoes, showed the