At once the Yankees made sail in chase, with the _President_, the swiftest of the squadron when sailing free, well in the lead. By 11 o’clock the _President_ was near enough to warrant clearing for action, but a shift of wind helped the _Belvidera_ and she held her own until 2 P.M., when another shift favored the _President_, so that at 4.20 P.M. the Britisher with her colors flying was within range. Getting behind one of the long bow-chasers on the forecastle of the _President_, Commodore Rodgers carefully sighted it, and pulling the lanyard, fired the first shot of the war of 1812. It knocked the splinters out of the stern of the flying enemy. The second shot was fired from a bow-chaser on the deck below, and a third was fired on the forecastle. Each of these reached its target. One passed through the rudder-coat, and another, striking the muzzle of a stern-chaser, broke into pieces, which killed two men, severely wounded two more, and slightly wounded three others, including a lieutenant who was aiming the gun. [Illustration: Guns Secured for a Gale. _From the “Kedge Anchor.”_] Greatly elated at the accuracy of their fire, the men working the _President’s_ bow-chaser on the lower deck aimed a fourth shot. A boy with his leather box full of powder-cartridges arrived just as the gunner was pulling his lanyard, and then when the hammer fell the gun exploded and the flames from the splitting breech darted into the open box of powder, setting it off as well. The explosion knocked the men in all directions, disabled for the moment every one of the bow-chasers, and bursting up the deck above, it threw Commodore Rodgers so violently into the air that when he fell his leg was broken. Of the men standing about the gun two were killed and thirteen wounded. At that moment the _Belvidera_ opened an effective fire with her stern-chasers, and one of her projectiles came crashing into the _President’s_ bows, and went bounding along the gun-deck, killing a midshipman and wounding a number of seamen. For a time there was not a little confusion on the _President_, but her crew soon got to work again and began to make it warm on the _Belvidera_ once more. But the mistake of yawing to fire broadsides was made. That “a whole broadside battery will be much less likely to ‘disable a flying enemy’ than the cool and careful use of one well-served gun,” has been amply proven. The yawing gave the _Belvidera_ a gain in the race. That she would have waited for a fight with the _President_ but for the presence of the other ships is not doubted, but, as it was, Captain Byron saw that something desperate must be done to escape, so he threw over his spare anchors and boats and fourteen tons of water in casks. So lightened, he was able to outsail the Yankee squadron and escape.