At this Decatur wanted to take his place, but Somers refused and stood up and fired at the second man, using his wounded arm. Again he missed and again was himself struck, this time in the hip, the wound bleeding so profusely that Somers was soon too weak to stand. Nevertheless he insisted on having the third man come on. When the third man took his stand Somers was unable either to stand erect or to hold out a pistol steadily. So Decatur sat down on Somers’s left side, put his right arm around Somers’s body until he could help support the weight of Somers’s right arm, and in this position the word was given. At this shot Somers managed to wound his antagonist. The whole five were by this time so much impressed by the pluck and persistence of the young fellow that they made ample apology for having misjudged him. It is because of the spirit which Somers showed on this occasion that several writers of American history have expressed the belief that, on finding the ketch _Intrepid_ caught by the Tripolitans when he was taking her into the harbor, he did deliberately fire her magazine. He was of the nature that would rather die than fail. What a pity it was that he did not live to command a ship in the next war! Commodore Perry once stood up to face an antagonist, a Captain Heath, whom he had offended--but Perry and his second, Stephen Decatur, were agreed that Heath had had just cause of offence, and Perry refused to fire. The trouble was compromised after Heath had fired once. Last of all was the duel that ended Decatur’s life--unquestionably the most famous duel known to the annals of the navy, and one that created almost as much stir in the nation as that between Hamilton and Burr. Moreover, it is one that should not fade from memory, for the one reason, if for no other, that it came as a direct result of the attack of the British frigate _Leopard_ upon the American frigate _Chesapeake_, in time of peace, for the purpose of taking three impressed American seamen that had escaped from their slavery in the British navy.