[HE HEswaY t o f',' 1,\ i.1,. E ' l '.';lt.!i:?',; I "", ""', I I I, 1, 1,, I I P", a ,,;i ".,,,I,,, "',,, I, " 1,,, I,,, ", I, I1,,,, , j, ,,, ",;,,",, I, " * " :,, I,,; j , I; , II I 'i, I. I,, IIY,, : I " ':'7 I', ' "!" "","! I ",, 1, ,, "', 'L ", I,,!' , ' 'l UL 7 1, " I, I I I,,,, I I THE HISTORY OF1 OUJRNAVY:',.,,.,!:' ':.. ',; ''p)'5)!r., ',: ' ^^1^^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~i, 4?; <",i;. ',,. 0,,,,,,<4 1.t |B~~~~~~~~i:SlgM ^ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1~ i'': '' i? x: ^ i j i s, a X ' i -S 1 N '.,,:^ I i * S liX il~' l l y 1 (,i:l (. i,, {s..i, o; l 's'5: ] h,,! Ff Di.*'\,:t!; k,'; I) SCRIBSNERS. i':;,.. JIM m~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~. r~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~VRr -7 ----.. -T.E - MICHW -Vt — V., I THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY I B ~~il~a i,,,,,,,,~iil ~i~o;:a: s~LSUi ".";"" er;,gl:,8 '""~l""irriii' ;i ~:';";;,~,::', li~ ~ ll"r" ~l~,li l I ~~sIF, li x,,sn ~. ~~~~ ~, '.'."~.~~~il t~l.I:iiriUBPrar:;r ilr:l?;asr_lr~s~;~;~~;~,r: ~;II~rii, ~r,~rii:?i;I;;,,,,,,,;;I,;I;,; i,l".""'"""'l.I'~"i~r~~~;ilorii ";5i ~rns lir~~inr;;;;;,,., i iii:.'ii~i.l;iiiiii~; ~!!-!~!!! ~i ~r; ~""i;lE~l;s;i I~ijlll'rE 1:,j111118 g _Insn,,rr-~ia rirriri l""'x'ii i$[B""' " Illli;Eli iiiu l~iEl"iir~r;~~r, CBia .~~~~llq,II,.: i:'I:iiiiii' s ix~""'i""""l"''''''",:~;ll;;:r ~""~""1El~~l:l:i Ilrirui ~X" li~~~~ i~r~r "Sx-~C'~L-d ~,r,,~r, ixa,n;1U~ll"a ri~isia~a Illliiill laii,~~~, ii8sgsl8iS ~snrsi;~~i:~rri s ~;I~;~;s~I~~15i:: I~bix;"U% rii~a,~aii, 1- riiiinYI: ~isi~,?I,~, 5 S6LI ~~irlr lii , ~:r;ininr i,..iili,?,, arar~,rnri:~,~, i"ll crrr ilEI i-ir '"'""';I~' 8:rp~;:::aa s 1151il: C?,,3,f"liTj -~:~~~ ~I;ir;il;i;i iili1";"?61i001aI;;i;;;;.:,~,~i~i~.ii;"~~~ ~u;i;Enll~8liiB;laPtr~iiris si;~n:Silil .~IIIIIS;g8i:pgiIBliPli-ni;i~~-xr I~ra.~~ ~~i~-.~~~~,r'"'""pxi;llili il~i?C~i~.U~iiri,sl; ' (i.S...I*XIi ~uali rCX~ " i~i~~i~~ r-u~,~-,,~.;ii ll":!"L'":9ii -r""' illl~u~ "'-1";'"" "'l1Ci;8;,El"'"''"""~""~',Wruii~i;i c?;~~n,;i~rl, ~lrn~~x:;;WliEii ~,,~Csni~;;~jj9~i Xi.r ribg -rr ~I"ii~BI"P'":EIi8 "ii i`l;I rrrr RBI r srn ir~ JB lilil, Jij I B zp,, ~is I THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY FROM ITS ORIGIN TO THE END OF THE WAR WITH SPAIN 1775-1898 BY < JOHN R/'SPEARS AUTHOR OF "THE PORT OF MISSING SIIIPS." TIHE GOLD DIGGINGS OF CAPE HORN," ETC. WITH MORE THAN FIVE HUNDRED ILLUSTRATIONS MAPS AND DIAGRAMS * ~ IN FIVE VOLUMES NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS I902 COPYRIGHT, 1897, I898, BY CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS: a ~ e * * * * TO ALL WHO WOULD SEEK PEACE AND PURSUE IT I I I \tt.. c t\ (o- t-S-3 PREFACE TO REVISED EDITION THIS work is to tell the story of the American navy from the time when the fathers of the nation first conceived the idea of sending war-ships to sea "at the expense of the Continent" down to and including the unparalleled deeds of this year of our Lord i898. It seems to me that the memory of what the naval heroes of the nation have done is worth preserving, if only as a mark of gratitude-gratitude to the men whose sole incentive was patriotism, and whose only greed was for a good name. Perhaps to tell anew the story of these men who had a noble ambition may serve to strengthen noble ambitions in the hearts of others. But if that appeal does not secure the attention of the reader, let me say that self-interest demands that he heed the lessons in the story of the navy. Naturally the descriptions of our naval conflicts fill these volumes. I have endeavored first to be technically accurate, and next to portray the events so that readers who never saw a ship may comprehend them. I have taken every printed source of information that I could reach in the time allowed for the work. Wherever other writers have been quoted credit is given them in the vii Viii PREFACE course of the narrative. Recourse has been had to many periodicals, beginning with the annual summaries of events, printed at the time of the Revolution, and ending with such as Scribner's, the Century, Harper's, the Army and Navy Journal, Army and Navy Register, Scientific American, and, in a few cases relating to the Spanish war, to daily newspapers. As to the dailies I feel obliged to explain that I was myself a reporter employed on the Cuban coast in the early part of the war, and that I have a personal knowledge of all the writers whose reports I have quoted, which enables me to say they are absolutely trustworthy. If there are errors in this work they are due to blunders, and not to a lack of sources of information. But unless I have labored in vain, the reader shall find here something more than a mere record of sea-fights. Brief-perhaps too brief-space has been given to other features of our naval history; yet I hope the reader will see how our standing as a factor in the civilizing influences of the world may be estimated by our Sea Power, to use Mahan's adaptation of Ruskin's words. It may seem a bold assertion to make, but the truth is that just as the building of our frigates gave us freedom on the high seas at the beginning of the century, so now at the end of it we have, out of the building of our White Squadron, achieved commercial independence. Because of the manufacturing activity begun when we stretched the keels of the Chicago, the Atlanta, and the Boston, a day has come when we build ships for other nations, and a Secretary of the Treasury has thrilled the nation with the announcement that the com PREFACE ix mercial transactions of our metropolis have at last exceeded those of any other city of the world. But even that is not all, for out of our latest wars have grown bonds of brotherhood and peace that have not only united our own States, but they stretch around the world. Paradoxical as it may seem, the animosities developed by the competitions of peaceful trade may be, and have been, smothered by the smoke of battle. I hope I have shown that in a way every naval war in which we have engaged was a surgical operation-was necessary in spite of the unavoidable shedding of blood-and that it behooves us to keep at hand the very best instruments known to the science. For permanent peace shall not come until there is perfect health in the heart of man. J. R. S. December I, 1898. CONTENTS PAGE CHAPTER I. ORIGIN OF THE AMERICAN NAVY. I The Curious Chain of Events that Led to the Creation of a National Sea Power-The Gasp' Captured by Men Armed with Paving-stones — Tea Destroyed in Boston-The Battle of Lexington and the Attack of the Machias Haymakers on the Margaretta-British Vengeance on Defenceless Portland and its Effect on the Continental CongressThe " Colonial Navy" Distinguished from the Temporary CruisersTThe First Officers and the First Ships of the American Navy-John Paul Jones and the First Naval Ensign-The Significant " Don't Tread on me "-Putting the First American Naval Ships in Commission. CHAPTER II. FIRST CRUISE OF THE YANKEE SQUADRON..48 A Fairly Successful Raid on New Providence, but they Let a British Sloop-of-war Escape-Character of the First Naval Commander-in-chief and of the Material with which he had to WorkEsek Hopkins, and his Record as Commander. of the Fleet-?-rews Untrained and Devoid of Esprit de Corps-'tobd Courage, but a Woeful Lack of other Needed Qualities-Hopkins Dismissed for Disobedience of Orders. CHAPTER III. ALONG SHORE IN 1776...63 t"Brilliant Deeds by the First Heroes of the American Navy-Why Nicholas Biddle Entered Port with but Five of the Original Crew of the Andrea Doria-Richard Dale on the sleek Lexington-The Racehorse Captured in an even Fight-Captain Lambert Wickes in the Reprisal Beats off a Large Vessel-John Paul Jones in his Earlier Commands-A Smart Race with the Frigate Solebay-Sixteen Prizes in Forty-seven Days in Cape Breton Region-Poking Fun at the Frigate Milford —The Valuable AMellish-An Able Fighter who LaVcke Political Influnce. Xii CONTENTS PAGE CHAPTER IV. HE SAW "THE COUNTENANCE OF THE ENEMY...... 84,'The Story of Arnold's Extraordinary Fight against Overwhelming Odds on Lake Champlain-A Thousand Sailors, of whom Seventenths were Picked Men, Armed with the Heaviest Guns, were Pitted under a Courageous Leader against 700 Yankees, chiefly Haymakers, Poorly Armed, and with Insufficient Ammunition-Savages with Scalping Knives Aided the British-A Desperate Struggle at the End-.The Best All-around Fighter under Washington. CHAPTER V. UNDER THE CRAGS OF THE "TIGHT LITTLE ISLE"...... 12 The Saucy Yankee Cruisers in British Waters-When Franklin Sailed for France-Wickes in the Reprisal on the Irish CoastNarrow Escape from a Liner —t Plucky English Lieutenant-Harsh Fate of the Americans in the British Prison-Starved by Act of Parliament-Deeds of the Gallant Connyngham-Well-named Cruisers -A Surprise at a Breakfast Table-Taking Prizes Daily-Why Forty French Ships Loaded in the Thames-Insurahce Rates never before Known. CHAPTER VI. JOHN PAUL JONES AND THE RA NGER....... 3 The First Ship that Carried the Stars and Stripes-Dash at a Convoy that Failed-When the Dutch were Browbeaten-The Ranger Sent on a Cruise in English Waters-A Ship Taken off Dublin-The Raid on Whitehaven-When one Brave Man Cowed. more than a Thousand-The WholeTruth about Lord,Selkirk's Silverware, with the Noble Lord's Expression of Gratitude when he Got it BackHow Captain Jones Missed the Drake at First, but Got her Later op. in a Fair and Well-fought Battle. CHAPTER VII. THE FIRST SUBMARINE WARSHIP. 157 It was Small and Ineffective, but it Contained the Germ of a Mighty Power that is as yet Undeveloped-When Nicholas Biddle Died-He was a Man of the Spirit of an Ideal American Naval Officer-Fought the Ship against Overwhelming Odds till Blown'out of the Water-The Loss of the Hancock-An American Captain Dismissed for a Good Reason-Captain Rathburne at New Providence -Loss of the Virginia-Captain Barry's Notable Exploit-With CONTENTS xiii Twenty-seven Men to Help him, he Captured a Schooner of Ten Guns by Boarding from Small Boats in Broad Daylight, although the Schooner was Manned by II6 Sailors and Soldiers. PAGE CHAPTER VIII. PRIVATEERS OF THE REVOLUTION 196 A Tale of the American Patriots who Went Afloat outside of the Regular Navy-Their Part in Driving the British from BostonRemarkable Work of the Lee-Truxton as a Privateer-Daring Capt. John Foster Williams-When Capt. Daniel Waters, with the Thorn of Sixteen Guns, Whipped Two Ships that Carried Thirty-four Guns between them-Great was Joshua Barney-The Story of the most Famous State Cruisers of the Revolution-Won against Greater Odds than were Encountered by any Successful Sea Captain of the WarBritish Account of the Work of American Privateers-The Horrors of the Jersey Prison Ship. CHAPTER IX. JOHN PAUL JONES AND THE BONHOMME RICHARD.... 227 A Condemned Indiaman, Ill-shaped and Rotten, Fitted as a Mano'-war-A Disheartening Cruise with Incapable and Mutinous Associates-Attempt to Take Leith, and the Scotch Parson's PrayerMeeting the Serapis-When John Paul Jones had "not yet Begun to Fight"; when he had " Got her now "; when he would not " Surrender to a Drop of Water "-Ready Wit of Richard Dale-Work of a Bright Marine-A Battle Won by Sheer Pluck and Persistence. CHAPTER X. AFTER THE SERAPIS SURRENDERED 260 Richard Dale too Bright for the British Lieutenant-A Fair Estimate of Captain Pearson of the Serapis-The Treachery of Landais-Remarkable Escape from Texel-Honors for the Victor"The Fame of the Brave Outlives him; his Portion is Immortality." CHAPTER XI. THE YEAR I779 IN AMERICAN WATERS........ 280 Lucky Raids of British Transports and Merchantmen-Disastrous Expedition to the Penobscot-The Trumbull's Good Fight with the Watt-The First Yankee Line-of-battle-ship-When Nicholson;, with a Wrecked Ship and Fifty Men, Fought for an Hour against Two Frigates, each of which was Superior to the Yankee Ship-Captain Barry's Exasperating Predicament in a Calm-The Last Naval ]3attle of the Revolution. xiv CONTENTS PAGE CHAPTER XII. BUILDING A NEW NAVY. 303 When England, in her Efforts to Wrest Commerce from the Americans, Incited the Pirates of Africa to Activity, she Compelled the Building of the Fleet that was, in the End, to Bring her Humility of which she had never Dreamed-Deeds of the Barbary CorsairsAmerican Naval Policy as Laid down by Joshua Humphreys-The Wonderful New Frigates-Troubles with the French Cruisers on the American Coasts-Trick of a Yankee Captain to Save a Ship-A Midshipman who Died at his Post-Capture of the Insurgent-A Long Watch over the French Prisoners-Escape of a Twice-beaten Ship —The Valiant Senez-Story of Isaac Hull and the Lucky Enterprise. CHAPTER XIII. WAR WITH BARBARY PIRATES. 333 A Squadron under Richard Dale Sent to the Mediterranean-The Dey of Algiers became Friendly, but the Bashaw of Tripoli Showed Fight-Fierce Battle between the Schooner LEnterprise and the Treacherous Crew of the Polacre Trzipoli-Slaughter of the PiratesTripoli Blockaded-Grounding and Loss of the Philadelephia. CHAPTER XIV. DECATUR AND THE PHILADELPHIA 345 Story of the Brave Men who Disguised a Ketch as a Merchantman and Sailed into the Harbor of Tripoli by Night, Drew up alongside the Captured Philadeephia, and then, to the Order " Boarders Away! " Climbed over the Rail and through the Ports, and with Cutlass and Pike Drove the Pirates into the Sea or to a Worse Fate" The most Bold and Daring Act of the Age." CHAPTER XV. HAND-TO-HAND WITH THE PIRATES 359 A Fight against Odds of Three Gunboats to One-Decatur and Macdonough Leading the Boarders-Cold-blooded Murder and the Vengeance that Followed-When Reuben James Won Fame-Eleven against Forty-three in a Hand-to-hand Struggle, and the Remarkable Result-The Handy Constitution-Fired their Gun as the Boat Sank under them-When Somers and his Mates Went to their Death in a Fireship-End of the War with the Pirates. CHAPTER XVI. WHY WE FOUGHT IN ISIz.. 383 A Stirring Tale of the Outrages Perpetrated on American Citizens by the Press-gangs of the British Navy-Horrors of Life on Ships CONTENTS xv where the Officers Found Pleasure in the Use of the Cat-Doomed to Slavery for Life-Impressed from the Baltimore-A British Seaman's Joke and its Ghastly Result-The British Admiralty's Way of Dealing with Deliberate Murder in American Waters-Assault of the Leopard on the Chesapeake to Compel American Seamen to Return to the Slavery they had Escaped-Building Harbor-defence Boats to Protect American Seamen from Outrage on the High Seas-Other Good Reasons for Going to War. PAGE APPENDIX...... 415 I II LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE JOHN PAUL JONES. (From a mezzotint of the painting by Notte), Frontispiece AN EARLY AMERICAN FLOATING BATTERY,... I' COMMODORE ESEK HOPKINS. (From a French engraving of the portrait by Wilkinson),... 3 THE FIRST NAVAL FLAGS,....... 4 DESTRUCTION OF THE SCHOONER GASPA, 1772. (From an engraving by Rogers of the painting by McNevin),.. 7 THE STATE HOUSE AT NEWPORT, SHOWING THE GASP!. AFFAIR. (From an engraving in Hinton's ' History of the United States "),... 10 THE " BOSTON TEA-PARTY." (From an old engraving), I13 A BRITISH ARMED SLOOP. (From a very rare engraving, showing the first lighthouse erected in the United Stateson Little Brewster Island, Boston Harbor),.. 19 A BRIG OF WAR LOWERING A BOAT. (From a picture drawn and engraved by Baugean),... 29 THE ADMIRALTY SEAL,.. 33 THE FOUNDERS OF THE AMERICAN NAVY. (Drawn by I. W. Taber-the portraits from engravings),.. 37 VESSEL OF WAR SALUTING, WITH THE YARDS MANNED. (From an old French engraving),.. 40 FACSIMILE OF A LETTER FROM ABRAHAM WHIPPLE TO GENERAL LINCOLN DURING THE SIEGE OF CHARLESTON. (From the original-at the Lenox Library),.. 42 NICHOLAS BIDDLE. (From an engraving by Edwin),.. 45 A FRIGATE CHASING A SMALL BOAT. (From an old French engraving),.... 48 A LETTER FROM ESEK HOPKINS. (From the original at the Lenox Library),........ 50 A CORVETTE. (From an old French engraving),... 52 xviii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE COMMODORE ESEK HOPKINS. (From a very rare English engraving),. 55 AN ENGLISH "SEVENTY-FOUR" AND A FRIGATE COMING TO ANCHOR. (From an old engraving),.... 59 JOHN BARRY. (From an engraving of the portrait by Chappel), 65 FACSIMILE OF ACCOUNT BETWEEN DUDLEY SALTONSTALL AND ELISHA HINMAN. (From the original at the Lenox Library), 67 ST. PIERRE, MARTINIQUE. (From an old engraving),. 70 JOHN PAUL JONES. (From an engraving by Longacre of the portrait by C. W. Peale),......75 BURLINGTON BAY ON LAKE CI-AMPLAIN. (From an old engraving in the collection of Mr. W. C. Crane), facing. 84 SIR GUY CARLETON. (From an engraving by A. H. Ritchie), 86 GEN. BENEDICT ARNOLD. (Drawn from life at Philadelphia by Du Simitier),... 88 TIHE ROYAL SAVAGE. (After an old painting),... 90 THE BATTLE OF LAKE CIAMPLAIN,.... 92 PLAN OF THE ACTION OF OCTOBER II, 1776,... 93 MAP OF THE FIGHT ON LAKE CHAMPLAIN, 1776,... 94 THE FIGHT ON LAKE CHAMPLAIN, OCTOBER 13, 1776. (From a contemporary English engraving),... 97 A VIEW ON LAKE CHAMPLAIN, SHOWING THE FIGHT OF 1776. (From Hinton's " History of the United States "),.. Io BROADSIDE DESCRIBING THE ENGAGEMENT ON LAKE CHAMPLAIN. (From a copy at the Lenox Library),.. o16-ro9 THE PHOENIX AND THE ROSE ENGAGING THE FIRE-SHIPS ON THE HUDSON RIVER. (From a lithograph of the painting by Serres after a sketch by Sir James Wallace),.. 115 JOHN BAZELEY. (From an engraving by Ridley of a miniature by Langdon)...... 20 JOHN PAUL JONES'S COMMISSION,.... 36 MAP OF THE BRITISH ISLES. (Showing Captain Jones's two voyages and the route of the Reprisal)... 39 AN ENGLISH CARICATURE OF JOHN PAUL JONES. (Published in London, October 22, 1779),..... 43 "PAUL JONES THE PIRATE." (From an old engraving in the collection of Mr. W. C. Crane),... 49 MAP OF THE AMERICAN COAST,.... 6 SIGNATURES OF JOHN MANLY AND HECTOR MCNEIL,.. i8I FACSIMILE OF A LETTER FROM THOMAS TH-OMPSON TO CAPTAIN MCNEIL. (From the original at the Lenox Library), 183-4 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xix PAGE A TYPICAL NASSAU FORT-FORT FINCASTLE. (From a photograph by Rau),... 187 AN ENGLISH FRIGATE OF FORTY GUNS. (From an engraving by Verico),.... 191 "A PROCLAMATION." (From the copy at the Lenox Library), 198 "AN ORDINANCE ASCERTAINING WHAT CAPTURES ON WATER SHALL BE LAWFUL." (From the copy at the Lenox Library),.......... 202 ALEXANDER MURRAY. (From an engraving by Edwin of the painting by Wood),. 208 JOSHUA BARNEY. (From an engraving by Gross after a miniature by Isabey),........ 210 FIGHT OF THE HYDER AL! WITH THE GENERAL MAONK, 1782. (From a painting by Crepin at the Naval Academy, Annapolis), 213 A RELIC OF Two REVOLUTIONARY CAPTAINS-BILL OF LADING FOR JOHN BARRY SIGNED BY JOSHUA BARNEY. (From the original at the Lenox Library),.... 26 ' THE HOWES ASLEEP IN PHILADELPHIA "-A CARICATURE DRAWN FORTH BY THE DOINGS OF REVOLUTIONARY PRIVATEERS,...... 219 THE BRITISH PRISON SHIP 7ERSEY. (From an old woodcut),........ 221 A PERMIT TO VISIT ONE OF THE PRISON SHIPS. (From the original at the Lenox Library),.. 223 MAP OF THE WALE BOGT AND ITS VICINITY,... 225 A RELIC OF THE PRISON SHIPS: ENTRANCE TO THE VAULT OF THE MARTYRS. (From an old wood-cut),.. 226 RICHARD DALE. (From an engraving by Dodson after the portrait by Wood),........ 231 PIERRE LANDAIS. (From a copy, at the Lenox Library, of a miniature),..... 236 LEITH PIER AND HARBOR. (From an old engraving),.. 239 JOHN PAUL JONES. (From an engraving by Guttenberg, after a drawing by Notte, in the collection of Mr. W. C. Crane), 242 THE ENGAGEMENT BETWEEN THE B'ONHOAME RICHARD and SERAPIS. (From an engraving by Hamilton of a drawing by Collier),..... 246 DIAGRAM OF THE SERAPIS-BONHOMME RICHARD BATTLE,. 249 THE SERAPIS AND THE BONHOMAME RICHARD. (From an engraving by Lerpiniere.after a drawing by Fitler),., 252 xx LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE PAUL JONES CAPTURING THE SERAPIS. (From an engraving of the picture by Chappel),.. 258 CAPT. SIR RICHARD PEARSON. (From an engraving by Cook).......... 261 JOHN PAUL JONES. (After a rare engraving),. 263 SIGNATURE OF RICHARD DALE. (From a letter at the Lenox Library),.. 266 A LETTER FROM PIERRE LANDAIS. (From the original at the Lenox Library),... 268 JOHN PAUL JONES. (From a miniature recently found [I897] in a cellar at the Naval Academy),.. 269 JOHN PAUL JONES (IN COCKED HAT). (From a very rare engraving at the Navy Department, Washington),.. 271 JOHN PAUL JONES. (From an engraving by Chapman in the collection of Mr. W. C. Crane),... 273 JOHN PAUL JONES'S MEDAL,... 276 JOHN PAUL JONES AND THE SERAPIS FIGHT. (From an engraving in the collection of Mr. W. C. Crane),... 278 A LETTER FROM JOHN PAUL JONES TO THOMAS JEFFERSON. (From the original at the Lenox Library),.. 279 SIGNATURE OF HOYSTED HACKER. (From a letter at the Lenox Library),..... 283 SIR GEORGE COLLIER'S VICTORY IN PENOBSCOT BAY, I779. (From a very rare engraving at the Lenox Library),.. 285 MAP OF THE ATTACK ON THE PENOBSCOT FORT. (From a contemporary map at the Lenox Library),... 288-9 SIGNATURE OF SAMUEL NICHOLSON. (From a letter at the Lenox Library),... 290 JAMES NICHOLSON. (After a miniature in the possession of Miss Josephine L. Stevens),. 296 AN OLD NAVAL ORDER. (From the original at the Lenox Library),.......... 30 A MEDITERRANEAN CORSAIR ANCHORING. (From a picture drawn and engraved by Baugean),.. 306 JOHN BARRY'S COMMISSION AS COMMANDER OF THE UNITED STATES. (From the original at the Naval Academy, Annapolis),.... 313 A FRENCH VESSEL OF 118 GUNS, A CENTURY AGO. (From an engraving by Canali),... 318 DIAGRAM OF THE INSURGENT-CONSTELLATIOr BATTLE,. 321 A FRENCH VESSEL OF I02 GUNS. (From an engraving by Orio), 322 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xxi. PAGE MEDAL AWARDED TO THOMAS TRUXTON,. 325 PORTRAIT OF TRUXTON AND PRESIDENT ADAMS'S LETTER TO HIM. (From a lithograph at the Naval Academy, Annapolis),.......... 326 TRUXTON'S MEDAL AND THE CONGRESSIONAL RESOLUTION AWARDING IT TO HIM,.... 327 THE SALLY ATTACKED BY A SEA-SERPENT OFF THE SHORE OF LONG ISLAND. (From a French engraving),. 331 A FRENCH CUTTER OF I6 GUNS. (From an engraving by Merlo), 332 BENJAMIN STODDERT. (From a painting at the Navy Department, Washington),.... 334 "CAPTAIN STERRETT IN THE ENTERPRISE, PAYING TRIBUTE TO TRIPOLI." (From an old wood-cut),. 337 A SCHOONER-OF-WAR, LIKE THE ENTERPRISE. (From a woodcut in the " Kedge Anchor "),... 339 MAP OF THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA,.. 340 WILLIAM BAINBRIDGE. (From an engraving by Edwin),. 34I STEPHEN DECATUR. (From an engraving by Osborn of the portrait by White),.......347 BURNING OF THE FRIGATE PHILADELPHIA BY DECATUR. (From an old wood-cut),.......352 THE BLOWING UP OF THE FRIGATE PHILADELPHIA. (From an engraving in Waldo's " Decatur"),... 355 A PIECE OF THE PHILADELPHIA'S STERN. (From the original piece at the Naval Institute, Annapolis),... 358 EDWARD PREBLE. (From an engraving by Kelly of the picture in Faneuil Hall, Boston),.... 360 DECATUR AVENGING THE MURDER OF HIS BROTHER. (From an engraving in Waldo's "Decatur"',... 363 REUBEN JAMES SAVING DECATUR'S LIFE. (From an engraving of the picture by Chappel),... 365 JOHN TRIPPE. (After a French engraving),.. 367 THE BATTLE OF TRIPOLI, AUGUST 3, I804. (From the painting by Corne, I805, at the Naval Academy, Annapolis),.... 369 MAP OF THE HARBOR OF TRIPOLI,.. 372 THE EXPLOSION OF THE INTREPID. (From an old engraving), 375 PREBLE'S MEDAL,......... 379 "THE PRESS-GANG IMPRESSING A YOUNG WATERMAN ON HIS MARRIAGE DAY." (From an English engraving, illustrating an old song),,,. 86 xxii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE ANOTHER VIEW OF THE "YOUNG WATERMAN" AND THE PRESS-GANG. '(From an English engraving),.. 388 A FLOGGING SCENE. (" The Point of Honor." A sailor about to be flogged is saved by a comrade's confession.) (From a drawing by George Cruikshank),...... 39I THE UNITED STATES FRIGATE ESSEX. (From a lithograph at the Naval Academy, Annapolis),..... 393 CAPT. HENRY WHITBY, R. N. (From an engraving by Page), 405 CAPT. SALUSBURY PRYCE HUMPHREYS, R. N. (From an English engraving),........411 TAKING DESERTERS FROM THE C'HESAPEAKE,.. 