As the flag-ship came to close quarters the Moors opened fire, wounding several men, but Decatur waited until his ship cleared the enemy's yard-arms, when he ordered a broadside. The crew of the Algerine frigate, which was the _Mashuda_, were mowed down by this heavy fire. Reis Hammida himself had already been wounded by one of the first shots from the _Constellation_. He had, however, insisted on continuing to give orders from a couch on the quarter-deck, but a shot from the first broadside killed him. The _Guerrière's_ gun crews loaded and fired again before the first smoke had cleared; at this second broadside one of her largest guns exploded, killing three men, wounding seventeen, and splintering the spar-deck. The Moors made no sign of surrender, but Decatur, seeing that there were too few left to fight, and not wishing to pour another broadside into them, sailed past, and took a position just out of range. The Algerines immediately tried to run before him. In doing this the big _Mashuda_ was brought directly against the little eighteen-gun American brig _Epervier_, commanded by John Downes. Instead of sailing away Downes placed his brig under the Moor's cabin ports, and by backing and filling escaped colliding with the frigate while he fired his small broadsides at her. This running fire, lasting for twenty-five minutes, finished the Moor's resistance, and the frigate surrendered. The flag-ship, the _Guerrière_, now took charge of the Algerine prize, and Decatur sent an officer, two midshipmen, and a crew on board her. The _Mashuda_ was a sorry sight, many of her men killed or wounded, and her decks splintered by the American broadsides. The prisoners were transferred to the other ships, and orders were given to the prize-crew to take the captured frigate to the port of Carthagena, under escort of the _Macedonian_. Before this was done, however, Decatur signaled all the officers to meet on his flag-ship. In the cabin they found a table covered with captured Moorish weapons,--daggers, pistols, scimitars, and yataghans. Decatur turned to Commandant Downes, who had handled the small _Epervier_ so skilfully. "As you were fortunate in obtaining a favorable position and maintained it so handsomely, you shall have the first choice of these weapons," he said. Downes chose, and then each of the other officers selected a trophy of the victory. That evening the squadron, leaving the _Mashuda_ in charge of the _Macedonian_, resumed its hunt for other ships belonging to the navy of the piratical Dey.