But this was a hopeless effort, because the _President_ had been crippled too badly on the bar to outsail the others. Moreover, he had lost several of his best officers. First Lieutenant Fitz-Henry Babbitt was standing near a hatch when a cannon-ball took off his right leg and he pitched head-first down the hatch. His leg was broken anew and his skull was fractured, yet he lived two hours and dictated messages to his friends before he died. Lieutenant Archibald Hamilton (son of the former Secretary of the Navy)--he who had carried the _Macedonian’s_ flag to Washington--was cut in two by another round shot as he stepped to speak to Second Lieutenant John Temple Shubrick. And then as the _Endymion’s_ fire slackened, Lieutenant Edward F. Howell was killed. He was leaning over the rail looking away at the dim outline of the _Endymion_ when he said to Midshipman Emmet: “Well, we’ve whipped that ship, at any rate.” Just then a single gun flashed from the frigate and he continued: “No, there she is----” But he never finished the sentence, for a grape-shot crashed through his brain killing him instantly. And that was the last gun fired from the _Endymion_. In turning to fly, Decatur squared away before the wind and set studding-sails just as a heavy mass of clouds obscured the moon. In doing so he turned the stern of the _President_ directly toward the _Endymion_, and he was so close to her that she might have raked him terribly. The fact that she did not fire a shot then proves that she could not. For two hours Decatur ran without seeing the enemy, but when the clouds cleared away (it was then 11 o’clock at night) he found both the _Pomone_ and the _Tenedos_ within point-blank range. “The _Pomone_ opened her fire on the port bow, within musket-shot, the other about two cables’ lengths astern, and the rest, with the exception of the _Endymion_, within gunshot. Thus situated, with about one-fifth of my crew killed and wounded, my ship crippled, and a more than fourfold force opposed to me, without a chance of escape, I deemed it my duty to surrender.” So wrote Decatur. He hauled down the flag after the first broadside of the _Pomone_. The officers of the _Pomone_ did not see that the flag was down and fired again, when Decatur shouted: “She means to sink us. To your quarters, my lads, and renew your fire!” But before they got their guns cast loose the _Tenedos_ ranged up on the other side and hailed: “What ship is that?” Decatur replied: “The American frigate _President_. We have surrendered.” The _Tenedos_ sent a boat and took possession, but Decatur gave his sword to Captain John Hayes, of the _Majestic_, that was soon alongside. Hayes, of course, returned it with the usual complimentary speech.