1815	Light Squadrons and Single Ships	386

The Hornet received a few shot in the hull ; one of which was so low down as to keep her men constantly at the pumps. Out of a crew of 163 men and two boys, the Hornet lost, by the acknowledgment of her officers, only two seamen, killed and 11 wounded ; but, according to the observation of the British officers, her loss was much greater. Just as Mr. Edward B. Kirk, one of the Penguin's midshipmen, and the very first prisoner that reached the Hornet, was stepping upon her deck, the crew were in the act of throwing a man overboard ; but a struggle or convulsive twitch in the body occasioned his being hauled in again. The poor man's lower jaw had been nearly all shot away ; yet he lived, and was walking about the deck in the course of a few days. This shows the hurry in which the American officers were, to get their killed out of the way before the arrival of the prisoners ; and the time necessary to remove every appearance of blood and carnage contributed to the delay in sending for them. Even when the British did come on board buckets of water were dashing about and brooms at work on all parts of the deck. The Penguin's second lieutenant counted 16 of the Hornet's men lying in their cots; and several of her men told some of their former shipmates, whom they discovered among the Penguin's crew, that the Hornet had 10 men killed by the first and second broadsides.

We cannot, with any consistency, offer the trifling disparity of force in this action, as an excuse for the Penguin's capture. The chief cause is to be sought in that which cannot be made apparent in figures ; the immense disparity between the two vessels in the fitting of their guns, and in the effectiveness of their crews. A ship's gun, cast adrift, not only becomes utterly useless as a weapon of offence or defence, but in the very act of breaking loose, maims and disables the men stationed at it ; and, if the sea is rough, as Captain Biddle says it was in the present instance, continues to cause destruction among the crew generally, until again lashed to the ship's side. How much is the evil increased, if, as in the Penguin's case, instead of one gun, several guns break loose. In the midst of all this delay and self-destruction, the enemy, uninterrupted in his operations, and animated by the feeble resistance he meets, quickens his fire ; and, conquering at last, fails not to ascribe, solely to his skill and valour, that victory, which accident had partly gained for him. `

We are inclined to think that the prize was not so " riddled in her hull," as to render her destruction on the morning of the 25th a matter of necessity. The fact is, that, just after the action had ended, the Peacock and Tom-Bowline hove in sight; and Captains Warrington and Biddle, having heard of the peace, were anxious to get to the East Indies as quickly as possible, in order to have their share of the few prizes yet to be taken.

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