the afternoon.

'As soon as the ship was fairly placed,' writes Lord Exmouth's
biographer, 'the sound of the cheer given by the crew was answered by a
gun from the Eastern Battery; a second and a third opened in quick
succession. One of the shots struck the _Superb_. At the first
flash Lord Exmouth gave the order "Stand by," at the second "Fire." The
report of the third gun was drowned by the thunder of the _Queen
Charlotte's_ broadside.'

Thus opened an engagement which is memorable among the attacks of fleets
upon land fortifications, and which fully justified Lord Exmouth's
opinion that 'nothing can resist a line-of-battle ship's fire.' The
Algerine tactics were to allow the British squadron to come to an anchor
without molestation, and to board the vessels from their galleys while
the British crews were aloft furling sails, for which purpose they had
thirty-seven galleys fully manned waiting inside the mole. To the
surprise of the enemy, however, the British admiral had given orders for
the sails to be clewed from the deck, instead of sending men aloft for
the purpose, and the British ships were thus able to open fire the
moment they came to an anchor. The result of this smart seamanship was
an instant disaster for the Algerines; their galleys were all sunk
before they could make the few strokes of the oar which would have
brought them alongside, and tremendous broadsides of grapeshot from the
_Queen Charlotte_ and the _Leander_ shattered the entire
flotilla, and in a moment covered the surface of the harbour with the
bodies of their crews and with a few survivors attempting to swim from
destruction.

On the molehead the effect of the British fire was terrible; the people