413 1111 HIS1TOR(Y OF7 OUR NAVY 111 Ig IJI CIN I) A I I I uw T VIE N A ItII I A IN I. LIC IE Mi d >1 I. I Illi CHINONIi I I ERC~ NILi CRAY I~l HI MD E iE t VIA )IAItI ClNMNI 1>1k>. i \ A 31IIUMSAE 'PHICFLIM SIMS >195 E 2 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY compelled the establishment of this branch of the public service, nor is there any part of the nation's story as a xvhole that so stirs the patriotic pride of the American people as that which tells of the deeds of the heroes whose names have been inscribed upon the American naval registers. It is a grateful task to recount once more how it was that an American navy was demanded for the preservation of American liberties, and what has been accomplished by that navy since the day when Commodore Esek Hopkins received his commission, and then stood by on the deck of his flagship while John Paul Jones flung to the breeze the broad folds of the flag that bore as a symbol the picture of a rattlesnake coiled to strike, with the significant and appropriate motto, " DON T TREAD ON ME." The salt-water Lexington, that is to say, the first fight afloat of the Revolutionary war, occurred on the night of June 17, 1772, in the waters of Rhode Island, and the fact that it was in Rhode Island will be recalled later on. The war of Great Britain against France for dominion in America, " though crowned with success, had engendered a progeny of discontents in her colonies." "Her policy toward them from the beginning had been purely ill~ a:,, GififbM6Eg ffffn DO WM iogigm opmi &mmr 4 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY commercial." And that is to say that the English, even in their dealings with their own colonies, were animated solely by greed. The stamp act; the levy7l I!~ ~ ing of taxes on intercolonial commerce; the imposition of duties on glass, pasteboard, painters' colors, and tea, "to be collected -on the arrival of the articles The First Naval Flags. in the colonies " worse yet, the "empowering of naval officers to enforce the acts of trade and navigation," grew out of "the spirit of trade which always aims to get the best of the bargain," regardless of right. It was through this empowering of naval officers to enforce the acts of trade and navigation that the first sea-fight of the Revolution occurred. A vessel of war-presumably a ship-had been stationed in the waters of Rhode Island, with a schooner of I02 tons burden, called the Gaspe, armed with six threepounders, to serve as a tender. The Gasfie was under the command of Lieut. William Duddingstone. Duddingstone was particularly offensive in his treatment of the coasting vessels, every one of which was, in his THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 5 view, a smuggler. He had a crew of twentyseven men. On June I7, 1772, a Providence packet, named the Hannah and commanded by Captain Linzee, came in sight of these two warvessels while she was on her regular passage from New York to Providence. As the Hannah ranged up near the war-vessels she was ordered to heave to in order that her papers might be examined, but Captain Linzee being favored by a smart southerly wind that was rapidly carrying him out of range of the manof-war guns, held fast on his course. At this the schooner Gasje was ordered to follow and bring back the offending sloop, and with all sail drawing, she obeyed the order. For a matter of twenty-five miles that was as eager and as even a race -as any sailorman would care to see, but when that length of course had been sailed over, the racers found themselves close up at the Providence bar. The Yankee knew his ground as well as he knew the deck of his sloop, but the captain of the Gas/i was unfamiliar with it. A few minutes later the shoal-draft Hannah was crossing the bar at a point where she could barely scrape over, and the deeper-draft Gaspt, in trying to follow at full speed, was grounded hard and fast. To make matters still worse for the Gaspe, 6 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY the tide had just begun to run ebb; not for many hours could her crew hope to float her. Leaving the stranded schooner to heel with the falling tide, Captain Linzee drove on with the wind to Providence, where he landed at the wharf and spread the story of his trouble with the coast guard. Had it happened in the days before the French war, or before the persistent efforts of the British ministry to levy unjust taxes on the colonies had roused such intense opposition in New England, this affair would have been considered as a good joke on a revenue cutter, and that would have been the end of it so far as the people of Providence were concerned. Now, however, the matter was taken in a most serious light. As the sun went down, the town drummer appeared on the streets, and with the long roll and tattoo by which public meetings were called he gathered the men of the town under a horse-shed that stood near one of the larger stores overlooking the water. While yet the people were coming to the rendezvous, a man disguised as an Indian appeared on the roof and invited all "stout hearts " to meet him on the wharf at nine o'clock, disguised as he was. As one may readily believe, nearly every man of Providence came to the pier at the ~i~~~~E ~~5 9~~-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~I iiiiiiiii i~~ r~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ii~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ii ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ iiiiiii~i~iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii i ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii~iiiiii ~rr, ~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~ K, I THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 0 appointed hour. From this crowd sixty-four men were selected. They chose as their commander, so tradition asserts, Abraham Whipple, who, later on, became one of the first-made captains of the American navy, and then all embarked in eight long-boats gathered from the different vessels lying at the wharves, and pulled away for the Gasfe. That was a most remarkable expedition in the matter of armament, for, although there were a few firearms in the boats, the crews depended for the most part on a liberal supply of round paving-stones that they carried for weapons of offense. It was at two o'clock in the morning when this galley-fleet arrived in sight of the stranded Gaspt. The tide had turned by this time, and the schooner had begun to right herself somewhat. A sentinel, pacing to and fro with some difficulty, saw the approaching boats and hailed them. A shower of paving-stones was the most effective if not the only reply he received, and he tumbled down below precipitately. The rattle and crash of the pavingstones on the deck routed the crew from their berths, and, running hastily on deck, the captain of the Gaspe' fired a pistol point-blank at his assailants. At that a single musket was fired from the boats, by whom will never be told, and the MM.................................. THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 11 II The indignation of the British officials over this assault on a naval vessel was so great that a reward of 1,000ooo was offered for the leader of the expedition, with /500 more and.a free pardon to any one of the offenders who would turn informer. But, " notwithstanding a Commission of Inquiry, under the great seal of England, sat with that object, from January to June, during the year 1773," not enough evidence was obtained to warrant the arrest of a single man. Although it was not an affair of the sea, strictly speaking, it is worth recalling here that within six months after this Commission of Inquiry had failed to learn the names of the men, disguised as Indians, who had burned the Gasp', another party of men in another colony disguised themselves as Indians, and helped amazingly in making the history of the times. It was on the night of Friday, the 17th of December, 1 773, as the reader will remember. The ship Dartmoulh, laden with tea, was lying at her wharf in Boston. She had been lying there since the 28th of the preceding month, and during all those days the people of Boston had labored unceasingly to get her away to sea without discharging her cargo. It is even recorded that "the urgency of the business in hand overcame the sabbatarian scruples of the people," and that in Bos i2 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY ton! Meetings too great for " the Cradle of Liberty" (Faneuil Hall) were adjourned to the Old South Meeting-House. The people were "determined not to act (in offense) until the last legal method of relief should have been tried and found wanting." But at last, on the night of this i7th day of December, as the great throng of more than seven thousand people waited in and about " the church that was dimly lighted with candles," a messenger arrived from the British Governor to say that the last legal resource had failed. The Governor had refused to allow the ship to go. And "then, amid profound stillness, Samuel Adams arose and said, quietly but distinctly, 'this meeting can do nothing more to save the country." A war-whoop was heard a moment later without the church, and fifty men, disguised as Indians, just as Captain Whipple's men were when they fired the Gaspe-disguised as Indians because Captain Whipple's men had successfully eluded the British detectivesthese fifty citizens of Boston ran away to the wharf where the Dartmouth lay. One John Rowe had asked during the meeting earlier in the evening, " Who knows how tea will mingle with salt water?" He had now his opportunity to learn, for when the Indians reached the ship they quickly brought THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 13 her cargo on deck, and smashing open the chests with hatchets, tumbled the tea over the rail, while a vast host stood by in the moonlight and silently watched the work. There was a significance in the silence of the work that might have been, but was not, The "Boston Tea-Party." Frome an old engraving. heeded by those in authority, for it portrayed the feelings and the character. of the men engaged in it, and foreshadowed the grim determination of the people during the conflict that was fast coming on. Then followed, as the reader will remember very well, the Boston Port Bill closing that port. Then followed the bill by which any I4 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY magistrate, soldier, or revenue officer, accused of murder in Massachusetts, was to be taken to England for trial-a bill justly stigmatized as an act to encourage the soldiery in shooting down peaceful citizens. Then followed other acts equally or still more unjust and tyrannous that need not be mentioned here, the indignation of the colonists growing deeper as their distress under the oppression increased, until war was inevitable. And on the i9th of April, I 775, when the profane Pitcairn discharged his "elegant pistol" at the minute-men of the veteran Capt. John Parker on the village green in Lexington, war came. Now, it was because of the stir caused by the story of this battle at Lexington that the second sea-fight of the Revolution occurred. The reader must keep steadily in mind that not only were churches lighted by candles in those days, but mails were carried up and down the country by stage coaches and on horseback and by the oft-times slower water route-in sloops and schooners. The fight at Lexington occurred on April i9th, but the news of it did not reach Machias, Maine, until Saturday, the 9th of the following month. On that day word was brought by sea to Machias, telling how the British troops had fired on the minute-men, whose present offense was that they had refused to obey when Pitcairn had THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY Is shouted, "Disperse, ye villains! Damn you, why don't you disperse?" How some had been killed and others wounded by this first onslaught; how the minute-men had at first retreated and then gathered anew -for the attack; how the British were first brought to a stand and then started in a retreat so swift that when at last they were rescued by fresh troops from Boston they fell to the ground with " their tongues hanging out of their mouths like those of dogs after a chase"when all this was related in Machias, Maine, it stirred the men of the town to do a stroke against the oppressive ministry on their own account. There was at this time in the port of Machias an armed schooner called the Margaret/a, Captain Moore, in the service of the crown, with two unarmed sloops in convoy which were loading with lumber, according to the American account, for the British in Boston, but an English account speaks of the schooner as "a mast ship," i.e., a vessel loading with logs suitable for the masts of a warship. As the reader will remember, the grants of land from the crown in those days always retained for the use of the crown all trees suitable for masts of ships that might be found on the land. On hearing of the fight at Lexington the i6 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY bolder spirits of the town, considering that affair as the beginning of war, determined to capture the king's schooner Margaret/a. Their first plan turned on the fact that the day after the news arrived was Sunday. The news was kept secret among those who laid the plan, and Captain Moore came ashore to attend church on Sundays as usual. Then these men started to capture him at the church, but their haste and excitement alarmed Captain Moore, and he jumped through the church window and fled to the beach, where he was protected by his schooner's guns. On reaching his schooner, Captain Moore fired several shots over the town to intimidate the people; but not liking the looks of things on shore after the firing, he got up his anchor and dropped down-stream for a league, where he came to anchor foolishly under a high bank. The townspeople who had followed him, quickly took places on this bank, and a man namned Foster called on him to surrender, but Captain Moore got his anchor again and ran out into the bay, apparently unmolested by those who had summoned him to surrender. It looked as if the proposed capture would not be made. But on Monday morning (May II, I775) two of the young men of the town, Joseph Wheaton and Dennis O'Brien, met on THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY I7 the wharf, when Wheaton proposed taking possession of one of the lumber sloops, raising a crew of volunteers and going after the Margaret/a. Peter Calbreth and a man named Kraft happened along and agreed to join in, and the four went on board the sloop and took possession. Three rousing cheers were given over the success of their effort, and that brought a crowd to the wharf-among the rest; Jeremiah O'Brien, "an athletic gallant man," to whom, as to a village leader, Wheaton explained the project. "My boys, we can do it," said Jeremiah with enthusiasm, and at that every one in the throng skurried off for arms. The equipment which they brought together for that cruise is worth describing in detail. They had twenty guns, of which one is described as a "wall-piece." It was a musket too heavy to hold offhand when fired; it needed a wall, so to speak, to support its weight when it was aimed. For all these guns they had but sixty bullets and sixty charges of powder -three loads for each weapon. In addition they carried thirteen pitchforks and twelve axes (a formidable weapon in the hands of a Maine man). For food they carried a few pieces of pork, a part of a bag of bread, and a barrel of water. 2 I8 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY Out of a throng of volunteers thirty-five of the most athletic were selected to go, and, this done, they hoisted sail and boldly headed away before a northwest breeze to capture the Margare/la. It should be noted here that these sloops were single-masted vessels, as was the one in the Providence affair. They were in form and rig very much like the one-masted vessels employed at the time of this writing (1897) in carrying brick from the yards on the Hudson River to New York City, but they were not nearly as large as the brick-carriers, though they probably stood as high out of water, if not higher. A "sloop of war" was a very different vessel, as will appear further on. Captain Moore saw the sloop coming from afar, and realized that the crowd upon her deck meant trouble for him. So, being still anxious to avoid a conflict (just why he was anxious does not appear), he up anchor and once more ran away. But luck was against him-perhaps his flustrated state of mind brought him ill-luck. At any rate, although the wind was in the northwest and he was bound south, he got up his mainsail with the boom to starboard, and soon found himself obliged to jibe it over to port. With a fresh breeze that was a task needing care, and yet, -MURES........... A A&M MOP a THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 21 when he came to swing the boom across, he let it go on the run, and it brought up against the backstays with such a shock that it was broken short off in the wake of the rigging. Rendered desperate by this accident, Captain Moore now turned to a merchant schooner that he saw at anchor not far away, and bringing to alongside of her, he robbed her of her boom to replace his own and again headed for the open sea, and then, to still further aid his flight, cut adrift every one of his boats. But it was all in vain, for the sloop was much the swifter vessel, and Captain Moore was at last compelled to fight. The Margaret/a was armed with four sixpounders and twenty swivels-short and thick guns firing a one-pound ball, and mounted on swivels placed on the vessel's rail. It was an armament that should have been more than sufficient to repel the Machias men armed with pitchforks and axes. Moreover, the crew of the Margaret/a outnumbered that of the sloop. But there was a difference in the character of the two crews-a difference for which abundant cause will be shown further onand the issue of the contest was never for a moment in doubt after the haymakers had gone afloat. The first discharge of guns on the schooner 22 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY killed one man on the sloop. A man of the name of Knight on the sloop returned the fire, using the wall-piece. He was probably from the backwoods and a moose hunter, for he was bright enough and skilful enough to pick off the man at the schooner's helm. And that shot drove everybody off the schooner's quarter-deck, so she was left, as a sailor might say, to take charge of herself. Then the schooner broached to, the sloop crashed into her, and the men from Machias, with swinging axes and poised pitchforks, climbed over her rail. It is said for Captain Moore that at this point he fought gallantly, throwing handgrenades "with considerable effect," but he was quickly shot to death, and then his crew surrendered. In all, twenty men were killed and wounded in this fight, showing that it was a desperate conflict when once the two crews got within range of each other, man to man, for twenty was more than one-fourth of all engaged in it. The crew of the Margaret/a numbered forty, all told. On the Margaret/a the captors found two wall-pieces, forty cutlasses, forty boarding axes, two boxes of hand-grenades, forty muskets, and twenty pistols, with an ample supply of powder and shot. THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 23 When one with a full knowledge of the naval tar's contempt for "a haymaker's mate" recalls the story of this Machias fight, he cannot help thinking that some of the crew of the Margaretta must have suffered as much in mind as they did from their wounds after being impaled on the two-pronged pikes-the pitchforks of these Yankee haymakers. Not only was the fight between the Margaretla's crew and the haymakers interesting in itself; it was followed by consequences of the most important nature in connection with the establishment of the American navy. The commander of the haymakers, elected in good American fashion after they were afloat, was Jeremiah O'Brien. Having secured the Margaretta and his prisoners, Captain O'Brien shifted the cannon and swivels, with the ammunition and small arms, from the captured schooner over to his fleeter sloop, and set forth in search of more prizes and glory. Straightway the efforts of the British naval authorities to punish him for his assault on the Margaretta gave him the opportunity to acquire both. Two schooners, the Diligence and the Taypanagouche, were sent from Halifax to bring the obstreperous Irish-Yankee in for trial. But Captain O'Brien was a sailorman as well as a haymaker. By skilfully handling his sloop he separated the cruisers, 24. THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY and then captured them one at a time by the bold dash that had succeeded in the assault on the Margaret/a. This done, Captain O'Brien, with his prizes, sailed into Watertown, Massachusetts, where the provincial legislature was sitting, and delivered up everything to the colonial authorities. Such brave deeds as these did not go unrewarded in those days. Captain O'Brien received a commission from the colony, and, with the three vessels well refitted, he was sent once more to sea to cruise for vessels bringing supplies to the British troops. As said, not only was this an interesting fight, but it was one with far-reaching consequences. The deeds of Captain O'Brien, followed by others of a like nature performed by men who were stirred by his example, so exasperated Admiral Graves, the British commnander-in-chief on the coast, that he sent a squadron of four vessels under Captain Mowat to take revenge in such a manner as would fill, as he supposed, the hearts of the people of the whole coast with terror. Portland (then called Falinouth), Maine, was the port selected for destruction. The British account of what was done after Captain Mowat's fleet arrived before the town, shall be given for a reason that will appear further on in this history. The "Annual Regis THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 25 ter" for 1776 (Dodsley's, London), in its " Retrospective view of American affairs in the year I775," says (page 34): " About 9 o'clock in the morning, a canonade was begun, and continued with little intermission through the day. About 3,000 shots besides bombs and carcases, were thrown into the town, and the sailors landed to compleat the destruction, but were repulsed with the loss of a few men. The principal part of the town, (which lay next the water) consisting of about I30 dwelling houses, 278 stores and warehouses, with a large new church, a new handsome court house, with the public library, were reduced to ashes; about IOO of the worst houses being favored by the situation and distance, escaped destruction, though not without damage." In Allen's " Battles of the British Navy," the " new edition revised and enlarged " and published by George Bell & Sons, London, in 1893 (note that it was published in I893), we get a modern British view of this important assault. On page 227 it says: " Lieutenant Mowat's instructions were tempered with moderation. He was directed to confine his operations to certain enumerated towns which had rendered themselves conspicuous by open acts of hostility." The town was destroyed on the i6th day of 26 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY October, and in Maine. Under instructions that, to an Englishman's mind, tempered with moderation, "a thousand unoffending, men women and children were thus turned out of doors" just as the fierce Maine winter was coming down upon them. It should be told here that among the children who were thus obliged to seek shelter in brush and bark huts was a lad of fourteen years, named Edward Preble, of whom something will be told further on. Meantime the Congress of the thirteen United Colonies had been in session at Philadelphia, resolving itself into a committee of the whole, from day to day, to consider "the state of trade in the colonies." Patriots by the thousand had answered the cries of distress at Lexington by gathering with their muskets about Boston. The battle of Bunker Hill, the most glorious defeat recorded in the annals of American warfare, had been fought and lost, because the supplies of gunpowder, brought by the colonists in the old-fashioned cowhorns, had failed them. Of missiles there was apparently no lack-they would have used pebbles from the beach had no others been available and powder abundant. But the want of gunpowder became chronic, and in considering the state of trade in the colonies the Congress found that of all branches of that trade the one needing THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 27 their most careful attention was the trade in gunpowder. It was a trade that did not thrive under the circumstances; but there was one source of supply that did not escape the attention of such able-minded as well as able-bodied citizens as Capt. Jeremiah O'Brien and his ilk afloat. That source was in the supply ships that provided for the British forces, and in the smaller cruisers that waited on the great ships of the British fleet. The sailormen of the coast pointed to the supplies afloat, and the legislators adopted the views of the sailormen. Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut provided small cruisers on their own account and sent them out seeking the enemy's supply ships, which, because the rebellious colonies had theretofore no sort of a navy, camne to Boston and other ports in the king's possession, unarmed and without convoy. The far-sighted Washington, who had been placed in command of the heterogeneous forces about Boston, took hold of this matter and brought it to the attention of the Congress. In the mind of Washington it was an expedient well worth trying, but apparently he regarded it only as a temporary expedient. For during the summer and early fall of 1775, when the need of gunpowder became and remained most urgent, the colonies were fighting only for their rights as British subjects, as the reader re 28 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY members, and not for national independence. A few long-headed leaders undoubtedly saw the drift of current events, but with every address to the throne there was sent a protestation of loyalty. The earliest reference to this temporary expedient for getting gunpowder which is found in the printed reports of the doings of the Congress is in the minutes for Thursday, October 5, I775. It was then resolved to inform General Washington that the Congress had "received certain intelligence of the sailing of two north country built brigs, of no force, from England on the i Ith of August last, loaded with arms, powder and other stores for Quebec without convoy, which it being of importance to intercept," Washington was requested to "apply to the Council of Massachusetts-Bay for the two armed vessels in their service," and send them "at the expense of the continent" after the brigs. Moreover, he was informed that "the Rhode Island and Connecticut vessels of force will be sent directly to their assistance." Further still, it was resolved that "the general be directed to employ the said vessels and others, if he judge necessary." That was a very important set of resolutions in connection with the history of the navy. And the same may be said of the resolutions of Friday, October I3th, when it THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 29 was provided that " a swift vessel to carry ten carriage guns and a proportionable number of swivels, with eighty men, be fitted out with all possible despatch for a cruise of three months," and, further, "that another vessel be fitted out for the same purposes." Deane, Langdon, A Brig of War Lowering a Boat. From a picture drawn and engraved by Baugean. and Gadsden were chosen as a committee of the Congress to look after the fitting out of the vessels. Further than that, on Monday, October 30, I775, it was resolved that the second vessel previously ordered should " carry fourteen guns and a proportionate number of swivels and men," while two other ships, " one to carry not exceeding twenty guns and the other not exceeding thirty-six guns," were to 30 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY be chartered for the same purpose-to cruise "eastward" to intercept the British storeships. How under the resolutions of October 5th Captain Manly of the schooner Lee was sent "eastward"; how he captured a large brigantine loaded with munitions of war; how, in consequence of this capture, "a long, lumbering train of wagons, laden with ordnance and military stores, and decorated with flags, came wheeling into camp "-Washington's camp the next day after a host of Connecticut troops had deserted the cause, and "it was feared their example would be contagious"; how "such universal joy ran through the whole camp as if each one grasped victory in his own hands,"-all are parts of a story that may not be wholly omitted here; but the resolutions of the Congress did not provide, properly speaking, for an American navy. They only provided temporary means for obtaining supplies. The Congress was not yet ready to take the important step of establishing a navy as a branch of the public service. But the thought of a colonial navy was abroad-it was even then officially before the Congress, although it had not been acted upon. Officially, the subject of establishing a colonial navy came from Rhode Island, where Capt. Abraham Whipple and his paving THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 31 stones had conquered the schooner Gaspe. On August 26, 1775, the two houses of the Rhode Island legislature concurred in ordering their representatives in the Congress to propose the establishment of a navy " at the expense of the continent." So cautious were the members of the Congress in handling the matter that, when, on October 3d, one of the Rhode Island delegates-presumably Samuel Ward, who was their leader-called the attention of the Congress to the proposal of his legislature, they did not even mention the matter definitely in the minutes of the day. The minutes read: " One of the delegates for Rhode Island laid before the Congress a part of the instructions given them," etc. "The proposal met great opposition," and even the briefest consideration of the matter had to go over to a later day. " In the Congress at Philadelphia, so long as there remained the dimmest hope of favor to its petition, the lukewarm patriots had the advantage." But a time was coming when they were to change their feelings in this matter radically and in a day. They had ordered the forces afloat and ashore "carefully to refrain from acts of violence which could be construed as open rebellion," but before the end of the year they had taken such a long step toward the )2 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY Declaration of Independence that to turn back was impossible. It was on October 3Ist that the change ot sentiment was wrought. One cannot help wishing that what a newspaper man in these days would call " a crackerjack reporter" might have been present to describe the stir in the Congress when, on that day, one messenger arrived to announce that the British king had succeeded in hiring 20,000 of "the finest troops in Europe "-Germans-to fight against the colonists, while a second messenger followed with the story of the desperate plight of the people of Falmouth, who had been driven from their homes to face a Maine winter by the assault of the infamous Mowat. But if we lack the picture we have the record of what was done in consequence of the news then received. Though stirred as never before since they had come together, the members of the Congress moved with judicial moderation, and it was not until Saturday, November z5th, that they resolved to make an aggressive fight at sea. On this day they adopted a preamble that eloquently told how "orders have been issued... under colour of which said orders the commanders of his majesty's said. ships have already burned and destroyed the flourishing and populous town of Falmouth, THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 33 and have fired upon and much injured several other towns within the United Colonies, and dispersed at a late season of the year, hundreds of women and children, with a savage hope that those may perish under the approaching rigours of the season who may chance to escape destruction from fire and sword." And then they resolved that all armed British vessels, and all "transport vessels in the same service," "to whomsoever belonging," with their cargoes, that might fall into the hands of the colonists, "shall be confiscated." Further than that, commissions not only for the captains of the colonial cruisers, but for the commanders of privateers as well, were ordered to be issued under proper regulations. The colonies were recommended to "erect courts of justice" to dispose of the prizes / to be so captured, and a scheme for distributing prize money to i the crews of both - cruisers and privateers was approved. The Admiralty Seal. Three days lateron November 28, I775-the minutes contain the first adopted "Rules for the Regulation of the Navy of the United Colonies," and that 3 34 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY was the first occasion on which the term navy of the United Colonies appears in the minutes of the proceedings. Very curious and well worth the study of any one interested in history are those first rules adopted for the American navy-a navy not yet actually in existence. But for the present purpose it is necessary to note only the thoughtfulness of the Congress for the comfort of the members of the crews-especially the comfort of the men before the mast. A remarkably large space in the printed report of these regulations relates to the feeding of the men, and if to this space be added that devoted to the regulations for the care of the sick and wounded, together with what was ordered for the preservation of the property rights of the sailors, then more than one-half of all that was decided upon was in the interest of the men in the forecastle. The bearing of this policy on the future of the American navy will appear further on, but it may be said here that it was not for nothing that grave legislators were concerned to provide that "a proportion of canvas for pudding-bags, after the rate of one ell for every sixteen men," should be served out at proper intervals. Thereafter the making of a navy went on more rapidly. Within a week word came that Lord Dunmore? with a fleet in the Chesapeake THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 35 Bay, was aiding the Tories there to engage in trade with the West Indies, contrary to the colonial regulations, and, worse yet, was stirring up a race war. In consequence of this the Congress resolved, on December 5th, that all the vessels engaged in the trade established by Dunmore, with their cargoes, should be seized when possible and held "until the further order of this Congress." And that is a matter of importance, because it was the first warrant of the Congress permitting the capture of merchant ships of the enemy when engaged in another traffic than the carrying of supplies to the enemy's military or naval stations. Next (on December ith) the Congress ordered that "a committee be appointed to devise ways and means for furnishing these colonies with a naval armament." The alacrity with which that committee acted was something phenomenal, for in two days they brought in their report, "which being read and debated," was adopted. They had determined to build "five ships of 32 guns, five of 28 guns, three of 24 guns, making in the whole thirteen." These were to be constructed, one in New Hampshire, two in Massachusetts, one in Connecticut, two in Rhode Island, two in New York, four in Pennsylvania, and one in Maryland. They were expected to go afloat 36 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY "by the last of March next," and the cost was not to be "more than 66,666 — dollars each, on an average, allowing two complete suits of sails for each ship." So far as the committee could see, there would be but one difficulty in the way of sending all these ships to sea well found for the service, and that was in the lack of canvas and gunpowder. They would need 7,500 pieces of canvas for the sails and Ioo tons of powder for the magazines, and there was not any of either in the market. In the meantime the marine committee appointed under the resolution of October I3th to fit out two vessels to "cruise eastward" after the king's transports, had been increased in number, and in December consisted of Silas Deane, Christopher Gadsden, John Langdon, Stephen Hopkins, Joseph Hewes, and Richard Henry Lee. John Adams, who was an enthusiastic supporter of the project to create a navy froln the moment it was discussed, had been at first a member of this committee, but because of other duties he left it, and Gadsden took the place. The names of these men are well worth remembering, for they were the originators of the American navy. While the Congress was preparing to build the navy these men had labored faithfully, and with success, to provide one ready made out of the ships that could be purchased along the coast. EL I i I THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 39 The Congress had, on November 2d, placed $100,000ooo at their disposal. With this they went about buying ships and supplies for them. A London packet called the Black Prince came into port under command of that Captain John Barry who, later on, was a captain in the American navy. She was of good scantling, and was considered a vessel worthy of becoming the flagship of the new fleet. The committee purchased her, and, after renaming her the Alfred, after Alfred the Great, they mounted twenty nine-pounders on deck, with four (it is said) smaller. guns-presumably four-pounders-on the forecastle and poop. Another merchant ship, called the Sally, was purchased and renamed Columbus, for the great explorer, after which she received eighteen or twenty (authorities vary) nine-pounders. She is said to have been crank (top-heavy) and of small value. Two brigs were purchased and renamed the Andrea Doria, for the famous Genoese sailor, and the Cabot, for the early explorer of North America. These are set down as carrying fourteen four-pounders each. A third brig was purchased in Providence and named for that town, because, according to *John Adams, that town was "the residence of Governor Hopkins and his brother Esek, whom we appointed the first Captain." She carried twelve guns-sixes or fours. In addi 40 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY tion to these, the committee obtained a sloop of ten guns, called the Hornet, and an eightgun schooner named the Wasp. These were purchased and equipped in Baltimore, and then brought around to Philadelphia. The Vessel of War Saluting, with the Yards Manned. Front an old French engraving. Fly, an eight-gun schooner, completed the list. While the committee were gathering this' fleet at Philadelphia, the Congress showed its appreciation of the work in hand by voting that the crews should be engaged to serve THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 4t until January i, I 777-practically for one year. They further voted $500,000 of the continental currency to the use of the naval committee. Then, on Tuesday, December i9th, the Congress still further showed their appreciation of the situation of affairs by resolving "that the Committee of Safety of Pennsylvania be requested to supply the armed vessels, which are nearly ready to sail, with four tons of gunpowder at the continental expense "; and, further, "that the said committee be requested to procure and lend the said vessels as many stands of small arms as they can spare, not exceeding 400." The Pennsylvania people had already agreed to furnish these necessaries; the resolutions of the Congress were only in the nature of vouchers, and, twenty-four hours later, the first American fleet was found and fitted for service. Only the crews for the ships were needed, and these the committee had provided ready for the occasion, so all -that was then required to man the ships was for the Congress to confirm the appointment of the officers. And this was done on the memorable date, Friday, December 22, I 775. The resolutions of the Congress shall be given in full, because it was upon this legal warrant that the American navy was founded. They were as follows: 42 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 9e'ncaflac- _- ~ ' A~/6r. -,., I tdto -2nt! cn2 ALi. tLP ic rr.cna~~~~/PJ~C*C /cd(b~~CLn 97_ A I S He I Facsimile of a Letter from Abraham Whipple to General Lincoln during the Siege of Charleston. From the original at the Lenox Library. "The committee appointed to fit out armed vessels, laid.before congress a list of the officers by them appointed agreeable to the powers to them given by Congress, viz: Esek Hopkins, esq. comander in chief of the fleet THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 43 Dudley Saltonstall, Captain of the Alfred. Abraham Whipple, Captain of the Columbus. Nicholas Biddle, Captain of the Andrea Doria. John Burrow Hopkins, Captain of the Cabot. First lieutenants, John Paul Jones, Rhodes Arnold, Stansbury, Hoysted Hacker, Jonathan Pitcher. Second Lieutenants, Benjamin Seabury, Joseph Olney, Elisha Warner, Thomas Weaver, - McDougall. Third Lieutenants, John Fanning, Ezekiel Burroughs, Daniel Vaughn. Resolved, That the Pay of the Comander in-chief of the fleet be 125 dollars per calender month. Resolved, That commissions be granted to the above officers agreeable to their rank in the above appointment. Resolved, That the committee for fitting out armed vessels, issue warrants to all officers employed in the fleet under the rank of third lieutenants. Resolved, That the said committee be directed (as a' secret committee) to give such instructions to the commander of the fleet, touching the operations of the ships under his command, as shall appear to the said committee most conducive to the defence of the United. Colonies, and to the distress of the enemy's naval forces and vessels bringing supplys to their fleets and armies, and lay such instructions before the Congress when called for." 44 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY The thirteen United Colonies had at last a naval fleet, armed, equipped, and manned, and legally authorized to sail away on the secret expedition the committee had planned. But before Commodore Hopkins might up anchor and spread his canvas to the breeze there was one ceremony to be performed which, though not mentioned in any colonial law, was (and it still is) considered of the utmost importance. He must "put his ships in commission "must "pipe all hands on deck," and then " hoist in their appropriate places the national colors and the pennant of the commanding officer," after which he must address the crew and "read to them the order by virtue of which he assumes command." That is a most impressive ceremony, and it was now to be performed for the first time in the American naval fleet. Important-even thrilling as was the occasion, there is no known record by which the date on which this ceremony was performed may be definitely located. But it is unquestioned that the naval committee of the Congress had, on this December 22d, secured the crews as well as the ships for a fleet, and that the crews were then on board awaiting the coming of properly authorized officers. There is, therefore, no reason to doubt that as soon as the Congress had passed the resolutions -HE4HIT MOF -U AY 45 IlIef t lh ll I lit oil S:lll olR uo1ii Ndir fol l i D I 4 U r w on i i iiiii ii I a 46 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY modore and his officers made their way to the foot of Walnut Street, Philadelphia, where a ship's long-boat awaited them. A great throng of patriots gathered along shore on the arrival of the officers, and the shipping along the whole river front was not only decorated with bunting, but decks and rails and rigging were occupied by enthusiastic spectators. Pushing off and rowing away through the floating ice, Commodore Hopkins reached the ladder at the side of the Alfred, and, followed by all his officers, mounted to the deck. The shrill whistle of the boatswain called the crew well aft in the waist of the ship. The officers gathered in a group on the quarterdeck. A quartermaster made fast to the mizzen signal halliards a great yellow silk flag bearing the picture of a pine tree with a coiled rattlesnake at its roots, and the impressive motto " Don't Tread on Me." This accomplished, he turned toward the master of the ship, Capt. Dudley Saltonstall, and saluted. And then, at a gesture from the captain, the executive officer of the ship, the immortal John Paul Jones, eagerly grasped the flag halliards, and while officers and seamen uncovered their heads, and the spectators cheered and cannon roared, he spread to the breeze the first American naval ensign. The grand union flag of the colonies, a flag THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 47 of thirteen stripes, alternate red and white, with the British jack in the field, and the pennant of the commander-in-chief, were then set, and the resolutions of the Congress read. The first American naval fleet was in commission. A Frigate Chasing a Small Boat. Fromn an old French engraving. CHAPTER II FIRST CRUISE OF THE YANKEE SQUADRON A FAIRLY SUCCESSFUL RAID ON NEW PROVIDENCE, BUT THEY LET A BRITISH SLOOP-OF-WAR ESCAPE-CHARACTER OF THE FIRST NAVAL COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF AND OF THE MATERIAL WITH WHICH HE HAD TO WORK-ESEK HOPKINS, A LANDSMAN, SET TO DO A SAILOR'S WORK-CREWS UNTRAINED AND DEVOID OF "ESPRIT DE CORPS "-GOOD COURAGE, BUT A WOEFUL LACK OF 'OTHER NEEDED QUALITIES-HOPKINS DISMISSED FOR DISOBEDIENCE OF ORDERS. THE career of Commodore Esek Hopkins as commander-in-chief of the American navy lasted for a year and ten days. If it was not a glorious career it was at least an instructive one, and the candid student is likely to conclude that, under the circumstances, it was creditable to his reputation. He was badly handicapped from the beginning in a variety THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 49 of ways, but in spite of this he accomplished something. As already noted, Commodore Hopkins received his appointment chiefly through the influence of John Adams, and because he was the brother of the capable Governor of Rhode Island. The student of American history should keep in mind that the colonists were still monarchists in I775, and that they followed the monarchial system of appointing favorites to office. That is to say, the man who had the most influence, who had what politicians call a "pull," got the appointment, regardless, usually, of his fitness for the place. Commodore Hopkins had been a brigadiergeneral in the Rhode Island militia by appointment of his brother. He had served in various capacities at sea, but it is likely that training had made him a soldier rather than a sailor, and no greater mistake can be made by executive authority than to appoint a soldier to do a sailorman's work. Further than this, the vessels under the command of Hopkins were all built for carrying cargoes and not for fighting they were not as swift or as handy as fighting ships of the same size. Worse yet, they were manned by crews brought together for the first timemen who were not only unacquainted with each other, and therefore devoid of espriz't de 4 50 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY corps, but who were unaccustomed, for the most part, to the discipline necessary on a man-of-war and untrained in the use of great guns. When compared with the crews of the - ^. ratf an/4t& VOffe tea A Letter from Esek Hopkins. 