The casualties of the Cacafuego action seem light?
Does anyone else feel the casualties of the Cacafuego action seem to come out really light?
Is anyone better informed historically able to shed light on how this might actually make sense?
I understand the logic of how the Sophie's gunnery managed to inflict devastation on the Cacafuego before boarding, but I cannot wrap my head around how they can take so few casualties during the boarding action. Even with the ruse of striking the colours, there is quite a bit of time where the hand to hand combat in close quarters can lead to only 3 dead and 8 wounded.
I appreciate the historical inspiration had similar casualties, but that does not make it less puzzling.
Edit: thank you everyone for the amazing answers, I am pasting below the link u/super_jay shared of Cochrane (Jack Aubrey's historical inspiration) recounting the historical action that inspired the Cacafuego story below for easy reference to anyone coming across this thread in future:
https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/15393/page/949