Up to this moment neither ship had fired a shot at the other, and both crews stood at their guns in perfect silence. Lawrence, “colossal in figure, with muscular power superior to most men,” paced his quarter-deck “fatally conspicuous by his full-dress uniform.” Broke, equally courageous and cool, stood upon his deck watching the Yankee. He had foreseen the manœuvre that Lawrence would make and had ordered William Windham, who commanded the fourteenth gun, counting from forward on the weather side of the _Shannon_, to fire as soon as he could see into the second of the ports on the lee-side of the _Chesapeake_. At precisely 5.50 P.M. Windham pulled the lanyard of his gun and the battle was on. The other guns of the _Shannon_ were fired in quick succession and the _Chesapeake_ replied with a full broadside. The _Chesapeake_ forged ahead slightly and was luffed still more. Her broadsides told with great effect, but the fire of the _Shannon_ was more rapid and had such a terrible effect that “the men in the _Shannon’s_ tops could hardly see the deck of the American frigate through the cloud of splinters, hammocks, and wreck that was flying across it.” As seen from above “the deck was covered with a mist of débris as the mist of spoondrift in a pelting gale.” Warmed by the heat of battle, Broke was shouting “Kill the men! Kill the men!” His well-trained sharp-shooters heard and obeyed. Three quarter-masters were shot from the _Chesapeake’s_ wheel in rapid succession, while Lawrence himself was struck in the leg by a musket-ball. But Lawrence merely rested his weight against the companionway and continued to direct the fight. First Lieutenant Ludlow was mortally wounded, and was carried below. The storm of grape and musket-balls was clearing the whole crew from the upper deck of the _Chesapeake_. Meantime, having luffed up to deaden her headway, the wind caught the _Chesapeake_ aback, and she began to drift astern with her lee quarter exposed to the broadside of the _Shannon_. The _Shannon’s_ fire was raking her. The brails of her spanker were shot away and the wind caught and spread that sail and so swung her stern still nearer to the _Shannon_. A hand-grenade thrown from the _Shannon_ landed in the _Chesapeake’s_ lee quarter-deck arm-chest, where it exploded the ammunition stored there. The flames spread in a huge flash through the splinters and dust, clear to the forecastle, filling the air with a cloud of smoke. The rigging of the _Chesapeake_ was badly cut. Her boatswain and sailing-master were dead. There was no one forward to see the orders of Captain Lawrence obeyed. The _Chesapeake_ was drifting stern on into the _Shannon_, and ten minutes after the fight began the two ships fouled. [Illustration: The _Chesapeake_ and _Shannon_.--After the first two broadsides from the latter. _From an engraving at the Navy Department, Washington._]