On the Ocean 21 



such of her guns as were not dismounted and had 

 men enough left to man them, a broadside was fired 

 at the Phoebe. The wind was now very light, and 

 the Phoebe, whose main- and mizzen-masts and 

 main-yard were rather seriously wounded, and who 

 had suffered a great loss of canvas and cordage 

 aloft, besides receiving a number of shot between 

 wind and water, 20 and was thus a good deal crip 

 pled, began tg drift slowly to leeward. It was hoped 

 that she would drift out of gunshot, but this last 

 chance was lost by the parting of the hawser, which 

 left the Essex at the mercy of the British vessels. 

 Their fire was deliberate and destructive, and could 

 only be occasionally replied to by a shot from one 

 of the long i2's of the Essex. The ship caught fire, 

 and the flames came bursting up the hatchway, and 

 a quantity of powder exploded below. Many of 

 the crew were knocked overboard by shot, and 

 drowned ; others leaped into the water, thinking the 

 ship was about to blow up, and tried to swim to 

 the land. Some succeeded; among them was one 

 man who had sixteen or eighteen pieces of iron in 

 his leg, scales from the muzzle of his gun. The 

 frigate had been shattered to pieces above the water- 



50 Captain Hilyar's letter. James says the Phcebe had 7 

 shot between wind and water, and one below the water-line. 

 Porter says she had 18 12-pound shot below the water-line. 

 The latter statement must have been an exaggeration ; and 

 James is probably further wrong still. 



