She was moored within half gunshot of the
bashaw's castle, and of the principal battery. Two of the enemy's
cruisers lay within two cables' length, on the starboard quarter, and
their gunboats within half gunshot, on the starboard bow. All the guns
of the frigate were mounted and loaded. Such were the immediate perils
that our hero ventured to encounter with a single ketch, beside the
other dangers that abound in a strongly fortified harbor.
Although from the entrance to the place where the frigate lay, was only
three miles, yet, in consequence of the lightness of the wind, they did
not get within hail of her until eleven o'clock. When they had
approached within two hundred yards, they were hailed and ordered to
anchor, or they would be fired into. Lieutenant Decatur ordered a
Maltese pilot, who was on board the ketch, to answer that they had lost
their anchors in a gale of wind on the coast, and, therefore, could not
comply with their request. By this time it had become perfectly calm,
and they were about fifty yards from the frigate.
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