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But it was known in classic antiquity; the Greeks called it myrton, the myrtle-berry; Galen and Soranus called it nymphê because it is covered as a bride is veiled, while the old Latin name was tentigo, from its power of entering into erection, and columella, the little pillar, from its shape.
In detailing the particulars of this service, I am to state that at the dawn of day, on the 22nd instant, the Nymphe and Astrea, being the look-out frigates ahead, made the signal for the enemy's fleet.
There is, indeed, some obscurity in the origin of this term, nymphæ, which has not, I believe, been satisfactorily cleared up. It has been stated that the Greek name nymphê has been transferred from the clitoris to the labia minora.
All the family were in perfect health at six o'clock on Tuesday evening, when I left them. We must now console ourselves with the hope that we shall soon terminate the business. I think this year will nearly do it. We anxiously sought for an opportunity similar to the Nymphe. Our next cruise may probably prove more fortunate.
At ten minutes past seven they had all fled below, or submitted, and the pennant of the Cleopatra was hauled down. While the boarders were pouring in upon the enemy's forecastle, the mainmast of the Nymphe, having been much wounded, and with the main and spring-stays shot away, was most seriously endangered by the pressure of the Cleopatra's jib-boom.
Any such transfer could only have taken place when the meaning of the word had been forgotten, and nymphê had become the totally different word nymphæ, the goddesses who presided over streams.
This reasonable expectation, and skilful conception, was thwarted by a collision, during the night, between a frigate, the Nymphe, 36, and the leading ship of the line, the Alfred, 74. The repairs to the latter delayed the fleet, the approach of which was discovered by daylight. De Grasse therefore put to sea.
Seamen being hard to find, he had on board a disproportionate number of landsmen when the Nymphe, on the 19th of June, 1793, encountered the French vessel Cléopâtre, of force slightly inferior, except in men, but not sufficiently so to deny the victor the claim of an even fight.
Pellew's capacity in this part of his profession was so remarkable that it is somewhat singular to find him, in his first frigate action, compelled to discard manoeuvring, and to rely for victory upon sheer pluck and luck. When war with the French republic began in 1793, his high reputation immediately insured him command of a frigate, the Nymphe.
He was made a commander in 1790. He was passenger in his brother's frigate the Nymphe, when she gave the first earnest of the naval successes of the war, by the capture of the Cleopatra; and he contributed much to the brilliant result of the action, by taking charge of the after quarter-deck gun, with which he disabled the enemy's wheel.
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