On the Ocean 229 



the upper deck the only men who behaved well were 

 the marines, but of their original number of 44 men, 

 14, including Lieutenant James Broom and Cor 

 poral Dixon, were dead, and 20, including Sergeants 

 Twin and Harris, wounded, so that there were left 

 but one corporal and nine men, several of whom 

 had been knocked down and bruised, though re 

 ported unwounded. There was thus hardly any 

 resistance, Captain Broke stopping his men for a 

 moment till they were joined by the rest of the 

 boarders under Lieutenants Watt and Falkiner. 

 The Chesapeake's mizzen-topmen began firing at 

 the boarders, mortally wounding a midshipman, 

 Mr. Samwell, and killing Lieutenant Watt ; but one 

 of the Shannons long nines was pointed at the 

 top and cleared it out, being assisted by the Eng 

 lish main-topmen, under Midshipman Coshnahan. 

 At the same time the men in the Chesapeake's main 

 top were driven out of it by the fire of the Shannon's 

 fore-topmen, under Midshipman Smith. Lieutenant 

 George Budd, who was on the main-deck, now for 

 the first time learned that the English had boarded, 

 as the upper-deck men came crowding down, and at 

 once called on his people to follow him; but the 

 foreigners and novices held back, and only a few 

 of the veterans followed him up. As soon as he 

 reached the spar-deck, Budd, followed by only a 

 dozen men, attacked the British as they came along 

 the gangways, repulsing them for a moment, and 

 killing the British purser, Aldham, and captain's 

 clerk, Dunn ; but the handful of Americans were at 



