d while he was on board, he could not
honorably have quitted her; and the record was clearer by his reaching
a fresh ship while the flag of the one he left was still up.

What next happened is under no doubt so far as the movements of the
"Niagara" are concerned, though there is irreconcilable difference as
to who initiated the action. Immediately after Perry came on board,
Elliott left her, to urge forward the rear gunboats. Her helm was put
up, and she bore down ahead of the "Detroit" to rake her; supported in
so doing by the small vessels, presumably the "Ariel," "Scorpion," and
"Caledonia." The British ship tried to wear, both to avoid being raked
and to get her starboard battery into action; many of the guns on the
broadside heretofore engaged being disabled. The "Charlotte" being on
her lee quarter, and ranging ahead, the two fell foul, and so remained
for some time. This condition gave free play to the American guns,
which were soon after re-enforced by those of the rear gunboats;
enabled, like the "Niagara," to close with the freshening breeze.
After the two British vessels got clear, another attempt was made to
bring their batteries to bear; but the end was inevitable, and is
best told in the words of the officer upon whom devolved the duty of
surrendering the "Detroit." "The ship lying completely unmanageable,
every brace cut away, the mizzen-topmast and gaff down, all the other
masts badly wounded, not a stay left forward, hull shattered very
much, a number of guns disabled, and the enemy's squadron raking both
ships ahead and astern, none of our own in a position to support us, I
was under the painful necessity of answering the enemy to say we had
struck, the 'Queen Charlotte' having previously done so."[97] A
Canadian officer taken prisoner at the battle of the Thames saw the
"Detroit," a month later, at Put-in Bay. "It would be impossible," he
wrote, "to place a hand upon that broadside which had been exposed to
the enemy's fire without covering some portion of a wound, either from
grape, round, canister, or chain shot."[98] Her loss in men was never
specifically given. Barclay reported that of the squadron as a whole
to be forty-one killed, ninety-four wounded. He had lost an arm at
Trafalgar; and on this occasion, besides other injuries, the one
remaining to him was so shattered as to be still in bandages a year
later, when he appeared before the Court Martial which emphatically
acquitted him of blame. T