The British fleet consisted of six sail of the line, two frigates, two sloops, and several bomb-vessels, carrying eight hundred and eighteen guns, (besides those in the bomb-ships.) Admiral Duckforth sailed through the Dardanelles on the 19th of February, 1807, with little or no opposition.  This being a Turkish festival day, the soldiers of the scanty garrison were enjoying the festivities of the occasion, and none were left to serve the few guns of the forts which had been prepared for defence.  But while the admiral was waiting on the Sea of Marmora for the result of negotiations, or for a favorable wind to make the attack upon Constantinople, the fortifications of this city were put in order, and the Turks actively employed, under French engineers and artillery officers, in repairing the defences of the Straits.  Campbell, in his Naval History, says:—­“Admiral Duckforth now fully perceived the critical situation in which he was placed.  He might, indeed, succeed, should the weather become favorable, in bombarding Constantinople; but unless the bombardment should prove completely successful in forcing the Turks to pacific terms, the injury he might do to the city would not compensate for the damage which his fleet must necessarily sustain.  With this damaged and crippled fleet, he must repass the Dardanelles, now rendered infinitely stronger than they were when he came through them.”

Under these circumstances the admiral determined to retreat; and on the 3d of April escaped through the Dardanelles, steering midway of the channel, with a favorable and strong current.  “This escape, however,” says Baines, “was only from destruction, but by no means from serious loss and injury. * * * * In what instance in the whole course of our naval warfare, have ships received equal damage in so short a time as in this extraordinary enterprise?” In detailing the extent of this damage, we will take the ships in the order they descended.  The first had her wheel carried away, and her hull much damaged, but escaped with the loss of only three men.  A stone shot penetrated the second, between the poop and quarter deck, badly injured the mizzen-mast, carried away the wheel, and did other serious damage, killing and wounding twenty men.  Two shot struck the third, carrying away her shrouds and injuring her masts; loss in killed and wounded, thirty.  The fourth had her mainmast destroyed, with a loss of sixteen.  The fifth had a large shot, six feet eight inches in circumference, enter her lower deck; loss fifty-five.  The sixth, not injured.  The seventh, a good deal damaged, with a loss of seventeen.  The eighth had no loss.  The ninth was so much injured that, “had there been a necessity for hauling the wind on the opposite tack, she must have gone down:”  her loss was eight.  The tenth lost twelve.  The eleventh was much injured, with a loss of eight—­making a total loss in repassing the Dardanelles, of one hundred and sixty-seven; and in the whole expedition two hundred and eighty-one, exclusive of two hundred and fifty men who perished in the burning of the Ajax.