Non-Fiction > Books > London, 1887 - Virginibus Puerisque, and other papers

1 82 The English Admirals
it is looked upon by the guns and battlements
of another nation we regard it as a kind of
English cemetery, where the bones of our
seafaring fathers take their rest until the last
trumpet ; for I suppose no other nation has
lost as many ships, or sent as many brave
fellows to the bottom.
There is nowhere such a background for
heroism as the noble, terrifying, and pictur-
esque conditions of some of our sea fights.
Hawke's battle in the tempest, and Aboukir
at the moment when the French Admiral
blew up, reach the limit of what is imposing
to the imagination. And our naval annals
owe some of their interest to the fantastic
and beautiful appearance of old warships
and the romance that invests the sea and
everything sea-going in the eyes of English
lads on a half-holiday at the coast. Nay,
and what we know of the misery between
decks enhances the bravery of what was done
by giving it something for contrast. We
like to know that these bold and honest
fellows contrived to live, and to keep bold