7Fron te original at C t/e Lenox Library. ese t resects tan r th ra lta ^ Ad^2 A Ar ^ zy9 aa A,, 7i ish regulars. The raw militia could at least shoot well. With these facts in mind it is worth while With these facts in mind it is worth while THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 5I comparing the American ships with the British naval forces on the coast. As said, Commodore Hopkins had eight vessels, of which two only were ships, and the others were brigs or smaller, and all were lubberly merchantmen. All told, this squadron mounted just I I4 guns, of which the largest was a cannon that could throw a round cast-iron ball weighing nine pounds. Even of these there were less than fifty. And the powder to load them and the muskets with which the seamen had been armed were all borrowed from the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Yet this puny squadron, "poor and contemptible, being for the greater part no better than whale boats," as a British authority truly says, was to go to sea to make war-against what force does the reader suppose? A navy of I I2 ships, carrying 3,714 guns, of which force no less than seventy-eight ships, carrying 2,o78 guns, were either already on the American coast or under orders to go there. Nor does a comparison of the number of guns-i I4 against 2,o78-give an idea of the utter inefficiency of the American sea power; for, while the best of the American guns was but a nine-pounder, at least a fourth of the guns on the British ships-at least 500 of themwere eighteen-pounders or heavier. For every nine-pounder in the American ships there were 52 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY at least ten of double that size in the British, not to mention the i,5oo and more guns in the fleet that included six-pounders, nine-pounders, and twelve-pounders. " Poor and contemptible" were just the words for describing the A Corvette. Fromt an old French engraving. comparative merits of the American warships. And in the matter of experience and training the American crews were but little better than their ships and guns. As will appear further on, there were to be fights between British ships manned by experienced, thoroughly disciplined crews of full numbers against Yankee THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 53 ships that were manned for the greater part by seasick landsmen, and short-handed at that. The secret orders that had been given to Commodore Hopkins commanded him to go in search of Lord Dunmore, who had been making so much 'trouble along the shores of Chesapeake Bay as to cause Washington to write that "if this man is not crushed before spring he will become the most formidable enemy America has." The ships were to gather at Cape Henlopen, and sail thence for the Chesapeake. But the Delaware River was full of ice, and it was not until February 17, 1776, that the squadron finally passed out to sea. Then, on the night of the i9th, while running along with a fresh breeze, the Hornet and the Fly became separated from the others, and did not again join the squadron. It appears from the meagre record that Hopkins did not enter the Chesapeake at all. Instead of that he sailed away to the Bahama Islands, because he had learned that a large quantity of military supplies were stored at New Providence, with only a few men to guard them. He was determined to capture the supplies. On reaching Abaco, Hopkins divided his forces by sending 300 men under Capt. Samuel Nichols, in ten small sloops found at Abaco, to capture New Providence. Hopkins 54 4 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY supposed the force would surprise the garrison, but the commander was found ready to repel an attack, and the Providence and the Wasp had to be sent over to assist the men in landing. It was at this point that a branch of the American naval personnel, of which too little notice has been taken by historians, first made a record for gallantry. Captain Nichols was the first captain of marines in the American naval service, the organization of the marine corps having been ordered by the Congress on November io, 1775. Under cover of the guns of the Providence and the Wasp, Captain Nichols and his marines landed on the beach, and then "behaved with a spirit and steadiness that have distinguished the corps from that hour down to the present moment." They carried the forts by assault. " A hundred cannon and a large quantity of stores fell into the hands of the Americans," but because thLe Governor had been apprised of the coining of the Americans, he succeeded in sending away in a small coaster 4 5o barrels of powder. It is worth noting that Commodore Hopkins not only loaded his vessels with these stores, but that the stores made a heavy cargo for them, and they were deep in the water when they turned toward home. It should be /~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~........ W~ififdiEikMki 56 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY further noted that the Governor of the island "and several of the more prominent inhabitants " were carried away for use as hostages to compel the British authorities to modify the harsh treatment American prisoners were receiving. New Providence was taken in the middle of March, I776. Elated by the success of his expedition, Commodore Hopkins set sail for the north on the i7th of that month. How much more elated he and his crews would have felt could they have known that at four o'clock on that morning the British were hurriedly, and in great confusion, leaving Boston through fear of an assault by the troops of Washington, may be easily imagined. Two weeks later the American fleet had arrived off the east end of Long Island, where, on April 4th, the tender Ilawke, of six guns, and the bomb-brig Bolton, of twelve guns, were captured. And then followed a conflict that well-nigh ruined the reputation of the first American fleet commander. It began soon after midnight on the morning of April 6th. With a gentle breeze, the fleet, well scattered out-too well, in fact-was washing along over the smooth sea between Block Island and the Rhode Island shore. Only those who have floated and dreamed in the soft light THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY of a warm night on these waters can fully appreciate the influences of sea and air over a sailor on such an occasion, but it was, last of all, a night for thoughts of bloodshed. Suddenly a large strange ship appeared in the midst of the fleet. From the way the narrative reads one is forced to the conclusion that the lookouts were all at least half asleep. The stranger was heading for the flagship Alfred, but before she could close in, the crew of the little brig Cabot, Capt. John Burrows Hopkins, woke up, and, ranging alongside, they hailed her. For a reply the stranger fired a broadside, and so began the first naval battle of the first American squadron. The brave captain of the Cabot returned the fire, in spite of the great superiority of the stranger, and still bravely stood to his duty, even after a second broadside from the stranger had partly disabled his brig, killed a number of his crew, and wounded himself. The A lfred, the flagship, soon came ranging up beside the stranger and opened fire, whereat the stranger turned his attention to her; and then came the Providenzce, Captain Hazard, who secured a position on the lee quarter (they were all close hauled) of the enemy, where she opened an effective fire. By this time the Cabot was drifting out of 58 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY range, but the Andrea Doria came up to take her place. For an hour thereafter the stranger maintained the unequal contest, while the fleet drifted along over the smooth sea. At one time a shot from the stranger cut away the tiller ropes of the Yankee flagship, leaving her to broach to where she could not use her own guns. At that the stranger raked her fore and aft with a number of broadsides. But when repairs had been made the Alfred closed in once more, and then, at about two o'clock in the morning, the stranger found it too hot, and, putting up his helm, he squared away for Newport and safety. Commodore Hopkins pursued the stranger until after daylight. The course lay along the Rhode Island coast, and the people of the region, awakened by the roar of the guns, came hurrying to the cliffs to look away over the smooth water, where one ship, badly cut up aloft, was still able to keep ahead of the fleet that followed, and fired at frequent intervals upon the pursued. But the ships of the American fleet were cargo-carriers deeply loaded with the spoils of New Providence, and the stranger was a mano'-war well formed and fitted for the sea. So the chase ended when it was found that the stranger steadily gained, and the distance from Newport was growing so short as to warrant THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 59 the belief that the cannonading would call out the British fleet then lying there. So the Yankee fleet "hauled its wind," captured a small tender that had been in company with the stranger, and then made port at New London. When there Commodore Hopkins learned An English 1' Seventy-Four" and a Frigate Coming to Anchor. From an old engraving. that the stranger he had encountered was the British sloop-of-war Glasgow, Capt. Tyringham Howe, a full-rigged ship (three masts), carrying twenty guns, and a crew of 150, all told. She had lost one man killed and three wounded, while the American loss had been in all twenty-four killed and wounded, of whom the little brig Cabot lost four killed and seven 'wounded. 6o THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY Nothing more is needed to show the superiority of the British naval crews over the American, at this time, than the above statement of casualties. How that superiority was overcome at the last will appear later on; but if all British warships in the contests that followed this one had been handled as Captain Howe handled the Glasgow the story of the American navy would not have appealed to patriotic American pride as it now does. As for the effect of this fight upon the American people it should be said they were at first elated because it was told that the American fleet had driven off an enemy of superior strength. But when the real facts became known their elation was turned to anger that was really as little founded in reason as their joy had been. Commodore Hopkins and his men had shown unquestioned bravery. Considering their lack of knowledge and experience, they had done well enough. They had captured and brought into port military supplies that were badly needed and could be obtained only by capture from the enemy. Unfortunately, the Americans overlooked this, and thought only of the escape of the valiant Glasgow. The career of the first American squadron, as a squadron, practically came to an end when it arrived at New LondonI although it did THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 6i afterwards sail thence as a squadron around to Narragansett Bay after the British left Newport. What remains to be told of the career of Commodore Hopkins will occupy brief space. In the month of June the Congress investigated his case. His good friend John Adams defended him successfully. It was decided that he had exceeded his orders in going east of Long Island, for he had been directed to "annoy the enemy's ships upon the coast of the Southern States," but he was merely relieved of his command temporarily. On October I6th his case was considered once more, and a vote of censure was carried. On October I9th he was directed to take "command of the fleet formerly put under his care," but he was very dilatory in getting ready for sea, and so he was once more summoned before Congress. This summons he refused to obey, and on January 2, I777, he was dismissed from the service. According to Lieut. F. S. Bassett, U. S. N., Hopkins, after the war of the Revolution, "resided near Providence, R. I., and was several times a member of the General Assembly for that State, and died there on February 26, I 802, aged eighty-four years. He was, when made commander-in-chief, fiftyseven years old, and, Bancroft says, old and incompetent. His portraits show himl to be a 62 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY man of vigor, and he was influential in the political affairs of his own State. His bravery was never called into question, but he was doubtless not a good seaman, and was incompetent to command the navy." His title of commander-in-chief was intended to rank him with Washington, the commanderin-chief of the army. The title was never again conferred on an American naval man. CHAPTER III ALONG SHORE IN 1776 BRILLIANT DEEDS BY THE FIRST HEROES OF THE AMERICAN NAVY -WHY NICHOLAS BIDDLE ENTERED PORT WITH BUT FIVE OF THE ORIGINAL CREW OF THE ANDREA DORIA-RICHARD DALE ON THE SLEEK LEXINGTON-THE RACEHORSE CAPTURED IN AN EVEN FIGHT —CAPTAIN LAMBERT WICKES IN THE REPRISAL BEATS OFF A LARGER VESSEL-JOHN PAUL JONES IN HIS EARLIER COMMANDS-A SMART RACE WITH THE FRIGATE SOLEBAY —SIXTEEN PRIZES IN FORTY-SEVEN DAYS IN CAPE BRETON REGION-POKING FUN AT THE FRIGATE MILFORDTHE VALUABLE MELLISH-AN ABLE FIGHTER WHO LACKED POLITICAL INFLUENCE. A MORE cheerful story of the feats of Yankee sailormen is found on turning, to the record made by individual vessels during the period when Commodore Hopkins was at the head of the navy list. For instance, there was the brig Lexington (of significant name), under the command of Capt. John Barry, who had brought the Alfred, when she was the merchant ship Black Prince, into Philadelphia and sold her to the Congress. While Commodore Hopkins was in New London explaining how the British ship Glasgow had escaped, Captain 64 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY Barry was cruising off the Virginia capes; and on April I7, I776, fell in with a tender called the Edward, armed with six or eight guns and carrying a crew of thirty-five men under command of Lieutenant Boucher. The lack of skill of the Americans at this time and the bravery of the English are both conclusively shown by the fact that the Edward held out for an hour, although the Lexzington carried sixteen guns and twice as many men as the tender. May 10, I776, should be a memorable one in the history of the navy, for on that day John Paul Jones first received an independent command. He was placed in charge of the Provzdence and sent to carry troops to New York. What he subsequently accomplished with his little twelve-gun brig will be told further on. On May i6th the Andrea Doria, Capt. Nicholas Biddle, was ordered to sea. For four months she cruised between the capes of the Delaware and the coast of Maine, and during that time she captured ten prizes, all but one of which reached port safely. Two of these transports had 400 British troops on board. The British frigate Cerebzts recaptured one of these transports, and the prisoners managed to retake the other, but they were again captured and taken in. When Captain Biddle m~~~~mw mM~~~~~.0cw V 5 66 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY at last brought his little brig into port he had but five of his original crew on board. The others had all been sent away in prizes and their places supplied by volunteers from the vessels captured. As will appear further on, Nicholas Biddle was one of the most heroic men known to the American naval register. He was one who knew his duty, and no odds of force against him deterred him in doing it. The next of the squadron to get to sea was the brig Cabot, of fourteen guns. She sailed under Capt. Elisha Hinman the latter part of May, and was gone until October 5th. She sent in seven prizes during this time. Even the crank old Columbus made a successful cruise. Under the command of Capt. Abraham Whipple, whose paving-stones had captured the Gaspe, she took four prizes while at sea between May and August. Meantime the schooner Wasp, under Capt. Charles Alexander, took the British bark Belsey on May 9th, while in October, under Lieutenant Baldwin, she captured three more prizes. A notable event of the year was the adventure of the Lexington under Capt. William Hallock. She was returning from the West Indies loaded with powder and other military stores, when she was captured by the British &5%~vrd^ SJtt.7Ztxl4*t i < ^s / I # tw w.t,s^ ^ ^ ^. s A L44 - ^"A.._"h, w~z 6' " / %'~nwtsA4, C,./t^n - 1 <^/<'; '^ ' ~- ^" ' **~~**^7%*^(~^<^%^-. ~ ^.^.,f/J < i_,5;^y.f />'s, C ~~M^~/^ ^~A%* - L.t /.,,., ^ ^.^ ^tluC.f f... /. /T Facsimile of Account between Dudley Saltonstall and Elisha Hinman. From the original at the Lenox Library. r a I 68 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY frigate Pearl. There was such a high sea running at the time that the captain of the Pearl decided, after taking four or five men out of the Lexington, not to transfer the rest of her crew to his own ship. So he placed her in charge of a prize crew, with orders to follow the Pearl. As night came on, the gale increased and the sea became more boisterous. The prize officers, thinking no danger was to be apprehended from the prisoners under such circumstances, slacked up in their vigilance, and eventually both the prize captain and the officer of the deck went below for a comforting toddy. At that the watchful Yankees knocked the British sailor from the tiller-and the guards to the deck, secured the companionway against the exit of the officers, and, putting -up the helm, headed away for Baltimore, where they arrived safely. A leading spirit in this recapture was Master's Mate Richard Dale, who afterwards, as the executive officer of the Bonhomme Richard, under John Paul Jones, won lasting honor. Another stirring event of this year was the fight between the Yankee brig Andrea Doria and the British brig Racehorse. It was the more stirring for the reason that the Racehorse had been sent out expressly to capture THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 69 the Yankee, and it was a fair and even match, ship for ship. The Andrea Doria was under command of Capt. Isaiah Robinson. Captain Robinson, in the sloop Sachem, had, on July 6th, two days after the colonies had declared their independence of Great Britain, captured a British vessel of six guns and brought her into port. For his success in this he was transferred to the brig Andrea Doria, and sent to the Dutch port of St. Eustatius to get arms and ammunition for the American army. It is worth mentioning, perhaps, that he received a salute from the governor of the port (the first salute the flag ever received from a foreign power), although the governor was afterward removed from office at the request of the British, for firing it. Having taken in his cargo, Captain Robinson steered for home, but off the western end of Porto Rico fell in with the Racehorse, and during the next two hours the sun-lit tropical seas were the scene of what was probably the first even sea contest of the Revolution. It ended in the surrender of the Racehorse after her captain, Lieutenant Jones, had been mortally wounded. The Andrea Doria lost four killed and eight wounded. The loss on the Racehorse was " considerably greater." Captain Robinson brought both vessels 70 THI~g HSTOR~Y OF OU'vI NAVY kilcl) *iinu fld IMX llixw bift Mini tit cdaier li t to;ea....lid had O. li bfifiiititha VrwaiiI bt thallip Into tHi hif tii iot itil iM j iC antti PHiI ll li.ita ioffif i itat ffii bffIii WM 1 if hii fi 11)t Wac Yll itiii tii tAn i i r li X icin a a i ut a ii u. i Pu war i/ni t.c ctccif 1fi6 wan nai| cyt eu ei thu Mi/n...th I.t.iit I th6it / ita Ptd.,,,,,,.,.,,,,,.,,.,,.,,,,,, Mid,.,,,..,, M l,,,,,..,,,,,.,,,,,,,,,,..,..,,...,-.............. E3- iA I I I I I I _ S ~~~s~ 11 | |~~~~~~~~ii 76 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY done, a man with a lighted match was placed at each of the cannon on the lee side, while a quartermaster bent the grand union flag to the signal halliards. The critical moment of the day was come, and with thrilling nerves the crew leaped to obey the orders that followed in swift succession. The helm was put hard up, and as the spanker xvas brailed in to the mast, the quartermaster hoisted the colonies' flag to the truck. The little brig turned like a yacht square down across the frigate's bows, and the men at the guns fired what was at once a salute to their flag and a raking blast to the frigate. And then, out of the white cloud of smoke rolling away over her rails, rose the filmy studding-sails to catch the helpful gale. So sure had the crew of the Solebay been of their prize that the sudden dash and attack from the brig threw them into a confusion from which they did not recover until the Providence was beyond the reach of the grapeshot with which most of their guns were loaded. Moreover, the Providence now had the heels of it, and drew steadily away. The Solebay fired over ioo round shot, all told, but not one took effect. Captain Jones now headed his brig off to the coast of Nova Scotia, where he hove to, one day, to give his men a change in diet by THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 77 catching codfish. While engaged in this very pleasant occupation the British frigate Mi/ford came down on him, and the Providence again had to run. But Jones soon found that he could easily outsail the Mi/ford, so to play with the enemy he shortened sail and allowed her to gain. Like a fat hound on the trail, she began to bark-to fire when a long way off, and with no more damage to the Providence than a dog's bark would have been. " He excited my contempt so much by his continual firing at more than twice the proper distance that when he rounded to to give a broadside, I ordered my marine officer to return the salute with only a single musket," said Captain Jones in his report of the affair to the marine committee of the Congress. The next day Captain Jones sailed into Canso Harbor. It should be kept in mind at this point that the Congress had, on March 23, 1776, resolved "that the inhabitants of these colonies be permitted to fit out armed vessels to cruise on the enemies of these United Colonies "-the restriction that made prizes of the enemy's men-of-war and transports only was entirely removed. The Congress had been driven to this step, of course, by the many outrages committed on the colonial coast by the British cruisers. Acting under this authority, and remembering these outrages, 78 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY Captain Jones found in Canso three English schooners. He burned one, sunk another, and loaded a third with the cargoes of the other two. Next day he took small boats well armed and his flagship, and went after nine dismantled British vessels-ships, brigs, and schooners -lying at Madame Island, on the east side of the Bay of Canso. Finding the crews of these vessels on shore, Captain Jones promised to leave them enough of their fleet to take them home if they would help him fit the rest for sea. They agreed to this, and on September 26, I776, Captain Jones got away with three large and deeply laden prizes. The ship Adventure he burned in the harbor. After a cruise of forty-seven days, all told, he was again in Newport Harbor, having meantime captured sixteen prizes, besides destroying "many small vessels" and giving the people of Nova Scotia and Cape Breton a taste of the fear that had been felt on the Yankee coast. But he did not destroy the homes of those people as the homes of Portland, Maine, had been destroyed. Meantime Captain Jones had learned, while on the Cape Breton coast, that a hundred American prisoners were kept at work as convicts in the coal mines there, and on reaching his home port he proposed an expedition to THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 79 liberate the prisoners and capture the coal fleet which was appointed to sail from Cape Breton to New York (then in the hands of the British). Commodore Hopkins, who was still at the head of the navy, approved the plan, and put Captain Jones in command of the flagship Alfred, and ordered the Providence, Capt. Hoysted Hacker, to go with him. On November 2, I 7 76, these two vessels got under way, and on the night of. the 3d passed safely through the British squadron off Block Island. The cruise was without incident until off the east coast of Cape Breton, where, on November i3th, they fell in with, and after a brisk action captured, two British vessels, of which one was the brig Mellish/, of ten 'guns and carrying I50 men. On boarding her she was found to be loaded down with supplies for Sir Guy Carleton, who had, during the summer and early fall, been moving heaven and earth to build a fleet on Lake Champlain to sweep away the little American squadron there and so open the trail that led to Albany, the head of navigation on the Hudson. Sir Guy had already been driven back by the surpassing bravery and ability of Benedict Arnold, as will be told further on, and because of this defeat (it was practically a defeat) he was still more in need of the supplies than he would have been if successful in his plans. 