Page:History of Paul Jones.pdf/15

 not less than ten or twelve times in different parts of the ship, and it was with great difficulty and exertion at times that we were able to get it extinguished. At the same time the largest of the two frigates kept sailing round us during the whole action, and raking us fore and aft, by which means, they killed or wounded almost every man on the quarter and main decks. At half-past 9, either from a hand-grenade being thrown in at one of our lower-deck ports, or other accident, a cartridge of powder was set on fire, and the flames running from cartridge to cartridge all the way aft, blew up the whole of the people and officers that were quartered abaft the mainmast; from which unfortunate circumstance all those guns were rendered useless for the remainder of the action, and I fear the greatest part of the people will lose their lives.

"At ten o'clock they called for quarter from the ship alongside, and said they had struck. Hearing this I called upon the captain to say if they had struck, or if he asked for quarter; but receiving no answer, after repeatiugrepeating [sic] my words two or three times, I called for the boarders, and ordered them to board, which they did; but the moment they were on board her, they discovered a superior number lying under cover, with pikes in their hands, ready to receive them; on which our people retreated instantly into our own ship, and returned to their guns again till half past ten, when the frigate coming across our stern, and pouring her broadside into us again, without our being able to bring a gun to bear on her. I found it in vain, and in short impracticable, from the situation we were in, to stand out any longer with the least prospect of success; I therefore struck. Our main-mast, at the same time, went by the board.

"The first lieutenant and myself were immediately escorted into the ship alongside, when we