one o'clock
It soon became apparent that we were gaining upon the brig -- weathering and fore-reaching upon her at the same time ; and as it was now broad daylight , I sent the men to quarters , hoisted our colours , and fired a shotted gun to windward as an invitation to her to heave-to ; but of this she took no notice whatever . By nine o'clock -- at which hour I took an observation of the sun for my longitude -- we had fore-reached upon the brig sufficiently to bring her a couple of points abaft our weather beam , and then , in accordance with the rule for chasing , we tacked again ; whereupon she did the same , thus bringing us right astern and slightly to windward of her . It was now a stern-chase , she being as nearly as possible seven miles ahead of us . The wind held steady , and hour after hour the two craft went plunging along at racing speed , the brigantine gaining steadily all the time , until by one o'clock the chase was within range , and we opened fire upon her with our long eighteen - pounder . Our shot flew close to her on either side , -- as we could see by the jets of water thrown up , -- but it was fully half an hour before we hit her , which we then did fair in the centre of her stern . She immediately shot into the wind , all aback , and it took them fully five minutes to box her off again , when -- seeing , I suppose , that they could not now possibly escape us -- her people clewed up her courses , hauled down topgallant sails and staysails , until they had reduced their canvas to what it had been when we first sighted her , hoisted French colours , and bore up for us . It was at this time that we first made out the upper canvas of another vessel just appearing above the horizon in the northern board , and evidently steering in our direction ; and upon sending aloft one of the midshipmen who were acting as my lieutenants , he reported her as a craft of apparently about our own size .