It was about this time that a boat flying the Stars and Stripes came pulling in from an American cruiser that lay outside the bar. Commodore Tatnall of the United States navy was on board, and he had come to the _Plover_, regardless of the Chinese fire, to offer some help to the English admiral. As a midshipman he had fought against the British in the war of 1812, but, as the old sailor said to Admiral Hope, “blood is thicker than water”; and though, as a neutral, he could not join in the attack, he offered to send in his steam launch and help to convey the wounded out of danger, an offer that was gratefully accepted. When he bade good day to the admiral and went back to his boat, he had to wait a little for his men. They came aft, looking hot and with the black marks of powder on their hands and faces. “What have you been doing, you rascals?” said Tatnall. “Don’t you know we’re neutrals?” “Beg pardon, sir,” said the spokesman of the party, “but they were a bit short-handed with the bow-gun, and we thought it no harm to give them a hand while we were waiting.” The incident is remembered in the navy to this day as a good deed done for the Old Country by Brother Jonathan. At three o’clock Admiral Hope ordered the _Plover_, now almost disabled, to drop down the river to a safer station, and transferred his flag to the _Opossum_, the _Lee_ and the _Haughty_ steaming up to the place left vacant in the front of the fight. A few minutes more, and a round shot crashed through the _Opossum’s_ rigging close to the admiral, knocking him down and breaking three of his ribs; but though suffering severely the brave commander made light of his injuries, a bandage was adjusted round his chest, and seated on the deck of the gunboat he still kept the command, and later on even insisted on being lifted into his barge in order to visit and encourage the crews of the _Haughty_ and the _Lee_. “_Opossum_, ahoy!” hailed an officer from the _Haughty_. “Your stern is on fire.”