80 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY Among other goods of the greatest value, the cargo of the Mellish included io0,000ooo complete uniforms. On the same day a large fishing vessel was captured, from which sufficient provisions were taken to replenish the American stores, that were already growing scanty. The next day, during a violent northwest gale, the Providence was separated from the flagship, and she sailed away for Newport; but Captain Jones held fast to his original purpose. Entering Canso once more, he burned an English transport and a warehouse filled with oil and whalers' supplies. Continuing his voyage along the coast, he fell in with the coal fleet. It was under the protection of a British frigate, but the air was "dull," as the people of that coast say-it was a foggy day, and Captain Jones captured three of the largest of the fleet. Two days later he fell in with a British privateer from Liverpool, out for a cruise after merchant ships belonging to the Americans. His hope of prize money was soon dispelled by the guns of Captain Jones, and his ship was added to the Yankee fleet. As she was pretty well armed, she was manned with Yankees under Lieutenant Saunders. Finding now that the harbors adjacent to THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 8I the coal mines were blocked with ice; finding, moreover, that, with the addition of i5o pris. oners to the number of men on board, he was short of both food and water, Captain Jones felt obliged to steer for home instead of trying to rescue the Americans in the coal mines. The little fleet kept well together until off the Georges Bank, when, late in the afternoon, the British frigate Mi/ford, that had chased the Providence in the last voyage, was discovered. Knowing the speed of the Miford, Captain Jones at once laid his plan for escape. His own ship, the Alfred, could outsail the frigate, but the prizes could not. The frigate' was sure to overtake them, though not until after dark. So the captain of each of the prizes was instructed to hold fast on the course on which they were then sailing all night, regardless of any signals they might see from the flagship, and then, when day should come, to make the best course possible to port. When this order was fully understood Captain Jones waited calmly for the early nightfall of the season. The Mi/ford was steadily gaining, but the A/fred, with shortened sail, remained with the prizes as if to protect them. But when night was fully come the A/fred, with signals aloft for her prizes to follow, went off on the other tack, and the Mi/ford promptly followed, while the prizes, except 82 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY the privateer under Lieutenant Saunders, kept on as before. So, when daylight came, all of the prizes but the privateer were out of sight. The privateer was, therefore, retaken. During the afternoon a snowstorm came up. The Mi/ford was still in chase of the Alfred, but the Yankee, "amid clouds and darkness and foaming surges, made her escape." The Alfred arrived safely in Boston on December I5, I776, but she had water and provisions for only two days left. When there her crew had the satisfaction of learning that all the other prizes had arrived in safety. The importance of the Me/lizsh as a prize was far greater, of course, than her mere money value, because of the uniforms she carried. These were at once forwarded to Washington's men at Trenton. So great, indeed, had been the value of this transport, that Captain Jones had determined to sink her if at any time he deemed her in great danger of recapture by the enemy, because her loss would "distress the enemy more than can be easily imagined." The service which John Paul Jones had rendered the colonies during the fall of 1 776 was greater than that of any other man who had been afloat. Nevertheless on reaching port, instead of finding rewards and promotions awaiting him, THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 83 "he was mortified by degradation and injustice." Commodore Hopkins, though about to be dismissed from the service, was still commander-in-chief of the navy. Jealous of the growing fame of John Paul Jones, he placed Captain Hinman in command of the Alfred and ordered Jones back to the little brig Providence. Nor was that the worst of the trouble that Captain Jones had to face. The politicians in Congress had kept the distribution of rank in their own hands-they had, in fact, declared on April 17, I 776, that rank should not be regulated by the date of original appointments, but at the discretion of the Congress. So it was that the men in the navy who had influence in Congress could get pr6motion regardless of the quality of their services, while men without influence' had to suffer. While John. Paul Jones was on the high seas gathering supplies for' the American army the Congress,made out a new list of naval captains,.and Jones, who had been the first of- the lieutenants:after a list of five captains, found himself the eighteenth in the new list of captains, although none of those ahead of him had rendered more distinguished services than he'or showed greater ability as a commander, and but' three or four at most had done as well. And John Paul Jones always wrote the 'word rank with a 'capital R. CHAPTER IV HE SAW "THE COUNTENANCE OF THE ENEMY" THE STORY OF ARNOLD'S EXTRAORDINARY FIGHT AGAINST OVERWHELMING ODDS ON LAKE CHAMPLAIN-A THOUSAND SAILORS, OF WHOM SEVEN-TENTHS WERE PICKED MEN, ARMED WITH THE HEAVIEST GUNS, WERE PITTED UNDER A COURAGEOUS LEADER AGAINST 700 YANKEES, CHIEFLY HAYMAKERS, POORLY ARMED AND WITH INSUFFICIENT AMMUNITION-SAVAGES WITH SCALPING KNIVES AIDED THE BRITISH-A DESPERATE STRUGGLE AT THE END-THE BEST ALL-AROUND FIGHTER UNDER WASHINGTON. IF the naval Lexington-the first battle of the Revolution afloat-was fought on the bar at Providence, Rhode Island, the naval Bunker Hill, a battle wherein glory and renown were gained in defeat, was fought on Lake Champlain. Not only was the moral effect of this battle quite as great in the courage it gave the Americans, and the pause for thought it gave the enemy; it served to head off a victorious invading British army bound for Albany and the subjugation of northern New York. The American troops had invaded Canada, some under Benedict Arnold going through the Maine woods, and some under Montgomery going by way of Lake Champlain, The g MEN.MH S S i MM I THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY two bodies had united under the walls of Quebec, and there Montgomery had died and Arnold had bled in vain. The terrors of the fierce Canadian winter and the distress of disease had aided the British forces in driving the Americans back, until at last, in the fall of I 776, Sir Guy Carleton, at the head of the British, was lodged at St. John's, at the north end of Lake Champlain, while Crown Point was the advance post of the Americans. It will be remembered that at this time the waves of this beautiful lake lapped the unbroken wilderness, no matter what the direction of the wind might be. St. John's, Crown Point, and Ticonderoga were but military posts, and there was not even a woodsy road for wagons on either side of the lake north of Crown Point. Sir Guy Carleton was confident in the belief that the revolted colonies would soon be subjugated, and he was full of ambition to have a part of the glory that would cover the British officers in their hour of triumph. His plan was to pass Lakes Champlain and George with the ample forces at his command, and then slash his way through the wilderness to Albany. Once there, the king's ships could come to meet him, the American territory would be cut in two at the Hudson, and then the end would come. TUM1I Wgajh HOM ~A WhAi fld lifixidi(t rtht h~fthr6i. af IA AWI&I Chnififi r tit ic r1akson >at ir (di a1hilao Xim. ii~iil if mig aswl xXas o f1ibia~ia!i Ai~ ]iis RA6 fiar1d1 Aalhij.) THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 87 were sent over from England in such shape that they might be taken to pieces on reaching the outlet of Lake Champlain. This done, the parts were transported over the wilderness road to St. John's, and there set up and launched in the lake. Meantime a British naval officer had been busy in superintending the building of a fleet of smaller vessels at St. John's-a fleet on which not only the sailors from the king's ships at Montreal worked, but the soldiers of the army; and even the farmers from the Canadian settlements were forced to turn to. Carleton himself was ever present to force on the work. Fortunately, the task he had set was a long as well as a hard one. With all the men and means at his command, he could not get ready to sail until well on into the month of October. j3ut when he was ready his was a fleet fit to terrify as well as astonish the farmers that, for the most part, composed the American forces, then under command of General Gates, at Ticonderoga and Crown Point. The Inflexible, that carried the flag of the fleet, was a ship of 300 tons, and carried eighteen twelve-pounders. There was one schooner called the Maria, with fourteen guns, and another, the Carleton, of twelve guns. There was a huge scow very appropriately call the Thunderer, for she was armed with six twenty-four-pounders and twelve six-pounders, besides several brass howitzers. .............. nj MM fffiffi LN M Phillidilohii bo Du WHIMN THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 89 There was a gondola of seven guns. There were twenty gunboats with one carriage gun each, the guns varying in size from nine to twenty-four-pounders. In all, the British flotilla included twenty-five vessels, that were armed with eighty-nine first-class guns of that day, and abundantly supplied with ammunition. To Benedict Arnold was given the task of preparing a flotilla to stop the invasion of Sir Guy Carleton. Benedict Arnold was an army officer and in command, under Gates, of militia who were, as said, for the most part farmers. But Arnold was a man of infinite resource, energy, and courage. Some shipwrights and sailmakers were brought from the American coast, and with such materials as were at hand he set to work to build a navy for the defence of the lake. He had, fortunately, seen service at sea, and the task was not wholly beyond his experience. When the month of October arrived Arnold was afloat with a fleet of fifteen vessels-the twelve-gun schooner Royal Savage, the ten-gun sloop Enterprise, the eight-gun schooner Revenge, the eight-gun galley Trumbull, the eightgun galley Congress, the eight-gun galley Washington, the six-gun galley Lee, the fivegun gondola Spitfire, the five-gun gondola Connecticut, the three-gun gondola NVew Haven, the three-gun gondola Providence, the three 90 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY gun gondola Philadelphia, the three-gun gondola Jersey, the three-gun gondola New York, and the three-gun gondola Boston. Two or three of the names of the vessels built for the impending strife may be worth The Royal Savage. noting. The British named one of their medium-sized vessels the Loyal Convert. Arnold named the largest of his the Royal Savage. Carleton named another for himself, but Arnold, less vain, went to the leaders of the American army and to the towns of the nation for the names of his ships. THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 91 On the whole, the Amnerican fleet mounted eighty-eight guns' to the eighty-nine of the British fleet, but they were inferior in weight of metal thrown, the largest being eighteen; pounders to the British twenty-four-poundersi while they needed 811 men for a full comple' ment, but had only 700. And.these were, from a man-o'-warman's point of view, " a miserable set; indeed, the men on board the fleet in general are not equal to half their number of good men." It was not that they lacked good will or bravery; it was that they were landsmen and untrained in the work before them. On the other hand, Sir Guy Carleton's fleet was manned by a thousand men, among whom were "eight officers, nineteen petty officers and 670 picked seamen" from the British warships in the St. Lawrence, besides the soldiers of the expedition. The quotation is from Schomberg's " History of the British,Navy." In addition to the regular crews, the British fleet was supported by a host of Iroquois Indians. Just south of the present site of Plattsburg lies Valcour Island. The bay on the west side of which Plattsburg stands is enclosed by a long cape called Cumberland Head. At daybreak on the morning of Wednesday, October I I, 1776, Benedict Arnold's little. fleet 92 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY lay at anchor in a line across the north end of the strait between Valcour Island and the mainland. It was a clear, cold morning. A strong northerly wind was sweeping through this narrow valley between the Green Mountains and the ever-beautiful Adirondac ks. It was just the kind of a day that Sir Guy Carleton wanted for his passage over the lake, and, soon after sunrise, his fleet came snoring along under full sail past Cumberland Head. THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 93 Because Arnold's little fleet lay well behind the forest on Valcour Island, Sir Guy and his fleet drove past without discovering that any one was there; but when they had opened out the view from the south between Valcour Island and the mainland, they saw that they were exposing their rear to the Americans. At this it was down helm and haul their tacks and get out oars _______ on the smaller ves- lN sels, but the wind N- t o;, was so strong that 'm^4)$ A/Q r it was not until ' o'oJ? after ten o'clock j X^ 1^ that the head of jP EM ^( the fleet, which in- H, fi cluded the schooner $ ^ ij jl& Carleton and the t$ \ ^c gunboats, arrived,k^^#,vn ai within the channel P W - C where the American The Action of October 11, 1776. fleet lay. A. Plan of action. B. Congress galley and five t 1 * ' ~~~~~~~~~~gondolas. In the meantime gondolas Arnold had taken the gondola Congress as his flagship-no doubt because she was fur. nished with oars, and, as a double-ender, could be easily handled-and with two other gondolas and the schooner Royal Savage, went down wind to meet the enemy. He reached them at eleven o'clock, and the battle opened 94 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY with a broadside from 'the British schooner 'Carleton. In a brief time the whole of the British fleet of gunboats and gondolas got into line, and Arnold was obliged to beat back to the supQLA C '~ P.' Fight on Lake Champlain, 1776. A. American fleet. B. Gunboats. C. Schooner Carleton. D. Ship Inflexible. E. Anchorage of 3ritish fleet during the night. F. Radeau Thunderer. G, Gondola Loyal Convert. H. Schooner Mlaria, with Carleton on board. port of the remainder of his vessels. In making this retreat the schooner Royac Savage was disabled by the shot of.the enemy, and before repairs could be made she grounded hard and fast on Valcour Island. There she was fired, and then abandoned by her crew, who escaped to the woods on the island, where THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 95 some' of them met a worse fate than death in the fleet, for Sir Guy Carleton had sent his Indians into the woods on both sides of the narrow water where the action was held, and these, of course, tortured as well as killed such prisoners as happened to fall into their hands. Giving little, if any, heed to the abandoned American schooner, the British squadron pressed into the narrow sound. The Inflexible, because she was a square - rigged vessel, could not be handled there, nor could the formidable scow, but the swarms of gondolas and. gunboats were as easily managed as the American vessels. By"the 'time Arnold, with the Congress, had formed his line the British were "within musket shot"-they were but forty or fifty yards away, and were veering to and fro to bring, now this broadside and now that to bear on the American squadron, while the Americans, meeting turn with turn and' manceuvre with manoeuvre, fought back without yielding a boat's length. The cannon, huge for the day and place, belched flame and smoke.' The round shot bounded along the water to bury themselves in the soft-wood hulls of the ships or cut away the 'oars with which the hulls were managed, or flew wild to sink at last harmless. The grape-shot drove through the-air in death-dealing squalls. The 96 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY roar of the conflict filled the valley and. was echoed back from the mountains. The smoke clouds drifted into the evergreen forests on both shores of the little sound. The breath of hell mingled with the fragrant odors of balsams and spruce and hemlock. The forest spit flames and lead back at the Americans. Cry answered to cry and the yell of defiance to the war-whoop of the savage. Arnold himself, on the deck of the Congress, led in the thickest of the fight, cheering to the men as they worked at the guns, and at frequent intervals stooping over a gun to aim and fire it with his own hands. The region around the scene of that battle is in these days the health resort of thousands in the summer season. We who see it now can hardly realize that it was the chosen haunt of Death on that bleak October day of 1 776. There is a paragraph in a report by Lieutenant Hadden, of the British forces, that relates to one branch of the British forces, and is worth quoting. He says: "These savages under Major Carleton moved with the fleet in their canoes which were very regularly ranged. On the day of the battle, the rebels having no land force, the savages took post on the mainland and on Valcour Island. Thus being upon both flanks a a I I I a bd M I a A A II t A a Iw 0 R u a a 0M I I'll. M A I, m 0 q a a r im!j.;m i I I t I IA w d Q m a I S 'A 2 bp r a wommmmmm... A 7 I THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 99 they were able to annoy them in the working of their guns. This had the effect of now and then obliging the rebels to turn a gun that way, which danger the savages avoided by getting behind trees," And as for the result of the day's work, the quaint words of Arnold himself shall tell it: "At half past I2 the engagement became general and very warm. Some of the enemy's ships and all their gondolas beat and rowed up within musket shot of us. They continued a very hot fire with round and grapeshot until 5 o'clock when they thought proper to retire to about six or seven hundred yards distance, and continued the fire till dark." The fleet of the enemy, though manned by picked men-by men known not only for their bravery, but for their skill in handling the guns-was obliged to draw off to get beyond the range of the smaller guns on the American fleet. The Congress, Arnold's flagship, was hulled by the British round shot no less than twelve times during the afternoon, and seven of these projectiles passed through her at the waterline. But the crew, farmers though they were, plugged her up and fought on as before. General Waterbury, who was on the Waskznglon, fought her until he was the only officer left on deck-her captain, lieutenant, and 1oo THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY master having all been killed. The Washington, like the Congress, was full of holes when the fight ended.. The Philadelphia, Captain Grant, sank within an.hour. after firing ceased. On the whole, the American loss for the day was reported at ",about sixty," while that of the British was less than forty. Two of the British gunboats were sunk and one was blown up. The Americans had checked the enemy in his advance along the lake, and had damaged him materially, but they had suffered more than he had, and, what was worse, had used up nearly all their ammunition. " Being. sensible that with his inferior and crippled force all resistance would be unavailing" on the morrow if they remained where they were,. Arnold determined to slip away to the shelter of the *American post either at Crown Point or at Ticonderoga. The night came on'dark and stormy and with a northerly gale driving over the lake. So the fleet up anchor, and " one following a [shaded] light on the stern of the other," they slipped through the enemy's line that lay across the south end of the channel, with Arnold on the Congress bringing up the rear, because that was the post of danger, and at daylight on the morning of Thursday, October * e * t .......... -HR OEM HE............................................................... I THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 103 I2th, they were ten miles away and under the lee of Schuyler Island. At this point the fleet came to anchor and began to make such repairs as were possible. Two gondolas were sunk because they were past remedy, and when the patching of the rest had been carried far enough to enable them to float without too much pumping, the fleet started on. Meantime, however, the wind shifted to the south, and the progress, depending on the oars, was necessarily slow. But, although the wind retarded the American fleet, it had retarded the British as much, if not more. The British had discovered that the Americans were gone as soon as daylight came on Thursday morning, but so slow was the progress of the square-rigged Inflekible against the head-wind that it was not until Friday that the British were able to overtake the Americans. The Americans were at this time just south of the narrow water at Split Rock. Arnold, with the Congress and the Washington and four smaller (three-gun) boats, was guarding the rear, and until noon there was an anxious race to escape to the shelter of Crown Pointanxious because the choice of the British fleet -the uninjured Inflexible, with the schooners Carleton and Maria-were in the van of the 104 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY chase, and Arnold's rowboats were together no match for the least of these. But at noon, while yet some leagues from Crown Point, the tired crews of the flying boats had to drop their sweeps and take to the guns, for the British ships were upon them. The wind had shifted to the north once more, and the British vessels, of course, got it first. No more desperate conflict is recordedin naval annals than that of Arnold that day. At the first broadside of the enemy the shattered Washington was so injured that surrender was unavoidable. Nevertheless Arnold ranged up within musket-shot of the big Inflexible and continued to fight while the farmer crews of the four gondolas stood to their guns and faced the storm of shot and, grape from the twelve-gun and fourteen-gun schoon'ers-faced the storm unflinchingly until one-third of Arnold's crew had been killed, his boat reduced to a wreck, and resistance could no longer damage the enemy. But, though beaten, the indomitable Americans were not conquered. They would never give up the ships. By Arnold's order the small galleys were run ashore in a creek near by and there fired, Arnold, in the Congress, covering their.retreat until their crews were safe on. shore, when he ran the Congress ashore also, THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 105 and then stood guard while his crew fired her, "remaining on board of her until she was in flames, lest the enemy should get possession and strike his flag, which was kept flying to the last." When the Congress was so well on fire that she could not be saved, Arnold himself leaped overboard, waded ashore, formed his' men in an orderly line, and marched away over a woodsy trail. He escaped the savages that were sent ashore seeking scalps, and safely reached Crown Point. The best all-around fighter. under. George Washington was Benedict Arnold. As a leader in actual combat he was simply unequalled. Words cannot now be found to adequately express the pity of it when it is remembered that injustice and disappointment at the last drove him mad. Although this fight on Lake Champlain was ordered on the American side by an army officer, and the crews were chiefly landsmen, it was unquestionably an exhibit of the' early sea power of the United States, for the ships were built at the national expense and the crews were in the national service. Of the results of the fight a few words must be written, because their value -to the Americans was well-nigh inestimable under the circumstances. The American fleet had fought Ad C OPY of a LETTER from Gtnnal S;r GUY CARLETON^ to Lord GEORGE GERMAIN, Principal Setcrtary of Stater fr the American Dtpartotnt. On board thi Maria off Crown- Point, Oflober 14, 1776. My Lord T HE rebel fleet upon Lake Champlain has been entirely defeated in two actions; the firfi on the Xrth inflant, between the ifland of Valcourt and the main; and the fecond on the 3tyh, within a few leagues of Crown-Point. We have taken Mr. Waterburg, the fecond in command, one of their brigadier-generals, with two of their vefiels, and ten others have been burnt and deftroyed; only three of fifteen fail, a lift of which I tranfmit, having efcaped. For further particulars I refer your Lordfhip to Lieutenant Dacres, who will be the bearer of this letter, and had a thare in both actions, particularly the firf, where his gallant behaviour in the Carleton fchooner, which he commanded, diftinguifhed him fo much as to merit great commendation: and I beg to recommend him to your Lordibip's notice and favour: at the fame time I cannot omit taking notice to your Lordfhip of the good fervice done, in Ae firft action, by the fpirited conduct of a number of officers and men of the corps of artillery, who ferved the gur-boats, which, together with the Carleton, fuflained for many hours the whole fire of the enemy's fleet, the relt of our vefels not being able to work up near enough to join effectually in the engagement. The rebels, upon the news reaching them of the defeat of their naval force, let fire to all the buildings and houfes in and near Crown-Point, and retired to Ticonderoga. The feaori is fo far advanced, that I cannot yet pretend'to inform your Lordihip whether any thing farther can be done this year. I am, &c. GUY CARLETON. tf of tbh Rebtes YPeilt on Lake Champlain, befort that Defiat. (Royal Savage, 8 fix-pounders and 4.four-pounders —Went on thore, was fet fire to, and blown up. (Revenge, 4 fix-pounders and 4 four-pounders ----Efcaped. A floop, to four-pounders -- -Efcaped. S CCongrefs, i eighteen-pounders in the bow, 2 twelve and 2 two-pounders in flern, and 6 fix-pounders in the fidesBlew up. /Washington, fame force —Taken. C- Trumble, ditto —Efcaped. The.Lee, a cutter, I nine-pounder in the bow, e twelve-pounder in the ftern, and 4 fix-pounders in lides —Run into a bay, and not known whether deftroyed. iBofton, i eighteen-pounder in the bow, 2 twelve-pounders ' in-fides - Sunk. jJerfey, ditto-Taken. C One, name unknown, fame force - Ron on feore. Five ditto, ditto - -Blown up. Other Vtftl not in tbe An7en. A f:hooner, 8 four-pounders-Sent from their fleet for provifiona. A galley, aid to be of greater force than thofe mentioned above - Fictting out at Ticonderoga. G. C.. Facsimoile of a copy of the original (Overj Decription of the Eng COPY of a LETTER ' ro Captan DOUGLAS; of tht Jfrt to Mr. STEPHENS, Secretary to tht Admiralty. Qutttb, 21/JlOober, 1776. HAVING for thcjpace of fri weeks attended the naval equipment for the important expedition on Lake Champlain, I on the 4th ijftant faw, with unfpeakable joy, the re-confiruCted (hip, now called the Inflexible, and commanded by Lieutenant Schank, her rebuilder, fail from St. John's, twenty-eight -days after her keel was laid, towards the place of rendezvous; taking in heo r8 twelve. pounders beyond the (hoal which is on this fide the fle, aux Noix,. in her way up. The prodigies of labour which have been effleed fince the rebels were driven out of Canada, in 'creating, re-creating, and equipping a fleet of above thirty fighting veffels of different forts and fizes, and all carrying cannon, fince the beginning of July, together with the tranfporting over land, and afterwards dragging up the two. rapids of St. Terefe and St. John's, thirty long-boats, the flat bottomed boats, a gondola weighing about thirty tons, and above four hundred batteaus, almoft exceed belief. His Excel. lency the Commander in Chief of the army, and all the other generals, are of the opinion, 'that the tailors of his Majefty's fhips and tranfports have (far beyond the ufual limits of their duty) exerted themfelves to the utmoft on this great and toilfome occafion nor has a man of that profefflon uttered a fingTe word expreffive of difcontent, amidft all the hardlhips they have undergone, fo truly patriotic are the motives by which they are a&uated, —To crown the whole, above two hundred prime feamen of the tranfports, impelled by a due fenre of their country's wrongs, did moft gene. rouily engage them(elves to ferve in our armed velfels during the expedition,, and embarked accordingly. Such having then been our unremitting toils, I am happy beyond exprefllon in hereby acquainting my Lords Commiflioners of the Admiralty, that the deftrudion of almoft the whole of the rebel fleet, in two feveral.battles on the eleventh and thirteenth inflant, is our reward. I have recived a letter from Captain Priogle, of the Lord Howe armed ihip, who commands-the officers and feamen on the Lake, and who beftows the higheR encomiums on their behaviour in both engagements. The rebels did by no means believe it poflible for us to get upon Lake Champlain this year; were much furprized at the irft fight of the van of our force; but ran into immediate and utter confufion the moment a three-malted (hip made her appearance, being a phcenomenon they never fo much. as dreamt of. Thus have hisMajefly's faithful fubjedts here, (contrary to a crude but prevailing idea) by- training every nerve in their country's caufe, out-done them irr working as much as in fighting. The (hip Inflexible, with the Maria and Carleton fchooners, all reconftrutlions, did the whole of th'fecond day s bufinefs, the latbottomed radcau called the Thunderer, and ihe gondola called the Loyal Convert, with the gun-boats, not havingbeen able to keep up with. them. The faid gondola was taken from the rebels the day the fiegg of Quebee was raifcd; —The lofs we have fuflained, -confidering the great fuperiority of the infurgents, is very finall confiffhig of between thirty and forty men killed and wounded, feamen, foldicrs, artillery-men, and all eight whereof were killed outright, and fix wounded, on board of the Carleton.