“The Action began at five minutes past ten. In about half an hour afterwards, the first half of our Fleet was engaged, and before half-past eleven, the Battle became general. The _Elephant’s_ station was in the centre, opposite to the Danish Commodore.... The judgment with which each Ship calculated her station in that intricate Channel, was admirable throughout. The failure of the three Ships that were aground, and whose force was to have been opposed to the Trekroner battery, left this day, as glorious for seamanship as for courage, incomplete.... The gallant Riou, perceiving the blank in the original plan for the attack of the Crown Battery, proceeded down the Line with his Squadron of Frigates, and attempted, but in vain, to fulfil the duty of the absent Ships of the Line. His force was unequal to it; and the general signal of recall, which was made about mid-action by the Commander-in-Chief, had the good effect of, at least, saving Riou’s Squadron from destruction. “About one P.M., few if any of the Enemy’s heavy Ships and Praams had ceased to fire. The _Isis_ had greatly suffered by the superior weight of the _Provestein’s_ fire; and if it had not been for the judicious diversion of it by the _Desirée_, Captain Inman, who raked her, and for other assistance from the _Polyphemus_, the _Isis_ would have been destroyed. Both the _Isis_ and _Bellona_ had received serious injury by the bursting of some of their guns. The _Monarch_ was also suffering severely under the united fire of the _Holstein_ and _Zealand_; and only two of our Bomb-vessels could get to their station on the Middle Ground, and open their mortars on the Arsenal, directing their shells over both Fleets. Our Squadron of Gun-brigs, impeded by currents, could not, with the exception of one, although commanded by Captain Rose in the _Jamaica_, weather the eastern end of the Middle Ground, or come into Action. The Division of the Commander-in-chief acted according to the preconcerted plan; but could only menace the entrance of the Harbour. The _Elephant_ was warmly engaged by the _Dannebrog_, and by two heavy Praams on her bow and quarter. Signals of distress were on board the _Bellona_ and _Russell_, and of inability from the _Agamemnon_. The contest, in general, although from the relaxed state of the Enemy’s fire, it might not have given much room for apprehension as to the result, had certainly, at one P.M., not declared itself in favour of either side. About this juncture, and in this posture of affairs, the signal was thrown out on board the _London_,[54] for the Action to cease. [Illustration: “I really do not see the signal” Stephen Reid]