This certainly sounds plausible, and the torpedo vessel certainly has a power of movement not possessed by the fire-ship.

A _melee_ of the two fleets, however, was not the condition most favorable for the fire-ship.

I shall quote here from another French officer, whose discussion of these Anglo-Dutch sea-fights, in a late periodical, is singularly clear and suggestive.

He says: "Far from impeding the direct action of the fire-ship, which was naught or nearly so during the confused battles of the war of 1652, the regularity and _ensemble_ newly attained in the movements of squadrons seem rather to favor it.

The fire-ships played a very important part at the battles of Lowestoft, Pas de Calais, and the North Foreland.