After vainly offering battle on equal terms, Porter, on the 28th of March, attempted to put to sea. But his ship was struck by a heavy squall, which carried away the main-top-mast. Being pursued by the _Phoebe_ and _Cherub_, he tacked about, reentered the harbor, and anchored within pistol-shot of the shore. Paying not the slightest regard to the neutrality of the port, the enemy followed the _Essex_, took a position under her stern, and opened fire. Even under this disadvantage, Porter got three long {312}guns out at the stern ports, and fought them so skilfully that in half an hour both the _Phoebe_ and the _Cherub_ drew off for repairs. They next took a position on the starboard quarter, out of reach of the carronades that composed the Essex's broadside, and fired at her with their long guns. Under his flying jib, the only sail he could set, Porter ran down upon the enemy, and after a short and intense action at close range, drove off the _Cherub_. But the _Phoebe_ edged away again out of reach of his carronades, and kept up a steady fire from her long guns. The slaughter on board the _Essex_ was sickening. At one gun, three whole crews were swept away in succession. Says Captain Porter, in his 'Journal', "I was informed that the cockpit, the steerage, the ward-room, and the berth-deck could contain no more wounded; that the wounded were killed while the surgeons were dressing them; and that, unless something was speedily done to prevent it, the ship would soon sink from the number of shot-holes in her bottom." The captain next tried to run her ashore; but while she was still nearly a mile from the land, the wind suddenly shifted. A hawser was bent to the sheet anchor, and the ship swung round so as to bring her broadside to bear on the enemy, but the hawser soon parted. Indeed, she had anchored in {313}the first place with springs on her cables, but the springs had been repeatedly shot away. * With all these misfortunes, the ship took fire, and as the flames burst up the hatchways Porter ordered all who could swim to jump overboard and strike out for the shore, as the boats had been destroyed by the enemy's shot. The flames were extinguished; but the Essex was now a wreck, deliberately raked by every discharge from her antagonist, and the colors were struck. The _Essex Junior_ had been in no condition to assist in the fight, but was included in the surrender. Out of two hundred and fifty-five men, Porter had lost one hundred and fifty-four in killed, wounded, or missing. Hillyar reported the loss on his two ships as five killed and ten wounded. The battle had been witnessed by thousands of people on shore. So near were the vessels to land a part of the time, that many of the _Phoebe's_ shot struck the beach. The United States Consul, Joel R. Poinsett, protested to the Chilian authorities