andais having returned
there several times to fire on the Richard, and always on the larboard
side, or opposite one to that on which the Richard was grappled with the
Serapis.

While the fire of the Serapis was continued without intermission from
the whole of her lower-deck battery, the only guns that were still fired
from the Richard were two nine-pounders on the quarter-deck, commanded
by Mr. Mease, the purser. This officer having received a dangerous wound
in the head, Jones took his place, and, having collected a few men,
succeeded in shifting over one of the larboard guns; so that three guns
were now kept playing on the enemy, and these were all that were fired
from the Richard during the remainder of the action. One of these guns
was served with double-headed shot and directed at the main-mast, by
Jones' command, while the other two were loaded with grape and canister,
to clear the enemy's deck.

In this service great aid was rendered by the men stationed in the tops
of the Richard, who, having cleared the tops of the Serapis, committed
great havoc among the officers and crew upon her upper deck. Thus, the
action was carried on with decided advantage to the Serapis' men on the
lower decks, from which they might have boarded the Richard with a good
prospect of success, as nearly the whole crew of the latter had been
driven from below by the fire of the Serapis and had collected on the
upper deck. In addition to the destructive fire from the tops of the
Richard, great damage was done by the hand-grenades thrown from her tops
and yard-arms. The Serapis was set on fire as often as ten or twelve
times in various parts, and the conflagration was only with the greatest
exertions kept from becoming general.

About a quarter before ten a hand-grenade, thrown by one of the
Richard's men from the main-top of the Serapis, struck the combing of
the main-hatch, and, glancing inward upon the main deck, set fire to a
cartridge of powder. Owing to mismanagement and defective training, the
powder-boys on this deck had bought up the cartridges from the magazine
faster than they were used, and, instead of waiting for the loaders to
receive and charge them, had laid them on the deck, where some of them
were broken. The cartridge fired by the grenade now communicated to
these, and the explosion spread from the main-mast aft on the starboard
side, killing twenty men and disabling every man there stationed at the
guns, those who were