-As to farther particulars; I muft refer you to Lieutenant Dacres, who, in juftice due to his merit, for the part he bore in deftroying the rebel fleet, I am happy in fending upon this occafion to their Lordfhips in.the Stag tranrport, as alib in thereby complying with the General's defire, who, for the fame reafon, is pleafed to honour hinr with the conveyartce of his dilpatches. erinted for R. SAYER san J. BENNETT, Mop, Chart at) broadside at the Lenox Library. agement' on Lake CHAMPL Lift of his Moajtfj' Nawl Forre on Lake Champlalh. Ship Inflexible, Lieutenant Schank, '18 twelve-pounders. Schooner Maria, Lieutenant Starke, 14 fix-pounders. Schooner Carleton, Lieutenant Dacres, i fix-pounders. Radeau Thunderer, Lieutenant Scott, 6.twenty-four, 6 twelvepounders; z howitzers. Gondola Loyal Convert, Lieutenant Longeroft, 7 nine-pounders. Twenty gun-boats, each a brafs field-piece,- rome twenty-fours to nines, oIme with howitzers. Four long - boats, -with each a carriage -gun, ferving ar armed tenders. Twenty-four long-boats with provifions. A fl of thi Seaontt dotachtd from his Majflf/ Ships and Vffits in\ th: Ritvr St. Lawrnce, to/trve on Late Chanplain. ' Stmtn.. is - - 00' Blonde' - 70 Triton - 6o Garland - 30 Canceaux - 40 Magdalen.Brunfwick} -.. Garpee.. '' Treafury. 1.arm'd Briggs - 90 Fell - - 30'1 Provine Lately wrctk'd Charlbtte g a.rmid Y lt Voluntiers froi no flip.. 9 Do. from the.j Tranfports 24. Total 670. ExAclu of 8 ofr n, asd I ptty offr. ' I........ COPY of a LETTEr;from Captain THOMAS PRINGLE. On hoard tht Maria, of Cro e-poin,,'.ht ISth of, Oaobtr,.1776.'. T is with the grcatell pleafure that.I embrace this opportunity of congratulating their Lordfhips upon the vicory compleated the 13th of this month, by his Majefty's flet under my commoand,, upon Lake Champaii.... Upon the x lth I came up with the rebel fleet commanded by, Benedift Arnold: they were at anchor lgder the. illand of Vali-.. cour, and formed a ftrong line, extending from the ifland to the i Weft fide of the continent.. The wind was fo unfavourable, thati for a confiderable time nothing could be. brought into a6ion with them but the gun-boats: the Carleton fchooner,. commanded by,Mr. Dacres, (who brings their' Loldhips this,) by much.perfeve- rance at lalt got to their afliltance; but as none of the other veflels of the fleet could then get up, I did not think it by any means ad-' vifeable to continue Ib partial and unequal a combat; confequently,i 'with the approbation of his Excellency General Carleton, who didl Print ScllerF, No., FSiw r - L asrir.-, PricOe N0S SIX LLI .AIN. me the h6n6F of being on board the Maria, I called off the Carleton and gun-boats, and brought the whole fleet to anchor in a line as near-as poflible to the rebels, that their retreat might be cut off; which purpofe was, however, fruftratedby the extreme obfcurity of the night; and in the morning the rebels had got z confiderable diflance from us-up the Lake. Upon the 13th I again faw eleven fail of their fleet making off to Crown-Point, who, after a chace of feven hours, I came up with in the Maria; having-the-Carleton and Inflexible a' fmall diflance a-ftern; the reft of the fleet almoft out of fight. The action -began at twelve o'clock, and.lafted two hours;. at which time Arnold, in the Congrefs galley, and five gondolas, ran on '"Yr~~ /'hore, and were direcly abandoned and blown up by the enemy; a circumrlance they were greatly favoured in, by the wind being off fhore, and, the narrowefrs of. the Lake. The Wafhington galley ftruck during the a6libn, and tho ref made their efcape to -iconderoga; c The killed and wounded in his' Majefty's fleet, including the. artillery in the gun-boats, do not amount to forty; but, from every information I have yet got, the lofs of the enemy muft indeed be very confiderable. Many particulars which their Lord(hips maywifh to know, I muff, at. prceent, take the liberty of Referring' you to" Mr. Dacres for; but as 1 am well convinced his modefly will not permit him to fay how great a flare he had in this victory; give me leave to affure you, that during both alions nothing could be more pointedly good than his conduil I muft alo do the juftice the officers and, feamen of this fleet merit, by faying that every perfon under my command exerted themfelves to aft up to the character of britil f' eamen, -.. - IA irtnflantial and authant;e Arount of the ROAPS qnd DISTA.NCi from NEW-YoRK to CROWN-POINT..,. 's- ' Miles. From New-York to'Kiqg's-Bridge S5 King's.Bridge to Conklin's 2a Conklin's to Croton's give: 12. * -' ~ Croton's River to Peekikill - o Peekfkill to Rogers in Highlands 9 Rogers in Highlands to Fifihfills x Fihlfkills to Poughkeepfe - t14. - Poughkeepfie to Staat borough t: Staatfborough to Rhynbeck.- 6 Rhynbeck to Ryer Shermerhorns' io Ryer Shermerhorns to Rininfton's Manor - - 14. Rininrfon's Mandr to Claverack 7 Claverack to Kenderhook - 14, Kenderhbok to Halfway-houfe o1 Halfway-houfo to Albany- -, 1 Albany to Saratoga - 36 Saratoga to Fort Edward * - 0o Fort Edward to Lake George 14 Lake George to Ticonderoga 30 Ticonderoga, to Crown Point 5I.. B alla90 o 110 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY to the last gasp. It was well-nigh exterminated, but it had not suffered in vain. It taught the British that the Americans were not only willing, but they were able fighters. In spite of the tremendous odds against thenm, at the last they had proved themselves as unyielding as the rocks that echoed back the roar of the conflict. Their stubborn wills bade the ambitious Carleton pause and consider. If, with a shattered hulk, they had kept the three best British vessels on the lake at bay until the gondolas were aground and on fire, and if they were then still able to make such a murderous fight as enabled them to fire and burn the last ship with its flag flying till burned away, what would they not do in resisting the British were an attack made on Ticonderoga? The thought was cooling to the ardor of even Carleton. Worse yet, should he succeed in taking Ticonderoga, these unyielding Yankees would contest every rod of the long wilderness route with a skill that excelled that of Carleton's best men. And that settled the question that had arisen in Carleton's mindthe question of the advisability of continuing on his course. As a most excellent account of this fight, which appeared in Dodsley's (London) "Annual Register" says, "the strength of the works, the difficulty of approach, the countenance of the enemy, and the ignorance of THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY iIl their number, with other cogent reason, prevented this design from taking place." Having looked upon "the countenance of the enemy," Sir Guy Carleton changed his mind. He decided to return to Canada. The most glorious defeat in the annals of the American navy had saved the nation from an invasion that would have severed it in twain, and probably whelmed its forces in utter defeat. CHAPTER V UNDER THE CRAGS OF THE "TIGHT LITTLE ISLE" THE SAUCY YANKEE CRUISERS IN BRITISH WATERS - WHEN FRANKLIN SAILED FOR FRANCE-WICKES IN THE REPRISAL ON THE IRISH COAST-NARROW ESCAPE FROM A LINER-A PLUCKY ENGLISH LIEUTENANT-HARSH FATE OF THE AMERICANS IN THE BRITISH PRISON-STARVED BY ACT OF PARLIAMENT -DEEDS OF THE GALLANT CONNYNGHAM-WELL-NAMED CRUISERS-A SURPRISE AT A BREAKFAST TABLE-TAKING PRIZES DAILY-WHY FORTY FRENCH SHIPS LOADED IN THE THAMESINSURANCE RATES NEVER BEFORE KNOWN. SIGNAL as has been the value of the services of the little vessels of the infant navy of the United States in their operations along the American coast and upon the woodsy waters of the highway from the north during the year of the nation's birth, the American sailors had really only just begun to fight, and it was not until they carried the fight into the very harbors of Great Britain that they taught the British merchants, who had been supporting the British ministry in its oppression of the colonies, a lesson they were slow to learn. For the British merchants had looked upon the war in America as a blessing upon their THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY,I3 business interests. It would be somewhat expensive in the way of taxation, but it would ruin their competitors, the enterprising color nists. It is in the spirit of trade and tradesmen of all classes to view with complacency the little expenses that ruin competitors. But some of the British merchants who rubbed their hands and smiled with satisfaction as.they heard of the retreat of Washington across New Jersey in 1776, were to wring them in distress because of wounds in their pockets before the end of I777-because of ships that were snatched away from under the very crags of what they were pleased to term their "tight little isle." " In the meantime the irruption of the P/hwnix and the Rose into the waters of the Hudson had roused a belligerent spirit along its borders." These were the first British warships to sail up the Hudson in the Revolutionary war, and their advent was in July, I776. The Americans had no ships to send against them, and they commonly remained at anchor out of reach of shore batteries. It was because of their presence that it was proposed to stretch an iron chain across the river at Anthony's Nose. Other obstructions were prepared, but the only thing done in the way of going afloat to attack them was when some rafts were brought down the river chained 114 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY between a couple of old sloop hulls, the whole of which were covered with dry fat, pine, tar, turpentine, etc. These were fired and let drift with the tide, but as a substitute for the modern torpedoes they were not successful. The war was, indeed, carried across the stormy Atlantic in the autumn of I 776, though only a small beginning was made that year. To Capt. Lambert Wickes was given the honor of commanding the first American naval ship to cross the Atlantic. Captain Wickes, while in command of the sixteen-gun brig Reprisal, had, as already told, made such a good fight when attacked by the British sloopof-war Shark off Martinique that he beat her off and escaped. For this he was chosen to carry Franklin, who had been appointed American commissioner to France, across to Nantes. Not only did Wickes carry his passenger safely into port; he captured two prizes on the way and sent them into port also. And then, after refitting in Nantes, he went on a cruise in the Bay of Biscay, where he captured two more prizes, of which one was the king's mail packet plying between Falmouth and Lisbon, it being the custom in those days for the British government to employ swift brigs of the navy on the regular mail routes. France and England were at peace at that time, but by carrying the prizes out to sea, ixis~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii iiiiiiiiiIiiiiiii~iiiiiiiiiiiii iiiiiiiiiiLiiiiiiiiii!iiiiiiii iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii,zzzzzzzzz, R~~~~~~~zzzzzzzzzzzzz~zzzz iiiiiiiiiiisi iiiiiiiii1iiii~iiii iiiiiiiiiiii6iiiiiiiiiii,~iiiiiiii ti iiiiiiiiii iiiiiiiiii~ iii3i~ii iiiiiiiiiiriiiiiiii iiii~iiiiiii~i~ iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiaiiiiiiiiii Iiiiiiiiiii iiiiiiiiiFiiiiiii9ii iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiriiiii~ii iiiiiiiii Iiii siiiiiiiiiiii~ iiii~iii iiiiiiii~ iiiiiiiiii~ iiiiiiiiii iiiiiiiii Siiiiiiiiiiii!iiiiiiii iiiiiii iiiii iiiiiiiiiiiiir iiiiiiiiiis iiiiiiiiieiiiiiiiiiii;iiiiiiiiiiii iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii;iiii~iiii si~~~~ia~~~ai~~~u~~~il~~~iin~~~~i url ~ ~ ~ ~ iiii iiiiiiii~iiiiiii iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii ~:iiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiriiiiiiriiiiiiiiiiiiii Biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii.iii~iiiiiii THE HISTORY OF OUR' 'NAVY 'I 17 after they had been successfully brought' to port, they were readily sold to French merrchants, and the money was placed in the hands of Franklin and the other'American commissioner, Silas Deane. What'wiiththe enthusiasm that arose vhlen he saw two prizes taken under his own eyes, and the satisfaction.arising from. having his scanty means augmented by the price of the prizes, Franklin joined heartily' with the' other commissioners in urging upon the Congress the' advisability' of keeping a naval force on the European side of the water, with French ports' as a base of action. "We have not the least doubt' but that two or three of the'Continental frigates sent into the German Ocean, with"S'rrie les~ swift-sailing cruisers, might intercept and seize a great part of the Baltic and northern trade." So wrote Franklin. The Congress had been building some frigates, but instead of sending one of them the brig Lexington, armed with sixteen long fourpounders (a brig of which something was told in a former chapter), was sent across, under command of Capt. Henry Johnson. Meantime the American commissioners purchased a ten-gun cutter called the Dolphin, which they placed under the command'of Lieut. Samuel Nicholson, who afterwards died at the head of the American navy. i18 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY The Lexhiglon arrived out in April, I777. In June this fleet of two small brigs and one "single-sticker" sailed out of Nantes, under command of Captain Wickes, to prey upon British commerce. It had been the boast of the British sailor, and it was still his boast, that "Not a sail but by permission spreads." He sang his boast over his grog; but he was mistaken. Captain Wickes, after a brief cruise in the Bay of Biscay, sailed north to intercept a fleet loaded with linen on the Irish coast. He missed the linen ships, but he sailed twice around Ireland, and captured fifteen prizes, which were sent into port. On coming back to the French coast the little fleet fell in with a British ship of the line -a big three-decker-that at once gave chase. The three Americans separated, and the Englishman followed the flagship Reprisal. That was a close call for the Reprisal. Her crew at the last felt so hard pressed that they threw their guns overboard to lighten her, and "sawed her bulwarks and even cut away some of her timbers; expedients that were much in favor among the seamen of the day." She arrived safely at the last, but the sawing of her timbers was a mortal wound, as will appear further on. THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY II9 Not in years had the British commerce received such a blow, although this was only a trifle to what followed. A storm was raised in France by the British agents. The two countries were nominally at peace, and the French king was not yet ready for war. So the Reprisal and the Lexington were ordered to leave France," while the prizes were ordered to leave port." As to the prizes, they were taken out of port and sold as others had been sold. The Reprzisal sailed for America, but in a storm off the banks of Newfoundland she foundered, no doubt because her frames had been weakened by the sawing when she was fleeing before the British ship of the line. One man, the cook, was picked from the wreckage by a passing vessel. The Lexington was captured on September 20, I777. She had refitted at Morlaix, whither she had gone when chased by the line-of-battle ship. When ordered to sail she had not a full supply of powder on board, but was, nevertheless, forced to go. She sailed on September i8th, and when two days outside of the port she fell in with the man-of-war cutter Alert, commanded by Lieutenant Bazely, and Bazely was one of the fighters of whom British seamen have a right to be proud. His cutter was smaller than the Lexington, and she had but.. *. ' I C.. I i 11 illl - S ial ~i i aa ir l l' I iiiiiiiiiiiiii iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii igggi_ I I I I I I 0 g jjiljljjj..- xXW~r x c.l l. l l l jjjjji j jj jj jjx. xj..X itr iX~uX02000200002000220000 11.1 i.1. 1 I fg< X iig.i~~i~~i ~ S~i - xr XX- Xw0.E.............................. THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 12I ten cannon to the Lexington's sixteen. The wind was strong and the sea was rough for such light vessels, but Bazely forced a fight; and for two hours and a half held his own. At the end of that time, however, his rigging had been so badly hurt that he had to stop fighting and make repairs. Seeing this, the Lexington, having expended all but a trifle of her ammunition, made sail for home, and she would have got away had any one but the plucky Bazely commanded the Alert. Bazely made repairs, overhauled the Lexington, and again opened fire. The Lexington held on her course for an hour without being able to reply, and in the hope that the wind would carry away some of the cutter's sails. 'But the cutter was well found, and the Lexington was carried into Plymouth. Lieutenant Bazely lived to become an admiral, and there is no doubt he earned his promotion. The fate of the Lexington's crew, 'because like that of every American cruiser of those days, shall be told somewhat in detail. They were thrown into jail without trial on a charge of high treason, and there they were deliberately starved. On one occasion they were glad to kill and eat a dog that strayed into their yard. The conduct of the prison officials in 'their bearing toward the prisoners was insufferably brutal. 122 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY Because the assertion that the prisoners were deliberately starved may seem to some readers an exaggeration, the proof of the statement shall be given from an English source. It may be found on page I52 of the "Annual Register for the Year I78I," published by G. Robinson, Paternoster Row, London. In reporting the proceedings of Parliament for June 20th of that year it says: "A petition was presented to the house by Mr. Fox from the American prisoners in Mill Prison, Plymouth, setting forth that they were treated with less humanity than the French and Spaniards; that they had not a sufficient allowance of bread, and were very scantily furnished with clothing. A similar petition was presented to the house of peers by the Duke of Richmond. It appeared upon inquiry that the American prisoners were allowed half a pound of bread less per day than French or Spanish prisoners. Several motions were grounded on these petitions, but those proposed by the lords and gentlemen of the opposition were determined in the negative, and others to exculpate the government in this business were resolved in the affirmative." Neither the French nor the Spanish were fully fed, but by the deliberate vote of Parlia THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 123 ment the Americans received half a pound of bread less per man each day than did the French and Spanish. At one time prisoners escaped by tunnelling under the prison walls, and in London got on board a vessel bound for Dunkirk. But a press-gang found them and dragged them back to the jail. Among their number was Master's Mate Richard Dale. A year after he was recaptured he procured a British uniform. How he got it he would never tell, not even when the war was over, and it is therefore not unlikely that a woman brought it to him. With that on, he walked out of the jail in open day and escaped. Meantime another American cruiser had been at work on the British coasts with notable results. The American commissioners in France had purchased a fast cutter, which they equipped as a man-of-war. They named her the Surprise, and that proved to be a very appropriate name. Capt. Gustavus Connyngham was placed in charge of her, his commission being one of the blank ones which had been given to the commissioners to fill out at their own discretion. It was dated March i, I777, and Captain Connyngham got away to sea on May ist, but he had a deal of trouble before he found himself fairly afloat. To avoid complications with the French gov 124 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY ernment he was obliged to send ashore all his cannon and warlike supplies and load his vessel with merchandise for Norway. In this way he left 'port.