text:  "In justice to the Foudroyant " he thus ends his letter "I must observe to you that though she received the fire of seventeen sail and had the Bretagne Ville de Paris and a seventy-four on her at the same time and appeared more disabled in her masts and rigging than any other ship she was the first in the line of battle and truly fitter for business in essentials (because her people were cool ) than when she began