Concluding Operations 185 



and the launch now followed suit, and, thus relieved, 

 the Hornet passed temporarily out of danger; but 

 the breeze shifted gradually round to the east, and 

 the liner came looming up till at noon she was with 

 in a mile, a shorter range than that at which the 

 United States crippled and cut up the Macedonian; 

 and had the Cormvallis' fire been half as well aimed 

 as that of the States, it would have been the last of 

 the Hornet. But the 74's guns were very unskil 

 fully served, and the shot passed for the most part 

 away over the chase, but three getting home. Cap 

 tain Biddle and his crew had no hope of ultimate 

 escape, but no one thought of giving up. All the 

 remaining spare spars and boats, all the guns but 

 one, the shot, and in fact everything that could be 

 got at, below or on deck, was thrown overboard. 

 This increased the way of the Hornet, while the 

 Cornwallis lost ground by hauling off to give broad 

 sides, which were as ineffectual as the fire from the 

 chase-guns had been. The Hornet now had gained 

 a little, and managed to hold her own, and shortly 

 afterward the pluck and skill of her crew 79 were 

 rewarded. The shift in the wind had been very 

 much against them, but now it veered back again 



19 It is perhaps worth noting that the accounts incidentally 

 mention the fact that almost the entire crew consisted of 

 native Americans, of whom quite a number had served as 

 impressed seamen on board British warships. James mul 

 tiplies these threefold and sets them down as British. 



