The _Wasp_ sighted several of them in the moonlight but, fearing they might be war vessels, followed warily until morning revealed on her leeward side the _Frolic_.

Jacob Jones promptly shortened sail, which was the nautical method of rolling up one's sleeves, and steered close to attack.
It seemed preposterous to try to fight while the seas were still monstrously swollen and their crests were breaking across the decks of these vessels of less than five hundred tons burden.

Wildly they rolled and pitched, burying their bows in the roaring combers.

The merchant ships which watched this audacious defiance of wind and wave were having all they could do to avoid being swept or dismasted.

Side by side wallowed _Wasp_ and _Frolic_, sixty yards between them, while the cannon rolled their muzzles under water and the gunners were blinded with spray.