_Lawrence_ at close quarters. The _Niagara_, the most efficient and best-manned of the American vessels, was thus almost kept out of the action by her captain’s misconduct. At the end of the line the fight went on at long range between the _Somers_, _Tigress_, _Porcupine_, and _Trippe_ on one side, and _Little Belt_ and _Lady Prevost_ on the other; the _Lady Prevost_ making a very noble fight, although her 12-pound carronades rendered her almost helpless against the long guns of the Americans. She was greatly cut up, her commander, Lieutenant Buchan, was dangerously, and her acting first lieutenant, Mr. Roulette, severely wounded, and she began falling gradually to leeward. “The fighting at the head of the line was fierce and bloody to an extraordinary degree. The _Scorpion_, _Ariel_, _Lawrence_, and _Caledonia_, all of them handled with the most determined courage, were opposed to the _Chippeway_, _Detroit_, _Queen Charlotte_, and _Hunter_, which were fought to the full as bravely. At such close quarters the two sides engaged on about equal terms, the Americans being superior in weight of metal, and inferior in number of men. But the _Lawrence_ had received such damage in working down as to make the odds against Perry. On each side almost the whole fire was directed at the opposing large vessel or vessels; in consequence the _Queen Charlotte_ was almost disabled, and the _Detroit_ was frightfully shattered, especially by the raking fire of the gunboats, her first lieutenant, Mr. Garland, being mortally wounded, and Captain Barclay so seriously injured that he was obliged to quit the deck, leaving his ship in command of Lieutenant George Inglis. But on board the _Lawrence_ matters had gone even worse, the combined fire of her adversaries having made the grimmest carnage on her decks. Of the 103 men who were fit for duty when the action began, 83, or over four fifths, were killed or wounded. The vessel was shallow, and the wardroom, used as a cockpit, to which the wounded were taken, was mostly above water, and the shot came through it continually, killing and wounding many men under the hands of the surgeon.