This being,
methought, but a poor result after the fighting of two so great
fleets, and four days having no tidings of them: I was still
impatient; but could know no more. I to Sir W. Batten, where the
Lieutenant of the Tower was, and Sir John Minnes, and the news I
find is what I had heard before; only that our Blue squadron, it
seems, was pursued the most of the time, having more ships, a
great many, than its number allotted to its share. Young Seamour
is killed, the only captain slain. The Resolution burned; but,
as they say, most of her crew and commander saved. This is all,
only we keep the sea, which denotes a victory, or at least that
we are not beaten; but no great matters to brag of, God knows.
30th. To Sir W. Coventry, at St. James's, where I find him in
his new closet, which is very fine, and well supplied with
handsome books. I find him speak very slightly of the late
victory: dislikes their staying with the fleet up their coast;
believing that the Dutch will come out in fourteen days, and then
we with our unready fleet, by reason of some of the ships being
maymed, shall be in bad condition to fight them upon their own
coast: is much dissatisfied with the great number of men, and
their fresh demands of twenty-four victualling ships, they going
out the other day as full as they could stow.
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