Cruising between Gibraltar and Madeira, at about one o’clock on the afternoon of February 20 Captain Stewart discovered two sail ahead, which he chased and overtook at six o’clock. Both were ship-rigged sloops-of-war. The larger of the two was the “Cyane.” Americans preferred to call her a frigate, but that designation, though vague at best, could hardly be applied to such a vessel. The “Cyane” was a frigate-built sloop-of-war, or corvette, like the “Little Belt,” carrying a regular complement of one hundred and eighty-five men. Her length on the lower deck was one hundred and eighteen feet; her breadth was thirty-two feet. She carried thirty-three guns, all carronades except two long-nines or twelves. Her companion, the “Levant,” was also a sloop-of-war of the larger sort, though smaller than the “Cyane.” She mounted twenty-one guns, all carronades except two long nine-pounders. Her regular crew was one hundred and thirty-five men and boys. Either separately or together the British ships were decidedly unequal to the “Constitution,” which could, by remaining at long range, sink them both without receiving a shot in return. The “Constitution” carried thirty-two long twenty-four-pounders; while the two sloops could reply to these guns only by four long nine-pounders. The “Constitution” carried four hundred and fifty men; the two sloops at the time of the encounter carried three hundred and thirty-six seamen, marines, and officers.[97] The “Constitution” was built of great strength; the two sloops had only the frames of their class. The utmost that the British captains could hope was that one of the two vessels might escape by the sacrifice of the other. Instead of escaping, the senior officer, Captain George Douglass of the “Levant,” resolved to engage the frigate, “in the hopes, by disabling her, to prevent her intercepting two valuable convoys that sailed from Gibraltar about the same time as the ‘Levant’ and ‘Cyane.’”[98] Captain Douglass knew his relative strength, for he had heard that the American frigate was on his course.[99] Yet he seriously expected to disable her, and made a courageous attempt to do so. The two ships, close together, tried first for the weather-gauge, but the “Constitution” outsailed them also on that point. They then bore up in hope of delaying the engagement till night, but the “Constitution” overhauled them too rapidly for the success of that plan. They then stood on the starboard tack, the “Cyane” astern, the “Levant” a half-cable length ahead, while the “Constitution” came up to windward and opened fire. Commodore Stewart’s report described the result:[100]--