When an action takes place at night, when flags cannot be seen, other modes of intimating surrender have to be reverted to. In the war with America, in 1815, when a British ship in a disabled state found she had no alternative but to surrender at midnight to an American ship of superior force, she did so by firing a lee gun and hoisting a light. In another case a French frigate, the _Néréide_, after a severe action during night with the British frigate _Phoebe_, surrendered to the latter by hauling down a light she had been carrying, and hailing that she surrendered. In another case a French ship intimated the fact of her surrender by hoisting a light and instantly hauling it down. When a ship has surrendered and is taken possession of, the captor hoists his ensign over that of the enemy. In one instance a mistake in this produced disastrous results. In the celebrated capture of the _Chesapeake_ off Boston in 1813, when the American flag was struck, the officer of the _Shannon_ who was sent on board the _Chesapeake_ to take possession, inadvertently--owing to the halliards being tangled--bent the English flag below the American ensign instead of above it. By this time the two ships were drifting apart, and when the _Shannon's_ people saw the American stripes going up first they concluded that their boarding party had been overpowered, and at once reopened their fire, by which their first-lieutenant and several of their own men were killed. The mistake was discovered before the flags had got halfway to the mizen peak, when they were hauled down and hoisted properly. In this brilliant but short action--for between the discharge of the first gun and the conclusion of the fight only fifteen minutes elapsed--the American ship, by way of display, carried more than the ordinary number of flags. She flew three ensigns, one at the mizen, one at the peak, and one, the largest of all, in the starboard main rigging. She had besides, flying at the fore, a large white flag inscribed with the words "Sailors' Rights and Free Trade," with the intention, it was supposed, of damping the energy of the _Shannon's_ men by this favourite American motto. The _Shannon_ had the Union at the fore and an old rusty blue ensign at the mizen peak, and besides these she had one ensign on the main stay and another in the main rigging, both rolled up and "stopped" ready to be cast loose in case either of the other flags should be shot away.