Eliza Drum, and had started toward her to warn her to
take a less doubtful position. But before she arrived
the capture had taken place. When he reached the spot
where the Eliza Drum had been fishing, the commander
of the Lennehaha made an observation of the distance
from the shore, and calculated it to be more than three
miles. When he sent an officer in a boat to the Dog
Star to state the result of his computations, the
captain of the British vessel replied that he was
satisfied the distance was less than three miles, and
that he was now about to take the Eliza Drum into
port.

On receiving this information, the commander of the
Lennehaha steamed closer to the Dog Star, and
informed her captain, by means of a speaking-trumpet,
that if he took the Eliza Drum into a Canadian port,
he would first have to sail over his ship. To this the
captain of the Dog Star replied that he did not in
the least object to sail over the Lennehaha, and
proceeded to put a prize crew on board the fishing
vessel.

At this juncture the captain of the Eliza Drum
ran up a large American flag; in five minutes afterward
the captain of the prize crew hauled it down; in less
than ten minutes after this the Lennehaha and the
Dog Star were blazing at each other with their bow
guns. The spark had been struck.