Storia do Mogor 346.1.3

346.1.3

The skipper, Hendrik Mondiger, had fought on for nearly one and a half hours against an overpowering force. Many of the Dutch were killed, including Gerrit Katt, the third mate, whose leg was shot off early in the fight when standing near Commissary Phoosen, who all through the fight stuck to his place on the upper deck. The master now reported the impossibility of holding out longer. The casualties had induced a slackening of effort among the crew, and it was impossible to guide them to fight their guns. The commissary himself saw that out of twelve men only two stood to their work. Two or three times Cornelis de Graaf jumped down and tried to drive the men back to duty. Things being in this state on board the Goude Vogel Phœnix as seen by the commissary and councillors themselves, the master, H. Becker, was pressed to say whether more could be done to save the ship from the enemy. His words were that to fight longer was mere stubbornness and obstinacy; the men would be butchered, and the end would be the same. The councillors expressed their agreement with the skipper.