Keppel.  The entrance of France into the quarrel, and the coming of d’Estaing, refreshed the spirits of the veteran, who moreover scorned to abandon his command in the face of such odds.  Now, with the British positions secure, and superiority of force insured for the time being, he gladly turned over his charge and sailed for home; burning against the Admiralty with a wrath common to most of the distinguished seamen of that war.  He was not employed afloat again until a change of Ministry took place, in 1782.

[Footnote 19:  Charles H., Comte d’Estaing.  Born, 1729.  Served in India under Lally Tollendal, 1758.  After having been taken prisoner at Madras in 1759, exchanged into the navy.  Commanded in North America, 1778-80.  Guillotined, 1794.  W.L.C.]

[Footnote 20:  Grandfather of the poet.]

[Footnote 21:  The Secretary of Lloyd’s, for the purposes of this work, has been so good as to cause to be specially compiled a summary of the losses and captures during the period 1775-1783.  This, so far as it deals with merchantmen and privateers, gives the following results.

-------------------------------------------------------

-------------------
|          BRITISH VESSELS        |          ENEMY’S VESSELS
|---------------------------------+-------------------------

---------
|  Merchantmen   |   Privateers   |  Merchantmen   |    Privateers
|----------------+----------------+----------------+--------

---------
|       |Re-taken|       |Re-taken|       |Re-taken|       |Re-taken
| Taken |or Ran- | Taken |or Ran- | Taken |or Ran- | Taken |or Ran-
|  [22] | somed  |  [22] | somed  |  [22] | somed  |  [22] | somed
-----+-------+--------+-------+--------+-------+--------+---

----+---------
1775 |  —–­  |  —–­   |  —–­  |  —–­   |  —–­  |  —–­   |  —–­  |  —–­
1776 |  229  |   51   |  —–­  |  —–­   |   19  |  —–­   |    6  |  —–­
1777 |  331  |   52   |  —–­  |  —–­   |   51  |    1   |   18  |  —–­
1778 |  359  |   87   |    5  |  —–­   |  232  |    5   |   16  |  —–­
1779 |  487  |  106   |   29  |    5   |  238  |    5   |   31  |  —–­
1780 |  581  |  260   |   15  |    2   |  203  |    3   |   34  |    1
1781 |  587  |  211   |   38  |    6   |  277  |   10   |   40  |  —–­
1782 |  415  |   99   |    1  |  —–­   |  104  |    1   |   68  |  —–­
1783 |   98  |   13   |    1  |    1   |   11  |    2   |    3  |  —–­
------------------------------------------------------------

--------------

[Footnote 22:  Including those re-taken or ransomed.  W.L.C.]

[Footnote 23:  A spring is a rope taken usually from the quarter (one side of the stern) of a ship, to the anchor.  By hauling upon it the battery is turned in the direction desired.]

[Footnote 24:  The leader, the Leviathan, was excepted, evidently because she lay under the Hook, and her guns could not bear down channel.  She was not a fighting ship of the squadron, but an armed storeship, although originally a ship of war, and therefore by her thickness of side better fitted for defence than an ordinary merchant vessel.  Placing her seems to have been an afterthought, to close the gap in the line, and prevent even the possibility of the enemy’s ships turning in there and doubling on the van.  Thus Howe avoided the fatal oversight made by Brueys twenty years later, in Aboukir Bay.]