m 



porter's journal. 



She did ndt return to close action again, although she appa- 

 rently had it in her power to do so, but kept up a distant 

 firing with her long guns.-^The Phoebe, from our disabled 

 state, Was enabled, however, by edging off, to choose the 

 distance which best suited her long guns, and kept up a 

 tremendous fire on us, which mowed down my brave com- 

 panions by the dozen. Many of my guns had been ren- 

 dered useless by the enemy's shot, and many of them had 

 their whole crews destroyed. We manned them again 

 from those which were disabled, and one gun in particular 

 was three times manned — fifteen men were slain at it in 

 the action. But, strange as it may appear, the Captain of 

 it escaped with only a slight wound. — Finding that the 

 enemy had it in his power to choose his distance, I noW" 

 gave up all hopes of closing with him, and as the wind, for 

 the moment, seemed to favour the design, I determined 

 to endeavour to run her on shore, land my men and destroy 

 her. Everything seemed to favour my wishes. We had 

 approached the shore within musket shot, and I had no 

 doubt of succeeding, when, in an instant, the wind shifted 

 from the land (as is very common in this port in the latter 

 part of the day) and payed our head down on the Phoebe, 

 where we were again exposed to a dreadful raking fire. 

 My ship was now totally unmanageable ; yet, as her head 

 was toward the enemy, and he to leeward of me, I still 

 hoped to be able to board him. At this moment lieutenant 

 commandant Downes came on board to receive my orders, 

 under the impression that I should soon be a prisoner. He 

 could be of no use to me in the then wretched state of the 

 Essex; and finding (from the enemy's putting his helm up) 

 that my last attempt at boarding would not succeed, I di- 

 rected him, after he had been about ten minutes on board, 

 to return to his own ship, to be prepared for defending and 

 destroying her in case of an attack. He took with him 

 several of my wounded, leaving three of his boats crew on 

 board to make room for them. The slaughter on board 

 my ship had now become horrible, the enemy continuing 

 to rake us, and we unable to bring a gun to bear. I there- 

 fore directed a hawser to be bent to the sheet anchor, and 

 the anchor to be cut from the bows to bring her head 

 round : this succeeded. We again got our broadside to 

 bear, and as the enemy was much crippled and unable to 



