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Content Enable editor Use plain text Code entry Dawn came, and the six schooners and two launches sailed out through the inlet.* The bilander was nowhere in sight.* The English frigate sat alone out there with no wind to lift its sails.* For some reason, the Spaniards waited until 8:30 to make their move.* Then, they boldly approached the frigate in order to board it.* By that time, it was ready for them.* It opened fire on them furiously.* Luckily, the Spanish schooners were just out of range.* They surrounded the frigate, and it shot at them from all sides except the rear.* The Spaniards sprayed grapeshot and cannonballs at the frigate from all sides.* The Spaniards kept trying to maneuver and approach its poop (rear upper deck), where no guns were pointed them.* The various companies cheered for their commanders to be the first to access the ship, chanting, “Let us board!” But the frigate’s captain would not have it.* The ship moved like it was determined to be master of the coastline and the inlet.* Its oarsmen took their time and frequently pulled away from the fight to prepare their next move.* Meanwhile, the Spanish oarsmen wore themselves out trying to chase the ship and retreat from its gunfire.* The cannon fire continued in a frenzy.* From close up, Spaniards were now counting thirty-some guns, with a seemingly endless supply of ammunition.* The crew was also much larger than expected, many of them wearing the red uniform of an enlisted English soldier.* Every time the Spaniards began a series of shots, the frigate turned its broadside at them, which was too thick for their ammunition to penetrate.* It also put the schooners in range of the frigate’s guns.* Captain Don Francisco de Castillo managed to rip a few shots through the poop, blasting off a gun port that was there.* Soon, the rear cabin and its furniture were reassembled as a barricade, and guns began firing from behind cabin doors, windows, and tables.* The frigate aimed fourteen shots at Castillo’s ship, and all fourteen of them missed.* After two solid hours of getting shot at with no luck and no surrender from the English, the Spanish captains were ready to go back to the harbor.* But the frigate blocked the inlet.* They used their oars as gauge and determined the wind was building from the east.* [Would this blow them straight into the frigate?] They turned their sails and rode the wind down to the Matanzas inlet.* It sounds like the schooners came back to St. Augustine up the Matanzas River.* They had no injury or damage, except one shot that didn’t make any difference.* But the two launches came back along the coast.* The English frigate tried furiously to block their way through the inlet, maneuvering and shooting cannons at the launches.* But the little boats were able to get closer to shore than the frigate could.* They got through unscathed.* That evening, the men were all excited to share their battle stories in town.* Montiano commended Fandino for the good leadership he displayed in coaching the men on an honorable retreat.* Castillo got praised for wreaking destruction on the frigate’s poop, and dodging fourteen cannon shots.* The men recalled the competition to be the first to board the ship.* Montiano’s own artillery men bragged to him about how well they performed, and the good shots they made.* In his mind, however, Montiano believed that if they had attacked at dawn like they said they were going to, they would have caught the frigate unprepared and it would have surrendered or sunk.* The highly competent naval commander he had asked for had not arrived.* In fact, he envied the commander of the English frigate.*

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