The _Constellation_ carried forty-eight guns, throwing 848 pounds of metal at one discharge, while the _Insurgent_ carried forty guns, throwing 791 pounds of metal. The _Constellation’s_ crew numbered 309, and the _Insurgent’s_ just 100 more. The battle lasted one hour and fourteen minutes. The French lost twenty-nine killed and forty-one wounded, the _Constellation_ two killed and three wounded. [Illustration: A French Vessel of 120 Guns. _From an engraving by Orio._] One gets a remarkable picture of the discipline on board the _Constellation_ when reading, in the report of the battle, that one of the two men killed was shot dead by Lieut. Andrew Sterrett for deserting his post at the first fire. More interesting still is the story of the _Insurgent_ during the three days after the battle. Lieut. John Rodgers and Midshipman David Porter, with eleven men, were sent on board to take charge, and supervise the transfer of prisoners. While yet 173 of the French crew remained in her the two ships were separated by a West India hurricane. These thirteen Americans were left to face the gale and 173 of the enemy. Worse yet, all the hatch gratings, hand-cuffs, and shackles had been thrown overboard after striking colors. But Rodgers and Porter were the men for the occasion. They drove the prisoners below the hatches and placed one resolute, well-armed man at each hatchway with orders to kill any one who strove to get out. With the others they worked the ship for three days and two nights. They did not sleep or rest during that time, but they brought the ship into St. Kitts, where the _Constellation_, with an anxious crew, awaited them. Still more to the honor of the flag was the fight between the _Constellation_ and the _Vengeance_ on Sunday night, February 2, 1800, for the Frenchman was in every way superior, and Captain Truxton compelled him to fight. It was after a long chase that the _Constellation_ drew up on the weather quarter of the enemy at a distance of fifty or sixty yards. The ship had already been cleared for action, and now the battle lanterns were lighted, the crew were ordered to preserve perfect silence, and Captain Truxton stepped to the lee rail and hailed. For a reply the enemy opened fire with such guns as he could bring to bear, and some of the shot struck home. But Truxton was not yet in a position to suit him, and the _Constellation_ forged ahead, with her crew standing in perfect silence at their stations, peering out at the red flash of the enemy’s guns in the night, and shrinking back as the shot came in and here and there knocked a man dead or struggling across the deck. The wounded were instantly borne below, while the quarter-masters sanded the blood, but no man spoke a word.