Then we have another justification, the most notable of all. The _Formidable's_ name has acquired a new significance since the days of Hawke. To-day it has to the Royal Navy a more recent meaning. It stands on the roll of the fleet as the special memorial of another achievement, as a memento of another admiral's 'stricken field,' in special honour of Rodney's most famous feat of arms, of the great victory that has given Rodney his place in the history of the British Empire. On that day a _Formidable_ was Rodney's flagship; the second ship of the name, the immediate successor of Hawke's great prize, our first British-built man-of-war _Formidable_.[15] 'If ever,' wrote Froude, 'the naval exploits of this country are done into an epic poem--and since the _Iliad_ there has been no subject better fitted for such treatment or better deserving it--the West Indies will be the scene of the most brilliant cantos.' In at least one of those cantos Rodney's _Formidable_ would be a central figure. We now come directly to the place, time, and circumstances of the event, taking up the tale a little before the fighting actually opens. [Illustration: RODNEY'S _FORMIDABLE_ ON THE DAY BEFORE HER LAUNCH From a pencil sketch. [Note, to the right of the ship, the canvas 'booths' or stands for the Commissioner of Chatham Dockyard and officers and guests of distinction. The launching flagstaffs on board were usually set up on the day before a launch, to fly the Jack at the bows, the Admiralty flag, Royal Standard, and Union flag where the three masts would be; and the 'St. George's ensign' (White Ensign) on the ensign staff.]] It begins, first of all, in Gros Islet Bay, St. Lucia, a locality that one wants a fairly large map to find. The name is hardly a familiar one, yet it has a place of its own, of special interest in our naval annals. Gros Islet Bay was Rodney's headquarters in the West Indies during March 1782 and the first week of April, at the time that the _Formidable_ was Rodney's flagship. Rodney was in Gros Islet Bay with his fleet of 36 sail of the line, and the French admiral De Grasse, at the head of 34 of the line, was facing him in Fort Royal Bay, Martinique, distant some thirty miles--about as far off as Boulogne is from Folkestone. So the lists were set. [Illustration: RODNEY'S SWORD]