The wind did not allow of a return to port, and the “Essex” was run into a small bay three miles from Valparaiso, and anchored within pistol-shot of the shore. There Hillyar had her wholly at his mercy. At first he attacked somewhat timidly. Although Porter could bring only three long twelve-pounders to bear, he damaged the “Phœbe’s” rigging until Hillyar, in half an hour, hauled off to repair the injury,--or, according to Hillyar’s account, the “Phœbe” was prevented by the freshness of the wind from holding a position.[289] Finally the “Phœbe” anchored, and began firing her broadsides of long eighteen-pounders into the “Essex’s” quarter. The “Cherub” kept under way, using only her bow guns. Reply was impossible. The crew of the “Essex” fired what guns would bear, and got the ship under way; but the “Phœbe” kept her distance, throwing thirteen eighteen-pound shot into the “Essex” every five or ten minutes, until the “Essex” was cut to pieces and her decks were shambles. The last attack continued, according to Captain Hillyar, from 5.35 till 6.20 P. M., when the “Essex” struck. The entire battle lasted from four o’clock until the surrender. The carnage was frightful and useless. Porter declared that fifty-eight of his crew were killed. Hillyar claimed one hundred and nineteen unwounded prisoners, while Porter declared the number of unwounded prisoners to be seventy-five. The British ships, with five hundred men, lost only fifteen killed and wounded. The loss of the “Essex,” like the loss of the “Chesapeake” and “Argus,” was unnecessary. Porter need not have gone to Valparaiso, or might have tried to run out at night, or might have fought, even after the loss of his maintopmast, under less disadvantage. The disaster completed the unfortunate record of the frigates for the year. They made some sixteen prizes and busied many British cruisers, but won no victories and suffered one bloody defeat. The sloops told a different story. Early in 1814 three of the new sloops-of-war were ready for sea,--the “Frolic,” the “Peacock,” and the “Wasp.” They were heavy vessels of their class, about one hundred and twenty feet long on the main-deck, and thirty-two feet in extreme breadth; carrying crews of about one hundred and sixty men, with an armament of twenty thirty-two-pound carronades and two long eighteen-pounders. Although only one third the tonnage of the forty-four-gun frigates, and carrying only one third the crew, the new sloops-of-war threw nearly half the weight of metal,--for the broadside of the “Constitution” commonly exceeded but little the weight of seven hundred pounds, while the sloops threw three hundred and thirty-eight. The difference was due not to the weight, but to the range. The frigates carried thirty long twenty-four-pounders; the sloops carried only two long eighteen-pounders. The sloops were rigged as ships, and built with the usual solidity of war-vessels, costing about seventy-five thousand dollars each.