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The Great Fortress : A chronicle of Louisbourg 1720-1760 by William (William Charles Henry) Wood
page 67 of 107 (62%)
Officers who had put in so little sea time with working
fleets were naturally slack and inclined to be discontented.
The fact that they were under sealed orders, which had
been communicated only to d'Anville, roused their suspicions
while his weakness in telling them they were bound for
Louisbourg almost produced a mutiny.

The fleet left France at midsummer, had a very rough
passage through the Bay of Biscay, and ran into a long,
dead calm off the Azores. This ended in a storm, during
which several vessels were struck by lightning, which,
in one case, caused a magazine explosion that killed and
wounded over thirty men. It was not till the last week
of September that d'Anville made the excellently safe
harbour of Halifax. The four ships under Conflans were
nowhere to be seen. They had reached the rendezvous at
the beginning of the month, had cruised about for a couple
of weeks, and had then gone home. D'Anville was now in
no position to attack Louisbourg, much less New England.
Some of his vessels were quite unserviceable. There was
no friendly port nearer than Quebec. All his crews were
sickly; and the five months' incessant and ever-increasing
strain had changed him into a broken-hearted man. He died
very suddenly, in the middle of the night; some said from
a stroke of apoplexy, while others whispered suicide.

His successor, d'Estournel, summoned a council of war,
which overruled the plan for an immediate return to
France. Presently a thud, followed by groans of mortal
agony, was heard in the new commander's cabin. The door
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