to attack by night with his ships' boats and his smallest fireship. The water close to the forts was very shallow, and the English fireship could be rowed almost as well as a ship's long-boat. So about midnight he dispatched all the boats he could, as well as the Eagle fireship, under the command of "my eldest Lieutenant, Master Nugent." It was a dark night, and the high land was very useful for its obscuring effects.
Nugent, leaving one of the long-boats with the fireship, in addition to the fireship's own boat, now rowed off to reconnoitre the enemy, having first given the fireship's captain orders to continue approaching until he should find himself in shoal water: he was then immediately to anchor. Nugent had then rowed off and had scarcely left the fireship one minute when, after proceeding but a little way over the leaden waters, he found himself quite close to where the English squadron was anchored. He had thus lost his bearings in the dark and at once steered off again to find the fireship, when, to his great amazement, he suddenly saw the latter burst out into a sheet of flame. That, of course, was another piece of ill-luck, for it entirely upset all the carefully laid plans and instantly alarmed the enemy. It would have been useless to have attempted a boat attack that night, so the effort was postponed. What had happened was this: the little fireship had been all ready when, by an accident, the gunner had fired off his pistol. This had caused the ignition, and so the ship had been lost without any good being done. It was a thousand pities as, owing to her shallow draught, she had been relied upon for getting right close in.
With this warning the enemy the next day unrigged their ships, which lay in their harbour, then gathered together all the yards, the topmasts and spars generally off
