It looked as though the _Frolic_ might get away, for the masts of the _Wasp_ were in danger of tumbling over the side.

With this mischance in mind, Captain Jacob Jones shifted helm and closed in for a hand-to-hand finish.
For a few minutes the two ships plunged ahead so near each other that the rammers of the American sailors struck the side of the _Frolic_ as they drove the shot down the throats of their guns.

It was literally muzzle to muzzle.

Then they crashed together and the _Wasp's_ jib-boom was thrust between the _Frolic's_ masts.

In this position the British decks were raked by a murderous fire as Jacob Jones trumpeted the order, "Boarders away!" Jack Lang, a sailor from New Jersey, scrambled out on the bowsprit, cutlass in his fist, without waiting to see if his comrades were with him, and dropped to the forecastle of the _Frolic_.
Lieutenant Biddle tried it by jumping on the bulwark and climbing to the other ship as they crashed together on the next heave of the sea, but a doughty midshipman, seeking a handy purchase, grabbed him by the coat tails and they fell back upon their own deck.