Thenceforth, not a few balls from the Serapis must have passed straight through the Richard without grazing her.

It was like firing buck-shot through the ribs of a skeleton.
But, further forward, so deadly was the broadside from the heavy batteries of the Serapis--levelled point-blank, and right down the throat and bowels, as it were, of the Richard--that it cleared everything before it.

The men on the Richard's covered gun-deck ran above, like miners from the fire-damp.

Collecting on the forecastle, they continued to fight with grenades and muskets.

The soldiers also were in the lofty tops, whence they kept up incessant volleys, cascading their fire down as pouring lava from cliffs.
The position of the men in the two ships was now exactly reversed.