 At 18 : 00 , with the rest of the pursuit far behind , Paulet succeeded in bringing Gloire within range of the cannon on his ship 's quarterdeck . Opening fire with these guns brought a response from Beens ' sternchaser guns , the frigates exchanging cannon shot for four and a half hours as Astraea slowly caught up with its elusive opponent . At 22 : 30 , Paulet was finally close enough to lay Astraea alongside Gloire and the two frigates exchanged fire at close range for the next 58 minutes , Paulet concentrating his gunnery on the hull of the French ship while Beens ' ordered his men to disable the British ship 's rigging and masts . Gloire was a substantially larger ship than Astraea , both in weight of shot and gross tonnage , and the battle was fiercely contested : Beens suffered a head injury and all three of Astraea 's topmasts taking serious damage , so much so that the main topmast collapsed in the aftermath of the action . However at 23 : 28 , with two British ships of the line visible in the distance , Beens surrendered his ship to Paulet . 
