This gallant action, though it failed of securing the treasure which
the protector chiefly sought, raised the reputation of Blake in every
part of Europe. Unfortunately the hero himself lived not to receive the
congratulations of his country. He had been during a great part of three
years at sea; the scurvy and dropsy wasted his constitution; and he
expired[b] in his fifty-ninth year,
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1657. April 20.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1657. August 7.]
as his ship, the St. George, entered the harbour of Plymouth.[1]
Blake had served with distinction in the army during the civil war; and the
knowledge of his talents and integrity induced the parliamentary leaders to
entrust him with the command of the fleet. For maritime tactics he relied
on the experience of others; his plans and his daring were exclusively his
own. He may claim the peculiar praise of having dispelled an illusion which
had hitherto cramped the operations of the British navy--a persuasion that
it was little short of madness to expose a ship at sea to the fire from a
battery on shore. The victories of Blake at Tunis and Santa Cruz served to
establish the contrary doctrine; and the seamen learned from his example
to despise the danger which had hitherto been deemed so formidable.
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