Thus the ships commanded the strongest of the enemy’s defences, while they were exposed to the weakest part of his fire.  The officers and men felt new confidence when they saw the power derived from the admirable disposition of their force.  All behaved most nobly; and it was not long before the state of the Algerine batteries gave proof that their courage was fully equalled by their skill.

In a few minutes, indeed before the battle had become general, the Queen Charlotte had ruined the fortifications on the Mole-head.  She then sprang her broadside towards the northward, to bear upon the batteries over the gate which leads to the Mole, and upon the upper works of the Lighthouse.  Her shot struck with the most fatal accuracy, crumbling the tower of the Lighthouse to ruins, and bringing down gun after gun from the batteries.  The last of these guns was dismounted just as the artillerymen were in the act of discharging it; when an Algerine chief was seen to spring upon the ruins of the parapet, and with impotent rage, to shake his scimitar against the ship.  Her men proved themselves as expert amidst the realities of war, as they had before shown themselves in exercise; and some of them were detected amusing themselves, in the wantonness of their skill, by firing at the Algerine flag-staffs.

Soon after the battle began, the enemy’s flotilla of gun-boats advanced, with a daring which deserved a better fate, to board the Queen Charlotte and Leander.  The smoke covered them at first, but as soon as they were seen, a few guns, chiefly from the Leander, sent thirty-three out of thirty-seven to the bottom.

At four o’clock, when a general and heavy fire had been maintained for more than an hour without producing any appearance of submission, Lord Exmouth determined to destroy the Algerine ships.  Accordingly, the Leander having first been ordered to cease firing, the flag-ship’s barge, directed by Lieutenant Peter Richards, with Major Gossett, of the Miners, Lieutenant Wolrige, of the Marines, and Mr. M’Clintock, a midshipman, boarded the nearest frigate, and fired her so effectually with the laboratory torches, and a carcass-shell placed on the main deck, that she was completely in flames almost before the barge’s crew were over her side.  The crew of a rocket-boat belonging to the Hebrus were prompted by a natural, but unfortunate ardour, to follow the barge, though forbidden; but the boat pulling heavily, she became exposed to a fire of musketry, which killed an officer and three men, and wounded several others.  Lord Exmouth stood watching the barge from the gangway, delighted with the gallantry and promptitude with which his orders were executed.  When the frigate burst into a flame, he telegraphed to the fleet the animating signal, “Infallible!” and as the barge was returning, he ordered those around him to welcome her alongside with three cheers.