By eleven o'clock Nelson
had found out that he could range his own fleet close enough alongside
the Danes. So he sat up all night planning his attack. At seven next
morning he explained it to his captains, and at nine to the pilots and
sailing-masters. Half an hour later the fleet began to move into place.
Three big ships grounded in the narrow, shallow, and crooked channel.
But the rest went on, closing up the dangerous gaps as best they could.
Just, after ten the first gun was fired; but it was another hour and a
half before the two fleets were at it, hard all. At one o'clock a Danish
victory seemed quite as likely as a British one. Very few Danish gnus
had been silenced, while two of the grounded British men-of-war were
flying signals of distress, and the third was signalling to say she could
do nothing. In the meantime the few British men-of-war that were trying
to work into the channel from the other end under Sir Hyde Parker were
being headed off by the wind so much that they could hardly do more than
threaten their own end of the Danish line.
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