The bombardment of Alexandria has been so thoroughly described in standard works that repetition must be unnecessary; and such interest as the present narrative may contain, must reside in the record of personal experience. I may say at once that any notoriety attached to the part borne by the _Condor_ in the action was due to accidental circumstance. She happened to fight apart from the rest of the Fleet and in full view of the foreign warships and merchant vessels; and, in obedience to the orders of the admiral, she had on board the correspondent of _The Times_, the late Mr. Moberly Bell. The _Condor_ was actually under way when I received instructions to embark Mr. Bell. Mr. Frederic Villiers, the artist war-correspondent, by permission of the admiral, had been my guest on board for several days. The following account of the action is taken from a private letter written at the time:-- "The night before the action, I turned up all hands and made them a speech. I said that the admiral's orders were to keep out of range until an opportunity occurred. So I said to the men, 'Now, my lads, if you will rely upon me to find the opportunity, I will rely upon you to make the most of it when it occurs.' ... The Marabout Fort was the second largest fort, but a long way off from the places to be attacked by the ironclads. So the admiral had decided not to attack it at all, as he could not spare one heavy ship, and of course he would not order the small ships down there, as it was thought that they would be sunk. The orders given to the small ships were to keep out of fire, and to watch for an opportunity to occur, after the forts were silenced, to assist. {188} _Helicon_ and _Condor_ were repeating ships for signals. I took station just between the two attacking fleets.