the vessels got so close that the Americans struck the _Frolic's_
side with their rammers in loading, [Footnote: Capt. Jones' letter.]
and the British brig was raked with dreadful effect. The Frolic
then fell aboard her antagonist, her jib-boom coming in between
the main- and mizzen-rigging of the _Wasp_ and passing over the
heads of Captain Jones and Lieutenant Biddle, who were standing
near the capstan. This forced the _Wasp_ up in the wind, and she
again raked her antagonist, Captain Jones trying to restrain his
men from boarding till he could put in another broadside. But they
could no longer be held back, and Jack Lang, a New Jersey seaman,
leaped on the _Frolic's_ bowsprit. Lieutenant Biddle then mounted
on the hammock cloth to board, but his feet got entangled in the
rigging, and one of the midshipmen seizing his coat-tails to help
himself up, the lieutenant tumbled back on the deck. At the next
swell he succeeded in getting on the bowsprit, on which there were
already two seamen whom he passed on the forecastle. But there was
no one to oppose him; not twenty Englishmen were left unhurt.
[Footnote: Capt. Whinyates' letter.] The man at the wheel was still
at his post, grim and undaunted, and two or three more were on deck,
including Captain Whinyates and Lieutenant Wintle, both so severely
wounded that they could not stand without support. [Footnote: James,
vi, 161.] There could be no more resistance, and Lieutenant Biddle
lowered the flag at 12.15--just 43 minutes after the beginning of
the fight. [Footnote: Capt. Jones' letter.] A minute or two afterward
both the _Frolic's_ masts went by the board--the foremast about
fifteen feet above the deck, the other short off. Of her crew, as
already said, not twenty men had escaped unhurt. Every officer was
wounded; two of them, the first lieutenant, Charles McKay, and
master, John Stephens, soon died. Her total loss was thus over
90 [Footnote: Capt. Whinyates' official letter thus states it, and