ere of several sorts, I know not which the truest: that he
come with so strong a gale of wind, that his grapplings would not hold;
that he did come by their lee; whereas if he had come athwart their
hawse, they would have held; that they did not stop a tide, and come up
with a windward tide, and then they would not have come so fast. Now,
there happened to be Captain Jenifer by, who commanded the Lily in this
business, and thus says that, finding the Dutch not so many as they
expected, they did not know but that there were more of them above, and
so were not so earnest to the setting upon these; that they did do what
they could to make the fire-ships fall in among the enemy; and, for
their lives, neither Sir J. Jordan nor others could, by shooting several
times at them, make them go in; and it seems they were commanded by some
idle fellows, such as they could of a sudden gather up at Harwich; which
is a sad consideration that, at such a time as this, where the saving
the reputation of the whole nation lay at stake, and after so long a
war, the King had not credit to gather a few able men to command these
vessels. He says, that if they had come up slower, the enemy would, with
their boats and their great sloops, which they have to row with a great
many men, they would, and did, come and cut up several of our fireships,
and would certainly have taken most of them, for they do come with a
great provision of these boats on purpose, and to save their men, which
is bravely done of them, though they did, on this very occasion, shew
great fear, as they say, by some men leaping overboard out of a great
ship, as these were all of them of sixty and seventy guns a-piece, which
one of our fireships laid on board, though the fire did not take. But
yet it is brave to see what care they do take to encourage their men to
provide great stores of boats to save them, while we have not credit
to find one boat for a ship. And, further, he told us that this new
way used by Deane, and this Sir W. Coventry observed several times, of
preparing of fire-ships, do not do the work; for the fire, not being
strong and quick enough to flame up, so as to take the rigging and
sails, lies smothering a great while, half an hour before it flames, in
which time they can get her off safely, though, which is uncertain, and
did fail in one or two this bout, it do serve to burn our own ships.
But what a shame it is to consider how two of our ships' companies did
d