minutes she smote the _Chesapeake_ with no less than 362
shots, an average of 60 shots of all sizes every minute, as against the
_Chesapeake's_ 28 shots. The _Chesapeake_ was fir-built, and the
British shot riddled her. One _Shannon_ broadside partly raked the
_Chesapeake_ and literally smashed the stern cabins and battery to mere
splinters, as completely as though a procession of aerolites had torn
through it.

The swift, deadly, concentrated fire of the British in two
quick-following broadsides practically decided the combat. The
partially disabled vessels drifted together, and the _Chesapeake_ fell
on board the _Shannon_, her quarter striking the starboard main-chains.
Broke, as the ships ground together, looked over the blood-splashed
decks of the American and saw the men deserting the quarter-deck guns,
under the terror of another broadside at so short a distance. "Follow
me who can," he shouted, and with characteristic coolness "stepped"--in
his own phrase--across the _Chesapeake's_ bulwark. He was followed by
some 32 seamen and 18 marines--50 British boarders leaping upon a ship
with a crew of 400 men, a force which, even after the dreadful
broadsides of the _Shannon_, still numbered 270 unwounded men in its
ranks.

It is absurd to deny to the Americans courage of the very finest
quality, but the amazing and unexpected severity of the _Shannon's_
fire had destroyed for the moment their _morale_, and the British were
in a mood of victory. The boatswain of the _Shannon_, an old _Rodney_
man, lashed the two ships together, and in the act had his left arm
literally hacked off by repeated strokes of a cutlass and was killed.
One British midshipman, followed by five topmen, crept along the
_Shannon's_ foreyard and stormed the _Chesapeake's_ foretop, killing
the men stationed there, and then swarmed down by a back-stay to join
the fighting on the deck. Another middy tried to attack the
_Chesapeake's_ mizzentop from the starboard mainyard arm, but being
hindered by the foot of the topsail, stretched himself out on the
mainyard arm, and from that post shot three of the enemy in succession.

Meanwhile the fight on the deck had been short and sharp; some of the
Americans leaped overboard and others rushed below; and Laurence, lying
wounded in his steerage, saw the wild reflux of his own men down the
after ladders. On asking what it meant, he was told, "The ship is
boarded, and those are the _Chesapeake's_ men dri