_Frolic_ removed her main-yard from the casks, lashed it on deck,
and then hauled to the wind under her boom main-sail and close-reefed
foretop-sail, hoisting Spanish colors to decoy the stranger under
her guns, and permit the convoy to escape. At 11.32 the action
began--the two ships running parallel on the starboard tack, not
60 yards apart, the _Wasp_, firing her port, and the _Frolic_ her
starboard, guns. The latter fired very rapidly, delivering three
broadsides to the _Wasp's_ two, [Footnote: Cooper, 182.] both crews
cheering loudly as the ships wallowed through the water. There was
a very heavy sea running, which caused the vessels to pitch and
roll heavily. The Americans fired as the engaged side of their ship
was going down, aiming at their opponent's hull [Footnote: Miles'
Register, in, p. 324.]; while the British delivered their broadsides
while on the crests of the seas, the shot going high. The water
dashed in clouds of spray over both crews, and the vessels rolled
so that the muzzles of the guns went under. [Footnote: _Do_.] But
in spite of the rough weather, the firing was not only spirited
but well directed. At 11.36 the _Wasp's_ maintop-mast was shot
away and fell, with its yard, across the port fore and foretop-sail
braces, rendering the head yards unmanageable; at 11.46 the gaff
and mizzentop-gallant mast came down, and by 11.52 every brace and
most of the rigging was shot away. [Footnote: Capt. Jones' letter.]
It would now have been very difficult to brace any of the yards.
But meanwhile the _Frolic_ suffered dreadfully in her hull and lower
masts, and had her gaff and head braces shot away.[Footnote: Capt.
Whinyates' letter.] The slaughter among her crew was very great,
but the survivors kept at their work with the dogged courage of
their race. At first the two vessels ran side by side, but the
American gradually forged ahead, throwing in her fire from a
position in which she herself received little injury; by degrees