The Duchess Had Engaged The
Enemy By Herself The Night Before, Which Was What We Took To Be False
Fires, Being Too Distant To Hear The Guns.
At that time they could
perceive the enemy to be in great disorder, her guns not being all
mounted,
And neither her nettings nor close quarters in order; so that,
if it had been my good fortune in the Duke to have gone with the
Duchess, we all believed we might then have carried this great ship by
boarding; or, if the Duchess had taken most of the men out of the
Marquis, which did not sail well enough to come up to her assistance in
time, she alone might have taken her by boarding at once, before the
Spaniards had experienced our strength, and become afterwards so well
provided as encouraged them to be driving, giving us every opportunity
to board them if we pleased.
Captain Cooke sent me word that he had nearly fired away all his powder
and shot, but had escaped well in masts, rigging, and men; wherefore I
sent him three barrels of powder and a proportion of shot; and I also
sent Lieutenant Fry to consult with our consorts how we might best
engage the enemy next morning. All this day and the ensuing night the
chase made signals to us in the Duke, thinking us her consort, which we
had already taken; and after dark she edged down towards us, otherwise I
should not have been up with her next day, having very little wind and
that against us. In the morning of the 28th, as soon as it was day, the
wind veered at once, on which we put our ship about, and the chase fired
first upon the Duchess, which was nearest her in consequence of the
change of wind. The Duchess returned the fire briskly; and we in the
Duke stood as near as we possibly could, firing our guns as we could
bring them to bear upon the enemy. At this time the Duchess was athwart
her hawse, firing very fast, and such of her shot as missed the enemy
flew over us and between our masts, so that we ran the risk of receiving
more harm from the Duchess than the enemy, if we had lain on her quarter
and across her stern, which was my intention. We therefore took our
station close along side, board and board, where we kept plying her with
round shot only, using neither barshot nor grape, as her sides were too
thick for these, and no men appeared in sight.
She lay driving, as we did also close aboard of her, the enemy keeping
to their close quarters, so that we never fired our small arms unless
when we saw a man appear, or a port open, and then we fired as quick as
possible. We continued thus for four glasses, about which time we
received a shot in our main-mast which much disabled it.
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