- Then, when well outside, he met by appointment a vessel that had his equipment and crew, and effected a transfer. But the government had suspected that he was going to do' this, and had compelled him to give bonds not to 'do it. Two men were hired to sign the bond, but one of them found' he had made a bad bargain, even though he had signed' it with his eyes open, for when the first prize made by the Surprise came in he was haled away to the Bastile, while the prize, in which he was to have a share, no doubt, was given up td the English without legal process. The names of the bondsmen are recorded simply as "Allen and Hodge." Hodge was the chief unfortunate, but' he was released after six weeks. The prize was the ship yoseph. She was captured the third day out. Four days later (May 7th), while cruising off the coast of Holland, the Surprise fell in with the Br'itish' packet brig 'Prince of Orange, carrying the mail'to the north 'of Europe, and having a number of passengers on bdard. It is likely that no ship's company were ever more completely surprised than'were the people' on the Prince of Orange. ',It was early in the THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY I25 forenoon when the Surprise came alongside and carried the packet by boarding. Not a gun was fired, and so little noise was, made that not a soul below decks knew that anything out of the usual course was occurring until the Yankee captain coolly walked down the,companionway and found the captain of the Prince of Orange and his passengers eating breakfast very comfortably. Because of the mails on board this packet Captain Connyngham decided to carry. his prize into port at once,. Itwill be remembered that the capture of this, mail packet happened but a few weeks after the capture of the Lisbon packet. So, as may be supposed, the arrival of the Surprise, with the Prince of Orange as a prize, created a tremendous excitement among the English. The British ambassador at Paris demanded that Connyngham and his crew be surrendered for trial as pirates, and threatened to leave the country if the demand was not complied with. As, the French government was not yet ready for war, and the firm attitude of the English compelled seeming compliance -with the demand, Connyngham was arrested and his commission taken away from him. The British ambassador sent for two sloops-of-war to. come over and convoy the 'Surprise and the Przfne of Orange. across,tQ ~... i-26 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY England. For a time it looked as if the audacious Americans would really be hanged as pirates by the infuriated Englishmen. But in those days much time was required for completing matters of diplomacy, and the American commissioners, with their agents, were working day and night not only to save Captain Connyngham, but to send him once more on a cruise against the enemy. Another swift cutter was procured and secretly armed with fourteen six-pounders and twenty swivels, while a crew of io6 men was shipped. The new man-of-war was very properly named the Revenge, and before the sloops-of-war had arrived from England Captain Connyngham had, ' with some address and intrigue," been released from prison and supplied with a new commission and sent away to sea. It was on July i8, I777, that the Revenge left port, and she was the fifth ship of the American navy to cruise in England's home waters. If the Surprise had astonished the British seafaring folks, the Revenge astounded them. And it must not be forgotten that the little fleet of three vessels under Captain Wickes had already gone to sea on the same errand. It is recorded that the Revenge "proved a remarkably successful vessel, taking prizes daily," which were? for the most part, sent tQ THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY I27 Spanish ports and sold. The means so obtained were of the utmost value to the American commissioners already in Europe and to those who came after, while the damage inflicted on the British marine was, as already intimated, something to make the British merchant wonder whether, after all, his investments for the ruin of American rivals were likely to prove profitable. Nor was the injury felt alone by those British merchants whose ships happened to be captured. The insurance rates on all British ships rose at one period to twentyfive per cent., and ten per cent. was demanded for the simple voyage from Dover to Calais. Worse yet, the fear of the Yankee cruisers became so great that shipments in British vessels were so far abandoned that "forty sail of French shizjs were loading in the Thames on freight; an instance never before known." An escort was asked for and received for British ships in the trade with Ireland, " something that had never been known even in the wars with France." But the best of the story of Captain Connyngham's cruise remains to be told. Having been considerably injured by a gale, the captain felt obliged to go into port for repairs. To return to a French port was extremely dangerous because the whole French coast was closely watched and because even were 128 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY he found safely in port he would be very likely delivered over to the English, so he sought safety in audacity and found it. Disguising his cutter as best he might with the paint and materials in store, he entered an English port (the name of which is not recorded), thoroughly refitted, and sailed away unsuspected. Some time later he entered an Irish port and got a full supply of provisions, paying for them with drafts on his agent in Spain. Later still he refitted at Ferrol, and then sailed for America. It is not uncommon for people to speak in these days of such deeds as Captain Connyngham's as if they were something of the past that might never be repeated. They do not realize that every class graduated from the Naval Academy at Annapolis contains men of equal bravery and resources-men needing only the opportunity to show their metal. It must be noted here that the British ministry chose to make a distinction between the two ships fitted out wholly in the French ports (the Suzrprise and the Revenge) and those that had come over from America; they made a distinction in spite of the fact that these two were fitted out by the American commissioners of the American government that had maintained itself for a year. The Surprise and the Revenge were denounced as pirates, and Connynglham As a pirate ommarnder. THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 129 Unfortunately for Connyngham, he was captured in a privateer early the following year after his cruise on the English coast. What treatment he then received cannot be given in detail here, but if the British authorities were willing to starve the prisoners from the Lexzingoln, which was then conceded to be a lawful ship of war, one may rest assured that it would have been kinder to Connyngham to hang him out of hand. He would, indeed, have been hanged but for the fear of retributive justice being meted out to prisoners in the hands of the Americans. So, to put it bluntly, they tortured whom they dared not kill, until the Congress, on July I7, I778, passed a resolution formally demanding the reason why he was "treated in a manner contrary to all the dictates of humanity and the practice of civilized nations." And yet, in spite of the pitiful sufferings of Connyngham and the other American seamen in British prisons, it was not until July I5, 1779, that Congress resolved to "cause the crews of vessels captured from the enemy to be confined on board prison ships and supplied and treated, in all respects, in the same manner as the crews of vessels belonging to these United States, and captured by the enemy, are supplied and treated." The story of the early doings of the Amer9 130 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY ican navy concludes with the loss of the first American flagship, the Afred. It will be remembered that the Congress had, late in I 775, ordered quite a fleet of small frigates built at different points along the coast-thirteen in all. Of the whole number, six never got to sea, for they were captured in port by the victorious British. Among those that finally carried the flag was the Ralezgh, a thirty-two-gun vessel, built at Portsmouth, and a very fair ship for that time she proved to be. Toward the end of August, I 777, the Marine Committee ordered the Ralezkgh, under the command of Capt. Thomas Thompson, and the original flagship Alf4red, which was still under the command of Capt. Elisha Hinman, to sail for France to procure supplies for the American army. The two ships had been at sea only a few days, when, on September 2d, they fell in with a small English merchantman called the Nancy, that surrendered without a stroke. From her captain they learned that she had gone adrift the day before from a big fleet bound to the Windward Islands under convoy of one twentygun ship, two fourteen-gun brigs, and one sixteen-gun sloop. On learning this Captain Thompson carefully noted the positions of the different menof-war in the squadron, and learned the code THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY I3I of signals in use in the fleet, the necessary flags for signalling having been taken from the Nancy. He then headed away in pursuit. At noon on the 3d he had overhauled the fleet, and from that time until daylight of the 4th he was busy trying. to cut out some of the merchantmen without exciting suspicion: By signalling to the Alfred with the captured code, he succeeded in concealing his character effectually; but on the morning of the 4th he gave up the hope of getting a merchantman, and sought a fight instead. Leaving the Alfred, that was too slow for the enterprise, behind, he steered with closed ports right through the fleet until in an advantageous position on the weather side of one of the brigs, the Druid, when he opened up his ports, set his flag, and fired a broadside into the unsuspecting Britisher. The effect of the -broadside upon the other ships of the fleet was picturesque. Everywhere the pipe of the. boatswain to call all hands was heard. On every ship the men ran to and fro to crowd on sail, while every tiller was thrown up or down as every ship strove to get as far away from every other ship as possible. For no one knew what minute another supposed cargo-carrier would prove to be a Yankee warship. Meantime Captain Thompson fired volley 132 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY after volley into the Druid, receiving only a feeble fire in return, until the brig was so well wrecked that she had to return to England. Her loss, according to Captain Carteret, who commanded her, was six killed and twenty-six wounded, he himself being among the severely wounded. But, although badly cut up, the Druid did not surrender; and when the other two. warships, with several of the best-armed merchantmen who 'had recovered from the panic, drew near, the Ralezgh squared away and returned to the Alfred. Rightly considered, it was not an exploit to excite the pride of the American naval officer, for the Ralezgh had more guns than the two brigs together, and should have been almost a match for all three of the warships. American sailors had not yet reached the efficiency as man-o'-warsmen that afterwards made them famous. However, the two American ships reached France, and loaded their supplies. On returning they took the southern route, hoping to meet some British merchant ships. They met, instead of merchantmen, two British menof-war-the Ariadne of twenty guns and the Ceres of fourteen. It happened that the two Americans were at the time (it was on March 9, I778), far THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 133 apart, the Raleigh being hull down to leeward. The two Britishers came down on the Alfred, and without making very much of a fight she surrendered. Seeing this, the Raleigh up helm and sailed for home, where, on his arrival, the captain was very properly relieved from the command of the ship. What John Paul Jones would have accomplished had he been in command of the Ralezgh that voyage, instead of Thompson, may be inferred from what he did when a command was given him, as will be told in the next chapter. 4 CHAPTER VI JOHN PAUL JONES AND THE RANGER THE FIRST SHIP THAT CARRIED THE STARS AND STRIPES-DASH AT A CONVOY THAT FAILED-WHEN THE -DUTCH WERE BROWBEATENTHE RANGER SENT ON A CRUISE IN ENGLISH WATERS-A SHIP TAKEN OFF DUBLIN-THE RAID ON WHITEHAVEN-WHEN ONE BRAVE MAN COWED MORE THAN A THOUSAND-THE WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT LORD SELKIRK'S SILVERWARE, WITH THE NOBLE LORD'S EXPRESSION OF GRATITUDE WHEN HE GOT IT BACKHOW CAPTAIN JONES MISSED THE DRAKE AT FIRST, BUT GOT HER LATER ON IN A FAIR AND WELL-FOUGHT BATTLE. A MOST important date in the history of the United States is June I4, 1777, for on that day it was in Congress "Resolved, That the flag of the thirteen United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white, in a blue field, representing a new constellation." In the annals of the navy it is also important, from the fact that on that day Capt. John Paul Jones was appointed to the eighteen-gun ship Ranger, which had been built at Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Repairing at once to his post, Captain Jones, in placing his ship in commission, hoisted with his own hand the new-made flag of the Union, THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 135 and that was the first occasion on which "old glory" was spread to the breeze on an American naval ship. Thereafter every effort was made to get away to sea, but the difficulties which the struggling Americans had to overcome in obtaining supplies were so great that the Ranger did not sail until November Ist. The destination of the Ranger was Nantes, France, and her mission in European waters was to carry on the work begun in such famous fashion by the Reprisal, the Lexinglon, the Surprise, and the Revenge. On the way over Captain Jones, when not far from the Azores, sighted a fleet of ten well-guarded merchantmen. The warships were too heavy for the Ranger, and the merchant ships kept so close to their protectors that it was impossible to cut one of them out of the fleet. The Ranger was not swift enough for such a purpose. The Yankee ship-builder had not yet learned the art of building men-ofwar. After leaving the convoy nothing happened save the capture of two small English brigs in the fruit trade, and on December 2d the Ranger was at anchor in the harbor of Nantes, then one of the most flourishing of French ports. At that time the American commissioners in France were Benjamin Franklin, Silas Deane, IN C O N G R E S S. The D EL E G A TES of the.U N IT E D S T AT E S of New Hdmpfire, aMealchufttsJi a Rhode-4land, Cnneticut, New-Tor, Ntew-Jerfy, Pennylvania, Delawrare, Maryland, Virginia, North-Carolina, South-Carolina, and Ceorgia, TO W E E, repofing cfpecial Truit and Confidence in your Patriotifm, Valour, Condu9and Fidelity. D 0, by thefe Prefents, conftitute and appoint you to be t ztk=;u..r'll - - -- in the of the United States of North-America, fitted out for the Defence of American Liberty, and for repellinlevery hofile Invafion thereof. You are therefore carefully and diligently to difcharge the Duty of i' i by doing ad performing all manner of Things thereunto belonging. Andwe do Rrifly charge and require all Officers, Marines and Seamen under your Command, to be obedient to your Orders as ^pa,+~t^ ~ And you are to obferve and follow fuch Orders and Diretions from Time to Time as you (hall receive from this or a future Congrefs of the United States, or Committee of Congrefs for that Purpofe appointed, or Commander in Chief for the Time being of the Navy of the United States, or any other your fuperior Officer, -according to the Rules and Difcipline of War, the Ufage of the Sea, and the InftruEtions herewith given you, in Purfuance of the Truft repofed in you. This Comnminfion to continue in Force until revoked by this or a future Congrefs; A T E at eOZa'et_ 6oss 1o77s_ By Order of the CONGrESS., - t~ c4/~ esA/~ %tw'cm~Z t Pa a aD N T. AT — I ST. - A^J^J(^^^^!!!E^ --- HSIB J)rh-As Auuidp&M fimo 0f 1 -A!: AwAirm, S^bff / 'T1* lfmt na&wroJAa Jhi 4.: THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY ' 137, and Arthur Lee. The commissioners had been secretly building a fine frigate in Holland-the finest afloat it was to be-but the able British minister at Amsterdam discovered the ownership of the new vessel and made such a vigorous protest that the Dutch were obliged to refuse to let the Americans have her. That was a great disappointment to Captain Jones, but he cheerfully obeyed the orders of the commissioners, who decided that "after equipping the Ranger in the best manner for the cruise you shall proceed with her in the manner you shall judge best for distressing the enemies of the United States, by sea or otherwise, consistent with the laws of war." Accordingly on February IO, I 778, the Ranger sailed from Nantes, having in convoy several American merchant ships that were bound home, and that were to be placed in charge of a French squadron then lying in Quiberon Bay (Brest) and bound eyentually for America; for France had by this time acknowledged the United States as an independent nation, and had decided to openly aid the Americans in their fight for liberty. On reaching Quiberon Bay he had the great satisfaction of seeing the French admiral salute the American flag after the Ranger had, under the custom of such occasions, saluted the French flag. It was an honor especially grati 138 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY fying for the reason that this was the first occasion on which a foreign power saluted the Stars and Stripes. Having overhauled his rigging and taken on additional supplies, Captain Jones sailed from Brest on April Io, I778,' and steered across to the coast of England. Passing between the Scilly Islands and Cape Clear, he overhauled a brig loaded with flax bound from Ireland to Ostend. As she was of small value he scuttled her, and to save himself the bother of prisoners, sent her crew ashore in their boat, for the capture was made in plain view of the land. This was done on April I4th. Three days later he was off Dublin, where he seized the ship Lord Chatham and sent her to Brest. Thereafter he headed away to Whitehaven, that is found a short distance south of the Clyde. It was a port with which Jones was entirely familiar, for there he had passed his childhood. It was his intention to burn the shipping which, as he knew, thronged the harbor. He arrived off the harbor at ten o'clock at night of the same day he captured the Lord Chatham, but a gale of wind prevented his landing, so he cruised on to the north. The next day (April i8th) the Ranger chased a revenue cutter that escaped him, but on the i9th he sank a coasting schooner loaded with barley. 'Dap of the BRITISH ISLES.AND TILE COAST OF FRANCE. Showing first and second voyaged of Capt. John Paul Jones, and the route of the Reprisal. -.-. ---, 'First Cruese of Capt. Jones 4 —4 --- Second " 'i " " - Ri nRoute of the Reprisal. *Battleos 19o l 20 xc.wr Scale of Miles. / Flannen Iolands 8.R M A N O C E A N 140 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY Thereafter he continued his cruise to the north. The weather prevented an attack on a fleet of merchantmen with a man-of-war at Lochryan, so the Ranger was headed across to the Bay of Carrickfergus, Ireland, at the head of which lies the city of Belfast. A fisherman picked up outside told Captain Jones that the man-of-war Drake, a ship that mounted twenty guns and was a larger ship and carried more men than the Ranger, lay at anchor inside. All this was learned on April 2ist. That night Captain Jones undertook capturing the Drake as she lay at anchor. Waiting until night had fully come, he stood up the bay, in spite of a freshening gale, until he saw the Drake lying at anchor and rolling gently to the swell. At that the Ranger was brought up into the wind almost beneath the jib-boom of the Drake, and then Captain Jones ordered his anchor let go. Had his order been obeyed instantly, the Ranger would have swung to her cable down across the cable of the enemy and then yardarm to yardarm fair alongside. Knowing nothing of the presence of an American man-of-war in those waters, the crew of the Drake would have been found in their hammocks and the Ranger would have carried her by boarding, with little if any loss of life. Unfortunately, the Ranger's anchor was not THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY I4I dropped at the word, and when, at last, it did catch in the mud, Captain Jones found himself between the Drake and a lee shore and too far astern for effective firing. -The Ranger was, in fact, in almost as bad a situation as that in which. Jones had intended to place the Drake. To remain was to. invite destruction, so the Ranger's cable was cut the instant she brought a strain upon it,. and she was headed out into the bay for another attempt at the same manceuvre, leaving the, anchor watch of the Drake to wonder what possessed the crew of what they supposed.was an especially ill-managed merchantman. ' '; However, the second attempt was not made. The weather came on fierce and cold, and the next morning, from his deck in the North Channel, Captain Jones saw the hills on both shores white with snow. So he headed away for another attempt on the shipping at Whitehaven.. Because. the attempt on Whitehaven has been more persistently misrepresented. by British. writers than any other act of the Revolutionary war it is necessary to give not only the exact facts, but the reasons which influenced Jones as.an.American naval officer in making the descent. To fully appreciate his motives, it is only necessary to recall but a few incidents of the. British onslaught upon the Americans 142 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY — to recall the burning of Portland, Maine, by Captain Mowatt, who "dispersed at a late season of the year, hundreds of helpless women and children, with a savage hope that those may perish under,the approaching rigours of the season, who may chance to escape destruction from fire and sword "-to recall that among the accounts which Sir Guy Carleton turned in for audit to the British Parliament was one item of "five gross of scalping knives," which he distributed to the, savages under his command for use on the unfortunate Americans that they might fall upon, and which were used for scalping women and children as well as prisoners of war. John Paul Jones went ashore on the British coast to burn the British shipping and no more. He was determined to "put an end, by one good fire of shipping, to all the burnings in America." He was also determined to capture an earl to hold as a hostage, and compel a brutal enemy to treat captured Americans as civilized nations have always treated prisoners of war. He missed the earl, and his men took the earl's silver plate to the value of ~500, which plate Jones purchased afterwards with his own money, and returned to the earl with a manly letter. In view of the barbarities of which the English had been guilty in America, and of Ah E'~~lghi~aiitix412sli a1 |re A Hl E 1N anXR1g 1S W im c~ ma Wlr t. IO i p ii~ t d a l p X iO|A RMttl oAdda E l cp. | 26 m i f i tfifi.h 111}X< 11 i H9 ftfifikd im & M&A MU&ii~ zzq THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 145 the retaliation which self-defence as well as justice demanded, John Paul Jones, after his cruise along the coast, might well and righteously have used the words which a titled British robber of the helpless used when brought before Parliament to answer for his crimes: "By God, at this moment I stand astonished at my own moderation." After one hundred years have passed away it is safe to say that every American who reads of the events of the American Revolution stands astonished at the moderation of the fathers. As to the facts of the descent on Whitehaven, they may be soon told. Lowering two boats after the Ranger had arrived, Captain Jones ordered fifteen men, armed with cutlasses and pistols, into each. Then he placed Lieutenant Wallingsford in charge of one, and took the other himself. Unfortunately, one of the crew, a man named David Freeman, had shipped with the express purpose of serving the English whenever opportunity offered. It is said that 220 vessels, great and small, lay in Whitehaven harbor, of which I50 were on the south side, where the town stood, and the remainder were on the north. Nearly if not quite all had been left aground by the ebb tide-the tide that prevented Jones reaching the shipping until daylight. Wallingsford 10 146 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY was sent to fire the shipping at the north, while Jones landed at the town. Whitehaven was guarded at that time by two forts of fifteen guns each. With his single boat's crew Jones ran to the nearest one. The sentinels, greatly alarmed, fled into the guard-house, where Jones locked them in. Then he spiked the guns. At the other fort, a quarter of a mile away, he was equally successful. Turning, then, to see the flames rising from the ships across the harbor, he found that nothing had been done to them. Lieutenant Wallingsford's failure to obey orders has been variously accounted for, but whatever his error may have been, he wiped it out by fighting for the flag till he died in the battle of two days later. Seeing his plan partly frustrated, Captain Jones hastened back to the water-front, and with his own hands built a fire on a large vessel in the midst of the fleet, using a brand which he had snatched from the breakfast fire in the kitchen of a nearby house. To increase the flames, he broke open and spilled a barrel