side was riddled from end to end. Several of the ports were unhinged ; and, in some instances, the spaces between the ports entirely laid open. The contrast between the two sides of the ship was, indeed, most remarkable : the larboard side, which had been very slightly injured, was of a bright yellow ; while the starboard side, or what remained of it, was burnt as black as a cinder. The five aftermost starboard lowerdeck guns of the Hercule were dismounted, and several of the others much damaged.

The loss sustained by the Mars, in this long and close fought action, was necessarily severe. Out of a crew of 634 men and boys, she had her commander, captain of marines (Joseph White) one midshipman (James Blythe), 15 seamen, and four private marines killed, three seamen and five private marines missing (but in what way neither the official letter, nor the log, gives any account), and her third and fifth lieutenants (George Argles, badly, but who would not quit the deck, and George Arnold Ford), one midshipman (Thomas Southey), 36 seamen, two sergeants of marines, and one drummer wounded ; total, 30 killed and missing, and 60 wounded.

No accurate account has been given of the loss on board the French ship ; whose crew, as deposed to by her principal surviving officers, consisted of 680, being 20 short of her established number according to the latest regulation, and which would probably have been filled up on her arrival at Brest. Some accounts reckoned the killed and wounded of the French ship at 400 ; but the Hercule's officers, who were the best judges, did not consider the number to exceed 290, an amount greater, as it was, than two-fifths of her complement.

The Mars was a 24-pounder 74 ; that is, she mounted that caliber of gun, 30 in number, upon her second deck, with, as it appears, 16 long 9s and two 32-pounder carronades on the quarterdeck and forecastle, and six 24-pounder carronades on the poop, total only 82 54 particularized guns. The guns of the Hercule, as found on board of her, were 78 in number, precisely of the nature established. upon her class, as particularized at No. 4 in the small table at p. 54 of the first Volume.

* Principal dimensions of the two ships:

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