astonished and dismayed by this news, Parker was reluctant to concede defeat. The honor of the Royal Navy was at stake, even if the army had been neutralized. He believed that the rebels would crumple under a bombardment unlike anything ever imagined in these precincts. No doubt Clinton was correct that there was no time to lose: navy crews had lived on two-thirds rations for a month and had not eaten fresh meat since North Carolina. Some sailors were already too weak to man their battle stations; volunteers from the transports were recruited for duty aboard the men-of-war. Bad water and the
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