E-text prepared by deaurider, Graeme Mackreth, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images digitized by the Google Books Library Project (https://books.google.com) and generously made available by HathiTrust Digital Library (https://www.hathitrust.org/) Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 59423-h.htm or 59423-h.zip: (https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/59423/pg59423-images.html) or (https://www.gutenberg.org/files/59423/59423-h.zip) Images of the original pages are available through HathiTrust Digital Library. See https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.hnx5cg;view=1up;seq=11 FAMOUS FIGHTERS OF THE FLEET [Illustration: Publisher's logo] [Illustration: _Frontispiece_. THE ENEMY IN SIGHT--'FULL SPEED AHEAD!' [Looking down, on board a battleship, from the forward fighting-top.]] FAMOUS FIGHTERS OF THE FLEET Glimpses through the Cannon Smoke in the Days of the Old Navy by EDWARD FRASER They left us a kingdom none can take, The realm of the circling sea, To be ruled by the rightful sons of Blake And the Rodneys yet to be. Henry Newbolt. As it was in the days of long ago, And as it still shall be. Rudyard Kipling. With Illustrations London Macmillan and Co., Limited New York: the Macmillan Company 1904 All rights reserved DEDICATION The lasses and the little ones, Jack Tars, they look to you; The despots over yonder, let 'em do whate'er they please, God bless the little isle where a man may still be true, God bless the noble isle that is Mistress of the Seas. Tennyson. PREFACE This book, as far as its subject is concerned, is something of an experiment, something of a new departure. It is an attempt to interest people by recalling some of the associations of the brave days of old that cluster round and attach to certain historic man-of-war names. As far as that goes, indeed, having for its subject, as it has, the doings in battle of famous hearts of oak of the fighting times-- Those oaken giants of the ancient race That ruled all seas, the book ought not to require an elaborate introduction, any special pleading on its behalf, among those whose pride it is to count themselves the Sons and sires of seamen Whose realm is all the sea. Further, it may possibly be, that in a degree, this book may serve as a reminder, even to some of those who to-day man His Majesty's Fleet, of what an inheritance is theirs, and how tremendous an obligation. The heroism of the Old Navy lives evermore in the man-of-war names of the modern navy, and should lead our sailors more even than they do, to 'glory,' in Kinglake's stirring language, in their ships' 'ancient names, connecting each with its great traditions, and founding upon the cherished syllables that consciousness of power which is a condition of ascendancy in war.'