c. Her cannon were handled with such rapidity that there
seemed to be one continuous flash from her broadside, and several times
Captain Garden and his officers believed her to be on fire. * * * Her
firing was so rapid that 'in a few minutes she was enveloped in a cloud
of smoke which from the Macedonian's quarter-deck appeared like a huge
cloud rolling along the water, illuminated by lurid flashes of lightning,
and emitting a continuous roar of thunder.' But the unceasing storm of
round shot, grape and canister, and the occasional glimpse of the Stars
and Stripes floating above the clouds of smoke, forcibly dispelled the
illusion, and showed the Englishmen that they were dealing with an enemy
who knew how to strike and who struck hard. * * * 'Grapeshot and canister
were pouring through our port holes like leaden hail; the large shot came
against the ship's side, shaking her to the very keel, and passing
through her timbers and scattering terrific splinters, which did more
appalling work than the shot itself. A constant stream of wounded men
were being hurried to the cockpit from all quarters of the ship.' And
still the American frigate kept up her merciless cannonading. As the
breeze occasionally made a rent in the smoke her officers could be seen
walking around her quarter-deck calmly directing the work of destruction,
while her gun-crews were visible through the open ports deliberately
loading and aiming their pieces."[3] The action had lasted about an hour
and a half, when the Macedonian struck. The United States, lost five men
killed and seven wounded; the Macedonian lost thirty-six killed and
sixty-eight wounded.

[3] From statements of witnesses on the Macedonian, in Maclay's
"History of the United States Navy."

The next naval victory was won by Captain William Bainbridge, this time
in command of the Constitution, forty-four guns, over the British
thirty-eight-gun frigate Java, Captain Henry Lambert. The battle began at
2.40 p. m., and at 4.05 p. m., the British frigate was "an unmanageable
wreck." The Java at length surrendered, having lost sixty killed, besides
one hundred and one wounded, while the loss of the Constitution was nine
killed and twenty-five wounded. Both commanders were wounded, the British
captain mortally, and there was a touching scene when Captain Bainbridge,
supported by his officers to the bedside of the dying Lambert, gave back
to the latter his sword.