persons, as doing the duty of the ship; and it has been satisfactorily proved that she had no less than 35 slain and 70 wounded: among the former were 3 lieutenants, and in the latter list we find the name of Commodore Decatur.
The principal damage sustained by the Endymion, was in her sails and rigging; the fore-top-mast being the only badly wounded spar. The President was completely riddled from stem to stern; several of her guns were disabled, and the senior officer’s official letter informs us that “she had six feet water in the hold, when taken possession of.” Rear-Admiral Henry Hotham, writing to Sir Alexander Cochrane, says:
“You will perceive by the reports Captain Hayes has delivered to me, the ardour displayed by Captain Hope, in the pursuit; the intrepidity with which he brought the enemy’s ship to close action; and the undaunted spirit with which the Endymion’s inferior force was singly employed for the space of two hours and a half; leaving honorable evidence of judgment in the position she was placed in, and of the destructive precision of her fire, in the sinking state of her antagonist, the heavy loss sustained by him, and his inability to make further resistance, when the Pomone arrived up with him; while the loss and damage sustained by the Endymion was comparatively small; and although the distinguished conduct of Captain Hope, his officers, and ship’s company, can derive no additional lustre from my commendation, I cannot withhold my tribute of applause.”
On the 17th Jan., in a violent storm, the Endymion lost her bowsprit and fore and main-masts; she was also obliged to throw overboard the whole of her carronades. In the same gale the President carried away all her lower masts; and, having several shot-holes between wind and water, not plugged up, was near foundering; the crew exhausted at the pumps, and the water gaining on them; the bowsprit remaining, keeping the ship off in the trough of the sea. In this perilous situation, the prize-master. Lieutenant William Thomas Morgan, veered out an “umbrella” with two hawsers an-end on it, from forward, which immediately had the effect of causing the ship to bow the sea, and enabled the crew, by great exertion of bailing and pumping, to keep her free. When the umbrella had been out 8 or 10 hours, the hawser parted; but the gale had then moderated, and the sea abated;
