He came bowling straight down at the _Shannon_, luffed in his turn, and engaged her at a distance of fifty yards.

The breeze was strong and the nimble American frigate forged ahead more rapidly than Lawrence expected, so that presently her broadside guns had ceased to bear.
While Lawrence was trying to slacken headway and regain the desired position, the enemy's shot disabled his headsails, and the _Chesapeake_ came up into the wind with canvas all a-flutter.

It was a mishap which a crew of trained seamen might have quickly mended, but the frigate was taken aback--that is, the breeze drove her stern foremost toward the _Shannon_ and exposed her to a deadly cannonade which the American gunners were unable to return.

The hope of salvation lay in getting the ship under way again or in boarding the _Shannon_.

It was in this moment that the battle was won and lost, for every gun of the British broadside was sweeping the American deck diagonally from stern to bow, while the marines in the tops of the _Shannon_ picked off the officers and seamen of the _Chesapeake_, riddling them with musket balls.