“The ‘Endymion,’” he began, ... “was the leading ship of the enemy. She got close under my quarters and was cutting my rigging without my being able to bring a gun to bear upon her. To suffer this was making my capture certain, and that too without injury to the enemy. I therefore bore up for the ‘Endymion’ and engaged her for two hours, when we silenced and beat her off. At this time the rest of the ships had got within two miles of us. We made all the sail we could from them, but it was in vain. In three hours the ‘Pomone’ and ‘Tenedos’ were alongside, and the ‘Majestic’ and ‘Endymion’ close to us. All that was now left for me to do was to receive the fire of the nearest ship and surrender.” The “Pomone’s” account of the surrender completed the story:[85]-- “At eleven, being within gunshot of the ‘President’ who was still steering to the eastward under a press of sail, with royal, top-gallant, topmast, and lower studding-sails set, finding how much we outsailed her our studding-sails were taken in, and immediately afterward we luffed to port and fired our starboard broadside. The enemy then also luffed to port, bringing his larboard broadside to bear, which was momentarily expected, as a few minutes previous to our closing her she hoisted a light abaft, which in night actions constitutes the ensign. Our second broadside was fired, and the ‘President’ still luffing up as if intent to lay us on board, we hauled close to port, bracing the yards up, and setting the mainsail; the broadside was again to be fired into his bows, raking, when she hauled down the light, and we hailed demanding if she had surrendered. The reply was in the affirmative, and the firing immediately ceased. The ‘Tenedos,’ who was not more than three miles off, soon afterward came up, and assisted the ‘Pomone’ in securing the prize and removing the prisoners. At three quarters past twelve the ‘Endymion’ came up, and the ‘Majestic’ at three in the morning.” Between the account given by Decatur and that of the “Pomone’s” log were some discrepancies. In the darkness many mistakes were inevitable; but if each party were taken as the best authority on its own side, the connected story seemed to show that Decatur, after beating off the “Endymion,” made every effort to escape, but was impressed by the conviction that if overtaken by the squadron, nothing was left but to receive the fire of the nearest ship, and surrender. The night was calm, and the “President” made little headway. At eleven o’clock one of the pursuing squadron came up, and fired two broadsides. “Thus situated,” reported Decatur, “with about one fifth of my crew killed and wounded, my ship crippled, and a more than fourfold force opposed to me, without a chance of escape left, I deemed it my duty to surrender.”