About three o'clock
One by one the vessels anchored at various points opposite the fortifications , and soon a hundred and fifty guns were blazing away at the massive bastions and curtains , answered vigorously by Angria 's two hundred and fifty . Desmond was all excitement . The deafening roar of the guns , the huge columns of smoke that floated heavily over the fort , and sometimes enveloped the vessels , the bray of trumpets , the beating of tom toms , the shouts of men , set his blood tingling : and though he afterwards witnessed other stirring scenes , he never forgot the vivid impression of the fight at Gheria . About three o'clock a shell set fire to one of the Pirate 's grabs -- one that had formerly been taken by him from the Company . Leaving its moorings , it drifted among the main pirate fleet of grabs which still lay lashed together where Desmond had last seen them by the blaze of the burning gallivats . They were soon alight . The fire spread rapidly to the dockyard , caught the unfinished grabs on the stocks , and before long the whole of Angria 's shipping was a mass of flame .