“Her first shot passed through the starboard hammock netting, killing and wounding nine Marines and their Commander. . . The groans of these men the first to fall as they were carried below was something new to those crews as they stood at their guns, and an introduction to a scene of carnage unparallelled in the war . . .

The Captain of [the No. 1 gun], a splendid seaman named Kirker rated Commodore’s coxswain, had both arms taken off at the shoulder as he was holding his handspike and guiding the gun. He passed me as he was carried below but not a grown escaped from him. . . .”

—From Admiral Selfridge’s account