Welsh Journals

ADMIRAL SIR THOMAS FOLEY. 105 from her slow sailing had been unable to take a prominent part in the battle. The San Ysidro, the Salvador del Mundo, the San Nicolas, and the San Josef surrendered. Night coming on the remaining Spanish ships saved themselves by flight. The British loss was seventy-three killed and two hundred and twenty-seven wounded. Nelson was the hero of that day. To his own ship, the Captain, " with her wheel shot away, all her ■sails, shrouds and running rigging more or less cut, her fore-top¬ mast gone, no alternative remained but to board the Spanish two-decker," the San Nicolas. He did so, captured her, and then followed on to the deck of the San Josef, one hundred and twelve, which he captured in like manner. Sir John Jervis was made Earl St. Vincent with a pension of £3,000 per annum. Vice-Admiral Thompson and Rear-Admiral W. Parker were created baronets, and Nelson a Knight of the Bath, with the freedom of the city of London, (fold medals were distributed to the captains. Captain Foley was now transferred to the command of the Goliath, seventy-four, in which he was destined to make his mark amongst the sea-captains who followed the fortunes of Nelson. On the 31st of March Earl St. Vincent quitted Lisbon, and with twenty-one sail of the line proceeded to Cadiz, where the Spanish fleet then lay. After cruising before it for many weeks, he resolved to bombard that town in order to pro¬ voke the Spanish Admiral to put to sea. On the night of the 3rd of July the Thunder, bomb vessel, Lieutenant John Gourly, covered by gun boats under the orders of Sir Horatio Nelson, took up her station near the tower of San Sebastian, and within 2,500 yards of the walls of the town. The Thunder commenced throwing her shells with great precision, but the large thirteen-and-a-half inch mortar was soon discovered to have been materially injured by its former services. The safety of the bomb-vessel requiring her immediate withdrawal, the Goliath, Captain Foley; Terpsichore frigate, Captain Richard Bowen, and Fox cutter, Lieutenant John Gibson, kept under sail to afford her the necessary protection. The retreat of the Thunder was the signal for a number of Spanish gunboats and armed launches to sally forth in hope of capturing her. They were, however, driven back by a similar description of force, led by Nelson, and pursued to the walls of Cadiz, leaving two mortar boats in the possession of the British. We now approach the turning point of Foley's career—the Battle of the Nile. With the view of ascertaining the precise object of certain rumoured preparations making at Toulon, the British Admiralty had directed Earl St. Vincent to detach from the Mediterranean fleet a few ships under Sir Horatio Nelson, who, having been in England for his health, had on the 29th of April, 1798, returned