Crash! B-oo-m!
A thundering broadside belched from the side of the seventy-four, dismounting two guns on the port side of the King George, and bringing the main topsail yard crashing to the deck. It was now bright moonlight, and in its radiance the flag of the stranger was seen to blow straight out, disclosing her nationality to be Spanish. She was the Glorioso: a strong and powerful vessel, ably officered and ably manned. She towered above the little King George like a church-spire, and her broadsides now sputtered with great regularity.
Crash! Crash! Crash!
The sprightly little King George kept after the big warship like a sword-fish chasing a whale. She drew so close that some burning wads from the Spanish guns set fire to her mainsail. Continually hoping that the Prince Frederick would come up, the gallant Walker hammered away at the Glorioso with furious precision, and drove her so near the rocks off Cape Vincent that the castle guns began to play upon the two grappling warriors of the sea. The British sea-captain fought and commanded with “a calmness peculiar to himself” and his example secured order and discipline even in the thickest of the fight, when the mainsail was set on fire. He was magnificent in action.
So the unequal struggle kept on. By half-past ten the King George had been so severely damaged aloft that she could not have escaped if she had tried. All the braces were shot away; the foremast was quite disabled; and the mainmast was badly splintered. Battered, torn, and distressed she kept banging away at the great, towering Spaniard; while the big fellow ceased her fire somewhat, and ever now and again let go a broadside, like the blow from the mouth of a huge whale. It sounded like, Chu-spow!
ACTION BETWEEN THE “GLORIOSO” AND THE “KING GEORGE” AND “PRINCE FREDERICK” UNDER GEORGE WALKER.
But hurrah! hurrah! The Prince Frederick had at last caught the breeze, and came bouncing by, her little pennons fluttering like so many silk stockings on a clothes-line.
“Are you all well?” shouted her commander, as he neared the splintered King George. “You look as if you’re sinking.”