The schooner to leeward did
not appear to have suffered much; but they now perceived their error,
and made sail. They had expected that we should have run in between
them, and fought broadside to broadside, by which means the weathermost
schooner would have taken a raking position, while the others engaged us
to windward and to leeward. Our own damages were trifling--two men
slightly wounded, and one main shroud cut away. We ran about half a mile
astern from them; then with both broadsides ready, we tacked, and found
that, as we expected, we could weather the whole of them. This we did;
O'Brien running the brig within biscuit-throw of the weather schooner,
engaging him broadside to broadside, with the advantage that the other
two could not fire a shot into us without standing a chance of striking
their consort. If he made more sail, so did we; if he shortened, so did
we; so as to keep our position with little variation. The schooner
fought well; but her metal was not to be compared with our thirty-two
pound carronades, which ploughed up her sides at so short a distance,
driving two ports into one. At last her foremast went by the board, and
she dropped astern. In the meantime the other schooners had both tacked,
and were coming up under our stern to rake us, but the accident which
happened to the one we had engaged left us at liberty. We knew that she
could not escape, so we tacked and engaged the other two, nearing them
as fast as we could. The breeze now sprang up fast, and O'Brien put up
the helm and passed between them, giving them both a raking broadside of
grape and cannister, which brought the sticks about their ears.
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