Here is another account of friendly fire to be found in ‘Nelsonian Reminiscences’ by Lieut. G S Parsons:
Parsons is officer of the watch:
‘The frigate was standing out from the sandy coast of the Great Desert, with a top-gallant breeze, the night serene and dark, the heat intense. After hitting my shins several times against the carronades, the slide of one looked so inviting that I sat down, but it was only to be a minute. Take care, said Caution; life, honour and property are in your charge. Only for a minute, and the words were on my lips as I dropped into a deep sleep, too deep even to dream of the happy home of my childhood. The shrill and sharp whistle of a shot, and the violent flapping of the mizzen-staysail, through which it had passed, made me sufficiently aware of the horrors of my situation, heightened by the cry of alarm from the lookout men (who had followed their officer’s example) that a ship of war on our weather-quarter was bearing up (for the purpose of raking us), and under our stern she passed, with her battle-lights fully displayed, while a stout voice bellowed through a trumpet: ‘What ship is that?’
The captain, undressed, was on deck in time to answer, ‘His Majesty’s frigate ‘El Carmen.’
‘Who commands her?’ responded the voice.
‘Captain William Selby, who is answering you.’
‘This is His Majesty’s ship ‘Pique’, said the commodore; and my private signals being unanswered for two hours, I took you for an enemy’s frigate, escaped out of Alexandria. The last shot was directed at you, and I sincerely hope it has done no harm’.
‘Nothing further than the loss of the mizzen-staysail,’ replied Captain Selby.
‘Very well; thank God,’ said the commodore, ‘that I did not fire my broadside into your stern, as I was on the eve of doing. Captain Selby, put the officer of your watch in close arrest.’
The penalty for sleeping on watch was death, as Parsons knew. That penalty was not exacted; but he was still haunted by the memory ‘although thirty-nine years have whitened my then auburn locks.’
Query: the ‘Pique’ has her ‘battle-lights’ fully displayed. The term ‘battle-lights’ is self-explanatory but can anyone add a little more? How would another ship recognise them as ‘battle-lights’? Colour(s)? Configuration?
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