About a half hour later the _Bellerophon_ and the _Majestic_ attacked respectively the big flagship _Orient_ (110) in the center and the _Tonnant_ (80) next astern, and against these superior antagonists suffered severely, losing in killed and wounded 390 men divided about equally between them, which was nearly half the total loss of 896 and greater than the total at Cape St. Vincent. Both later drifted almost helpless down the line. The _Culloden_ under Troubridge, a favorite of both Jervis and Nelson, had unfortunately grounded and stuck fast on Aboukir shoal; but the _Swiftsure_ and the _Alexander_ came up two hours after the battle had begun as a support to the ships in the centre, the _Swiftsure_ engaging the _Orient_, and the _Alexander_ the _Franklin_ next ahead, while the smaller _Leander_ skillfully chose a position where she could rake the two. By this time all five of the French van had surrendered; the _Orient_ was in flames and blew up about 10 o'clock with the loss of all but 70 men. Admiral Brueys, thrice wounded, died before the explosion. Of the four ships in the rear, only two, the _Guillaume Tell_ under Admiral Villeneuve and the _Genereux_, were able to cut their cables next morning and get away. Nelson asserted that, had he not been incapacitated by a severe scalp wound in the action, even these would not have escaped. Of the rest, two were burned and nine captured. Among important naval victories, aside from such one-sided slaughters as those of our own Spanish war, it remains the most overwhelming in history. [Illustration: BATTLE OF THE NILE] The effect was immediate throughout Europe, attesting dearly the contemporary importance attached to sea control. "It was this battle," writes Admiral de la Graviere, "which for two years delivered over the Mediterranean to the British and called thither the squadrons of Russia, which shut up our army in the midst of a hostile people and led the Porte to declare against us, which put India beyond our reach and thrust France to the brink of ruin, for it rekindled the hardly extinct war with Austria and brought Suvaroff and the Austro-Russians to our very frontiers."[1] [Footnote 1: GUERRES MARITIMES, II, 129.]