The Drake, having approached within hail, spoke the Ranger, as a matter of form. The voices echoed clearly over the water in the still, sunny, spring afternoon, and it was plainly seen in the mellow light that Paul Jones, who stood by the sailing master’s side on the Ranger, dictated the reply, which was a cool defiance in these words:
“This is the Continental ship Ranger. We wait for you, and beg you will come on. The sun is but little more than an hour high, and it is time to begin.”
Scarcely were the words spoken, when the Ranger’s helm was ported, and, bringing her broadside to bear on the advancing ship, she roared out the first volley. The Drake answered it promptly, and in another moment the ships were running free, close together, under a light wind, and keeping up a furious cannonade.
On board the Ranger, Paul Jones walked the quarter-deck unharmed, amid a shower of musketry, which the Americans returned with interest. Captain Burden, of the Drake, showed an equal disregard of danger, but within half an hour of the firing of the first broadside he was mortally wounded by a musket shot in the head. The fire of the Ranger was much more effective than the Drake’s, and the damage done by her guns was terrific. The Drake’s fore and main topsail yards were completely shot away, the main topgallant mast and mizzen gaff hanging up and down the mast, her jib hanging over her lee into the water, her sails and rigging in rags, and she had been hulled repeatedly. Twice had her ensign been shot away, and twice the gallant British tars had hoisted it, but just as the sun was sinking, when the captain and first lieutenant of the Drake and forty of her officers and men lay killed or wounded upon her decks, the ensign was dragged down from the shattered spar to which it hung, and a cry for “Quarter! quarter!” resounded. Instantly the Americans ceased firing, and in another minute they had boarded the Drake and hoisted an American ensign upon what was left of the foremast. The sun was now going down, and the long spring twilight was upon them.
Paul Jones had seen Captain Burden fall, and his first inquiry was, “Does the captain still live?” He indeed breathed a few times, but in a little while all was over. The first lieutenant, who was mortally wounded, survived for two days.