But another shot tore off the head of the gun captain and flung it in Macdonough's face with such force that he was hurled across the deck.

At length all but one of the guns along the side exposed to the _Confiance_ had been smashed or dismounted, and this last gun broke its fastening bolts, leaped from its carriage with the heavy recoil, and plunged into the main hatch.

Silenced, shot through and through, her decks strewn with dead, the _Saratoga_ might then have struck her colors with honor.

But Macdonough had not begun to fight.

Prepared for such an emergency, he let go a stern anchor, cut his bow cable, and "winded" or turned his ship around so that her other side with its uninjured row of guns was presented to the _Confiance_.