h the commodore's ship until seven in the evening, being then
within pistol shot, when he hailed the Bonhomme Richard. We
answered him by firing a whole broadside.

The battle being thus begun, was continued with unremitting fury.
Every method was practised on both sides to gain an advantage,
and rake each other; and I must confess that the enemy's ship
being much more manageable than the Bonhomme Richard, gained
thereby several times an advantageous situation, in spite of my
best endeavours to prevent it. As I had to deal with an enemy of
_greatly superior force_, I was under the necessity of closing
with him, to prevent the advantage which he had over me in point
of manoeuvre. It was my intention to lay the Bonhomme Richard
athwart the enemy's bow, but as that operation required great
dexterity in the management of both sails and helm, and some of
our braces being shot away, it did not exactly succeed to my
wishes; the enemy's bowsprit, however, came over the Bonhomme
Richard's poop, by the mizzen mast, and I made both ships fast
together in that situation, which, by the action of the wind (p. 105)
on the enemy's sails, forced her stern close to the Bonhomme
Richard's bow, so that the ships lay square alongside of each
other, the yards being all entangled, and the cannon of each ship
touching the opponent's side. When this position took place it
was eight o'clock, previous to which the Bonhomme Richard had
received sundry eighteen pound shot below the water and leaked
very much. My battery of 12-pounders, on which I had placed my
chief dependence, being commanded by Lieut. Dale and Col.
Weibert, and manned principally with American seamen and French
volunteers, were entirely silenced and abandoned. As to the six
old 18-pounders that formed the battery of the lower gun-deck,
they did no service whatever; two out of three of them burst at
the first fire, and killed almost all the men who were stationed
to manage them. Before this time, too, Col. de Chamillard, who
commanded a party of twenty soldiers on the poop, had abandoned
that station, after having lost some of his men. These men
deserted their quarters. I had now only two pieces of cannon,
9-pounders, on the quarter-deck that were not silenced, and not
one of the heavier cannon was fire