There was a considerable swell, the sea lifted the _Hornet_ ahead, and the bowsprit of the enemy (her men had displayed no intention of boarding) carried away the mizzen-shrouds and swept the side. Just then an officer bravely stood upon the bulwarks of the English brig, and at the risk of his life shouted out that he had surrendered. He was Lieutenant McDonald, the _Penguin’s_ first lieutenant. At this moment the enemy was swinging clear, Biddle was prepared to give him another broadside, and with difficulty could he restrain his crew, as the _Penguin_ certainly had fired after Lieutenant McDonald had said he had surrendered. One of the last shots had struck Captain Biddle, wounding him severely in the neck. In fact, throughout the action he was almost unrecognizable, because of wounds which he had received from splinters in his face. Several times his men had asked him to go below. It was exactly twenty-two minutes from the beginning of the action to the time when the _Penguin_ was boarded by a boat from the _Hornet_. The former vessel proved to be one of the strongest vessels of her class, mounting 16 32-pound carronades, 2 long sixes, and a 12-pound carronade on her topgallant forecastle, with swivels on the capstan and in the tops; she had a spare port forward so as to fire both of her long guns on a side. When she had sailed from England on the 1st of September she was manned by a picked crew, that was afterwards reinforced by marines taken from the _Medway_, a seventy-four. Out of one hundred and thirty-two persons that formed her crew she lost fourteen killed and twenty-eight wounded, among the latter number being her commander, Captain Dickinson. Not a single round shot struck the hull of the _Hornet_, but her sides were filled with grape and her sails and rigging much cut. She had but one man killed and eleven wounded. The _Penguin_ was so badly riddled that she sank, it not being worth the while to attempt to save her. But the _Hornet_, after obtaining a new set of sails, was ready for service without going home for repairs or refitting. The English journals, in commenting on this fact, advocated strongly the adoption of the American system of gunnery instruction, to which a Baltimore paper replied that the only thing they (the British) needed to be taught was “to _shoot_ Yankee fashion--viz., straighter and more often.” [Illustration: THE “PENGUIN” STRIKES TO THE “HORNET”] XIX THE ESCAPE OF THE “HORNET” [April 29th, 1815] Although the treaty of peace between England and the United States was concluded at Ghent on November 24th, in the year 1814, hostilities continued even after the _signing_ of the document that took place a month later to a day. This can be well understood when we stop to think that at the best rates of travelling it would take in the neighborhood of three weeks, or possibly four, for the news to reach the United States.