Early in the morning of the fourth day after Willy had been promoted to the quarter-deck, a large convoy of chasse-marĂŠes (small coasting vessels, lugger-rigged) were discovered rounding a low point, not three miles from the squadron. A general signal to chase was immediately thrown out, and in half an hour the English men-of-war were in the midst of them, pouring broadside after broadside upon the devoted vessels, whose sails were lowered in every direction, in token of submission. The English men-of-war reminded you of so many hawks, pouncing upon a flight of small birds; and the vessels, with their lowered sails just flapping with the breeze, seemed like so many victims of their rapacity, who lay fluttering on the ground, disabled, or paralysed with terror.
â Frederick Marryat, The King's Own
Fishing Luggers (Chasse-marÊe) Making Sail, Off Calais by Louis François Thomas Francia ca. 1823 (Met collection)
