While waiting for the return of this officer he again manned his boats
and endeavored to bring up the Russian flotilla. He was partially
successful in this attempt, for they succeeded in compelling the three
other galleys of the group with which he had been engaged to strike
their flags and in forcing the other gunboats to retreat with severe
loss. When Fox returned from the Wolodimer a line was run from the
galley to the burned wreck of a Turkish ship, but, before the galley
could be moved, Jones, who had re-entered his barge, was intensely
surprised and annoyed to see fire break out on the two vessels he had
captured. They had been deliberately set on fire by the orders of
Alexiano. The other three Turkish galleys were also burned by the use
of the deadly _brandkugels_. It was brutal cruelty again. Not one was
saved from the five galleys except fifty-two prisoners whom Jones
personally brought off in his boats from the two which he had captured
by hard hand-to-hand fighting. These galleys appear to have been
propelled by oars which were driven by slaves on benches, in the
well-known manner of the middle ages. As they were Turkish galleys,
the slaves were probably captive Christians. They perished with the
Turks left on board. Two more ships belonging to the squadron which
had endeavored to escape the week previous, were set on fire and
burned under the walls of Fort Hassan. The rest of the flotilla
effected nothing, and under the orders of Nassau withdrew to their
former position.
This action ended the general naval maneuvers which were undertaken.
In this short and brilliant campaign of three weeks Jones had fought
four general actions, all of which he personally directed. With
fifteen vessels against twenty-one he had so maneuvered that the enemy
lost many galleys and no less than thirteen of his ships; a few had
escaped, and a few were locked up in the harbor, so that the Turkish
naval force in the Liman was not only defeated but practically
annihilated by Jones' brilliant and successful leadership and
fighting. Eleven ships might have been prizes had it not been
for the cruelty and criminal folly of Nassau. Jones had captured by
hand-to-hand fighting two of the largest of the enemy's galleys. He
had shown himself a strategist in his disposition of the fleet at the
mouth of the Bug, and later, when he had placed it to command the
mouth of the Liman. He had demonstrated his qualities as a tactician
in the two boat attacks, and had shown his usual impetuous courage at
all times. Nassau had done nothing that was wise or that was gallant.
When Jones was not with him his tendency was always to retreat. The
orders which brought the flotilla into action which made the brilliant
combination on the first day's fight, by which the Turks were
outflanked, were issued by Jones himself.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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