of tar over the light-wood he was firing. Meantime the deserter had been alarming the town. " The inhabitants began to appear in thousands." There must have been not less than i,200 sailors alone among the I50 ships THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 147 lying there. As the flames mounted in air above the burning ship the men of the town came down en masse, but Jones stood between them and the fire, and, with pistol in hand, "ordered them to retire, which they did with precipitation." Men in a crowd numbering hundreds fell over each other to get out of range. A more amusing instance of the power of a resolute man over a mob will rarely be found in history. For fifteen minutes John Paul Jones, singlehanded, held at bay more than a thousand men. Then he entered his boat and rowed away, leaving the townsmen to fight the fire and shed tears of gratitude over the deserter who had saved them fromn destruction at the hands of fifteen men armed with cutlasses and flint-locked, single-barrelled, shoot-if-you-arelucky pistols! When Jones was well out in the bay the people found a couple of cannon which Jones had overlooked. These they loaded and fired. And Jones, recalling the time when a frigate had chased his brig in the Canadian waters, fired a pistol in return. From Whitehaven Jones sailed over to the Isle of St. Mary, landed with a force of men, and surrounded the house of the Earl of Selkirk. It was the avowed object of this landing to carry away the earl, "and to have 148 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY detained him until, through his means, a general and fair exchange of prisoners, as well in Europe as in America, had been effected." It was to ameliorate the condition of the Americans, held in jail and deliberately starved, that Captain Jones landed. Finding that the earl was not at home, the men in the landing party called on their commander to take the silverware from the castle as fair plunder and but a just revenge for the acts of British sailors in America, who had not only looted the homes of the rich, but had driven off the one cow and the one pig of the laborer. Captain Jones permitted them to do so. The following is the British account of the affair, taken from Dodsley's "Annual Register" (London) for 1778. On page 177 it says: "Edinburgh, April 27. The following are the particulars of the plundering of Lord Selkirk's house by the crew of the Ranger, American privateer. "On the 23d of April, about ten o'clock in the morning, 30 armed men came in a boat from a privateer of 20 guns, and pretending at first to be a press gang, the men surrounded the house, and the officers entered and desired to see the heads of the family. As Lord Selkirk was then at London, Lady Selkirk made her appearance. They soon made known to her who they really were; said they i g PM M. R MIN R. RROM.., 2 A.1 h5 iffiz & M ? I Afti U %Milk hiAk, M Mift , zk IFE 0 Giblim M 9 0. a I THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 151 meant to have seized Lord Selkirk's person had he been at home, and to have carried him off, but all they now asked was to have the plate of the house. As there could be no thought of resistance, this was at once complied with; and having taken possession of it they walked off and reimbarked. They behaved civily, and only the officers presumed to enter the house, and happily her ladyship did not suffer from the alarm." With this British account of this affair in mind, let the reader turn back and read the British account of the burning of Portland (then Falmouth), Maine, and so compare the American deed with that of the British. The silver taken was of the real value of ~500, but when it was sold for the benefit of the crew Jones bought it and returned it at his own expense-at a cost of Ji,ooo, all told-to the noble Lord. In August, i789, years after the plate was returned, the earl was constrained to write Jones that, " notwithstanding all the precautions you took for the easy and uninterrupted conveyance of the plate," there were considerable delays; nevertheless, it arrived safely. "I intended to have put an article in the newspapers about your having returned it," he adds, but his good intentions miscarried. However, if he did not publicly acknowledge the honor of the American naval 152 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY captain who had spent $5,000 to return the plate, he privately " mentioned it to many people of fashion," so reads his letter. The British historians deliberately omit mentioning that Jones returned the silver. After the descent upon the Isle of St. Mary's the Ranger still lingered on that coast. Captain Jones knew very well that many cruisers were already under orders to seek him; but they were still far away, and he must needs try conclusions with the Drake that he had tried to take over in the bay near Belfast. On the morning of April 24, I778, he hove to off the bay, and then filled and backed until well along in the afternoon. The commander of the Drake, seeing a stranger outside, sent a young officer in a small boat to see what she was. Captain Jones handled his ship so skilfully that her stern was kept toward the coming boat until she was directly under the Ranger's counter. Then the officer was induced to come on board, and not until he had climbed up the ladder and reached the deck did he know that he was on a Yankee cruiser. Finding his officer did not return, the commander of the Drake got under way. Meantime signal fires had been built on every hilltop along both coasts, and the black columns of smoke were rising high in air. Moreover, a fleet of five excursion boats crowded with curi THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY I53 ous spectators was seen following the British man-of-war. But the wind was light and the tide against him, and it was not until an hour before sunset that the Drake's captain was able to bring his ship within fighting range of the Yankee. Finally he found himself under the lee quarter of the Ranger and but a pistol-shot away. There he hoisted his colors. Captain Jones at once ran up the Stars and Stripes. "What ship is that?" said a voice on the Drake. "It is the American continental ship Ranger. We are waiting for you. The sun is but little more than an hour from setting. It is therefore time to begin," replied Captain Jones. Then turning to the man at the wheel, Captain. Jones ordered the helm hard up. The Ranger wore slowly around, and the Drake followed her motion until they were drifting broadside to broadside and yardarm to yardarm fair before the wind. And then Captain Jones opened the battle with a broadside. The enemy replied in kind, and as fair a fight as naval annals record was begun. But after a little the fore and main topsail-yards of the Drake were cut in two at the masts and hung useless. The mizzen-gaff was shot away and dropped. The jib fell and dragged overboard in the water. The rigging and sails were in tatters. Worse yet, blood t54 TH/t HISTORY OF OUR NAVY was trickling from her scuppers because of the dead and wounded on her deck. Among the dead at the last was her commander, Captain Burdon, who was killed by a musket-ball through his brain. Among the wounded was the first lieutenant, and he was mortally hurt. The flag first spread on the Drake was shot away, but they raised another. This, too, was shot away, and falling overboard, it dragged in the water. A little later, and just as the sun was going down behind the Irish hills, a cry for quarter was raised on the Drake, and the battle came to an end. The Ranger in this fight had eighteen guns. The Drake carried twenty. The Ranger's crew numbered 'I23. The Drake had 151 men on her books, and, in addition to these, had taken on a number of volunteers from the shore, who had been anxious to help whip the Yankees. These raised the number of her crew to i6o by the lowest account and 190 by the highest. The Ranger lost two killed, including Lieutenant Wallingsford, and six wounded. The Drake lost forty-two killed and wounded. It is fair to say that the British account of the battle in Allen's history says the loss was but twenty-four. But Allen probably counted only those killed and wounded among the ship's regular crew and ignored the volunteers, while the Americans THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 155 counted the corpses and men under the surgeon's care. The odds had been against him, but the honors remained with John Paul Jones. After the battle a merchant brig happened along, and a prize crew was put on board of her. Then the fishermen who had been captured when the Ranger first arrived on the coast were not only released, but enough gold was given them to pay for all their losses, together with a sail from the Drake's outfit as a notice to the shore people that the Yankee had won. They went away cheering the generosity of John Paul Jones. And while speaking of the generosity of this American naval captain, it should be told that, in fitting out the Ranger on the American side, he advanced to the American government several thousand dollars (continental currency) of his own money, and that he bore all the expense of fitting and refitting her on the French coasts before her cruise. In all, he spent some /I,500 sterling of his own money, and because of the poverty of the American government he had to wait a long time to get it back again. It was very well written of this cruise that "the news of the brilliant achievements of Paul Jones electrified France and appalled England." 156 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY Just how much England was appalled by the American demonstrations on her coast may be inferred from a statement of the number of men " raised " (ze., gathered in by press gangs) for her navy. In 1774 she "raised" 345 men. In 1777 she "raised" 37,458, and in 1778 the number was 41,847. CHAPTER VII THE FIRST SUBMARINE WARSHIP IT WAS SMALL AND INEFFECTIVE, BUT IT CONTAINED THE GERM OF A MIGHTY POWER THAT IS AS YET UNDEVELOPED-WHEN NICIHOLAS BIDDLE DIED-1HE1 WAS A MAN OF THE SPIRIT OF AN IDEAL AMERICAN NAVAL OFFICER-FOUGHT HIS SHIP AGAINST OVERWHELMING ODDS TILL BLOWN OUT OF THE WATER-THE LOSS OF THE IHANCOCK-AN AMERICAN CAPTAIN DISMISSED FOR A GOOD REASON -CAPTAIN RATHBURNE AT NEW PROVIDENCE-LOSS OF THE VIRGINIA-CAPTAIN BARRY'S NOTABLE EXPLOIT-WITH TWENTYSEVEN MEN TO HELP HIM, HE CAPTURED A SCHOONER OF TEN GUNS BY BOARDING FROM SMALL BOATS IN BROAD DAYLIGHT, ALTHOUGH THE SCHOONER WAS MANNED BY Il6 SAILORS AND SOLDIERS. ONE of the most striking features of the American naval service during the war of the Revolution was its irregularity. There was a navy continuously in existence, but the services rendered by individual men and ships were extremely irregular. It has already been told how John Paul Jones, after his successful cruise to the Cape Breton waters, had to remain idle for many months. After his famous cruise in the Ranger he was again idle until the king of France furnished him a ship. Captain Gustavus Connynglam, who gained such I58 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY a reputation in the Surprise and the Revenge on the British coasts, was actually obliged to seek service in a privateer, after his return to port, for lack of other employment. Jones had an excellent offer to do this also, but he refused on the ground that he was not fighting for money, but for the "Honour of the American flag." If men like Jones and Connyngham were left to shift for themselves, and without pay at that, it follows that others were treated in like manner. The cause of this condition of affairs is readily found by the student in the method of caring for the navy adopted by the Congress. It was a method in keeping with a deal of the work done then. First, there was a Marine Committee of the Congress to buy ships and send them on a single "cruise eastward." Later, there was a Marine Board, part congressmen and part plain citizens, "but no two of whom shall be from the same State." There was a "Continental Naval Board." There was a "Board of Admiralty." There were naval agents. The powers and duties of all these were changed so often that no one can follow them in less space than a large volume, and a more wearying volume than that would be is difficult to imagine. There was, in short, an utter lack of system in naval affairs throughout the whole Revolution. Worse THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 159 yet, the Congress was as lacking in funds as in system. The first result of this state of affairs was to prevent the development of an esprit de corps among the officers. As already told, Capt. Thomas Thompson of the Ralezgh ran away and left the Alfred to her fate when the Anradne and Ceres overhauled her. When John Paul Jones was towing the Drake into Brest he saw a sail, and left the Drake for a time to examine the stranger. While he was away the American officer in the Drake tried to carry her off to another port, hoping to get her fitted out and sent on a cruise with himself in command, independent of Captain Jones. The list of offences of this class-the clashing of officers where they would in this day stand shoulder to shoulder-is distressingly long. Another very serious result of the mismanagement was in the effect on the common sailors. It was very difficult to get men for the national ships, because the life on the privateers was more to their liking, and the chances of getting prize money very much greater. And all this is worth relating because the men of the navy won glory and were indispensable to the ultimate victory of a growing nation, in spite of it. The record of the naval men as a whole was as brilliant as the con i6o THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY gressional management was inefficient, and that is a condition of affairs that has since been known in the navy. To return to the American coast and give an account of the more interesting naval doings there during the time that the old flag was winning glory in Europe, it is found that considerable losses were sustained, though the story is not by any means wholly depressing. For instance, there is the story of Capt. Nicholas Biddle. "Liberty never had a more intrepid defender" than Nicholas Biddle. It will be remembered that he was one of the original captains of the navy, and was appointed to the brig Andrea Doria, in which he gained reputation. So, when the first of the thirty-two-gun frigates, which Congress ordered in 1775, was completed, Captain Biddle was placed in command. She was called the Randolph, and she sailed from Philadelphia in February, i777. Off Hatteras she sprung her masts in a gale, and put into Charleston for repairs. Then she sailed again, and within a week brought in six prizes, including a twenty-gun ship called the True Brziton. Unfortunately, a blockading squadron appeared off Charleston at this time, and until March, 1778, he was held there. Meantime, however, his success had fired the hearts of the South Carolinians, and while 0 0i ALU OFP Ita AMERICAN COAST, Showing Principal Battles and.Forts during' the Revolutionary and French Wars; 0 100 200 400 600 800 cale of Mle. scale of Miles. Jamaica<_ v0 II i62 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY he was there he had the satisfaction of seeing them fit out four State cruisers carrying, all told, sixty-four guns. This work completed, Captain Biddle, with the State fleet as consorts, sailed out to look for the blockading squadron, but it had sailed away. So Captain Biddle took his little squadron down along the Caribbean coasts. Here, east of the Barbadoes, they happened to fall in with the British ship-of-the-line Yarmouth, Captain Vincent. To properly understand what followed, it must be known that a ship-of-the-line was built of such heavy timbers that nothing smaller than a twelve-pounder could seriously damage its hull. The only guns in Biddle's squadron that could- hope to penetrate her hull were Biddle's own, and his ship had but thirty-two guns to the Yarmouth's sixty-four, and they were smaller at that; so Captain Biddle signalled the State cruisers to run for it while he, in spite of the vast superiority of the enemy, sailed boldly up to her, broadside to broadside. Better yet, for one full hour he was able to maintain the contest with his thirty-two small guns against sixty-four large ones. He was wounded, but he refused to allow his men to carry him below, and while he was thus directing the battle from the quarter-deck, the powder in the Randolph's magazine was in some THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY i63 way fired, and the ship was literally blown out of the water. Pieces, of the wreck, in flames, fell on the Yarmouth, while an American ensign, rolled up ready to be sent aloft, in case the one flying should be shot. away, fell, un-,singed, upon her. forecastle. - It, was at Io o'clock on the morning of March 7, I778,. that this disaster occurred. The Randolph had on board 3I5 men at the time. The people of the Yarmouth supposed that all hands had perished, and made sail after the rest of the Yankee squadron, though without. success. On March. i2th the Yarmouth happened back over..the very water where the fight had taken place, and there found a piece of the Randozph floating about with four seamen upon it, who were, of course, picked up. Captain Vincent of the Yarmouth reported five men killed and twelve wounded. The little brig Cabot, of fourteen guns, that made such a brave fight in the first cruise of the first squadron, came to grief on the coast of Nova Scotia. She was in command of Capt. Joseph Olney. The British frigate Mzlford, with which John Paul Jones had had so much fun, happened along, and as the Cabot was even slower:than she, Captain Olney ran her ashore to keep her from the enemy. The crew barely had time to. get ashore, but they I64 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY fired the Cabot before leaving. Once on shore, they were, of course, afoot and friendless in the enemy's country, but Captain Olney and his men captured a schooner and returned home in her. This occurred in March, I777. On April 9th, following, Capt. Dudley Saltonstall, in the Trumbull of twenty-eight guns, captured two British transports off New York harbor that were laden with military stores for the British army, and so more than retrieved the loss of the Cabot. The Trumbull lost seven killed and eight wounded. The only record of the loss on the transports says that "the enemy suffered severely." The year I777 was noted for the building of the first American submarine torpedo boat. David Bushnell, of Saybrook, Connecticut (he moved to Peekskill, New York, later), a most ingenious mechanical engineer, devised a turtleshaped cask large enough to hold a man and carry a torpedo containing I 50 pounds of powder, with mechanism to fasten it to the wooden bottom of a ship and to fire it when so fastened. Because this was the first attempt to use a submarine vessel for the purposes of war, and because Bushnell's invention, fearsome as it was, is not even yet developed to anything like the degree of which it is capable, the description which he wrote of the thing is well worth giving in full, as follows; THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY "GENERAL PRINCIPLES AND CONSTRUCTION OF A SUBMARINE VESSEL, COMMUNICATED BY DAVID BUSHNELL, OF CONNECTICUT, THE INVENTOR, A LETTER OF OCTOBER, 1787, TO THOMAS JEFFERSON, THEN MINISTER PLENIPOTENTIARY OF THE UNITED STATES AT PARIS. " The external shape of the submarine vessel bore some resemblance to two upper tortoise shells of equal size, joined together; the flue of entrance into the vessel being represented by the openings made by the swells of the shells at the head of the animal. The inside was capable of containing the operator, and air sufficient to support him thirty minutes, without receiving fresh air. At the bottom opposite to the entrance was fixed a quantity of lead for ballast; at one edge, which was directly before the operator, who sat upright, was an oar for rowing forward or backward; at the other edge was a rudder for steering. An aperture, at the bottom, with its valve, was designed to admit water for the purpose of descending, and two brass forcing-pumps served to eject the water within, when necessary for ascending. At the top there was likewise an oar, for ascending or descending, or continuing at any particular depth. A watergauge or barometer determined the depth of descent; a compass directed the course, and a ventilator within supplied the vessel with fresh air, when on the surface. The entrance 166 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY into the vessel was elliptical, and so small as barely to admit one person. This entrance was surrounded by a broad elliptical iron band, the lower edge of which was let into the wood whereof the body of the vessel was made, in such a manner as to give its utmost.support to the body of the vessel against the pressure of the water. Above the upper edge of this iron band there was a brass crown or cover, resembling a hat with its crown and brim,. which shut water-tight upon the iron band. The crown was hung to the iron band with hinges, so as to turn over sideways when opened. To make it perfectly secure when shut, it might be screwed down upon the band by the operator, or by a person without. " There were in the brass crown three round doors, one directly in front and one on each' side, large enough to put the hand through. When open they admitted fresh air. Their shutters were ground perfectly tight into.their places with emery, and were hung with hinges and secured in their places when shut. There were likewise several glass windows in the crown for looking through and for admitting light in the daytime, with covers to secure, them.. There were two air-pipes in the crown; a ventilator which drew fresh air through one, of the air-pipes, and discharged it into the lower part of the vessel. THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY i.67 "The fresh air introduced by the ventilator expelled the impure air through the other pipe. Both air-pipes were so constructed that they shut themselves, whenever the water rose near their tops, so that no water could enter through them. They opened themselves immediately after they rose above the water. The vessel was chiefly ballasted with lead fixed to its bottom. When this was not sufficient, a quantity was placed within, more or less, according to the weight of the operator. Its ballast rendered it so solid that there was no danger of its oversetting. The vessel, with all its appendages and the operator, was of sufficient weight to settle it low in the water. About two hundred pounds of the lead at the bottom for ballast, could be let down forty'or fifty feet below the vessel. This enabled the operator to ris'e instantly to the surface of the water in case of accident. "When the operator desired to descend, he placed his foot upon the top of a brass valve, depressing it, by which he opened a large aperture in the bottom of the vessel, through which the water entered at his pleasure. When he had admitted a sufficient quantity, he descended very gradually. If he admitted too large a quantity, in order to obtain an equilibrium, he ejected as much as was necessary by the two brass forcing-pumps which x68 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY were placed at each end. Whenever the vessel leaked, or he desired to ascend to the surface, he also made use of these forcing-pumps. When the skilful operator had obtained an equilibrium, he could row upward or downward, or continue at any particular depth, with an oar placed near the top of the vessel, formed upon the principle of the screw, the axis of the oar entering the vessel. By turning the oar in one direction he raised the vessel, by turning it the other way he depressed it. A glass tube, eighteen inches long and one inch in diameter, standing upright, its upper end closed, and its lower end, which was open, screwed into a brass pipe, through which the external water had a passage into the glass tube, served as a water-gauge or barometer. " There was a piece of cork, with phosphorus on it, put into the water-gauge, condensing the air within, and bearing the cork on its surface. By the light of the phosphorus, the ascent of the water in the gauge was rendered visible, and the depth of the vessel ascertained by a graduated scale. "An oar formed on the principle of the screw was fixed in the fore part of the vessel; its axis entered the vessel, and, being turned in one direction, rowed the vessel forward; but being turned in the other, rowed back THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY x69 ward. It was constructed to be turned by the hand or foot. " A rudder to the hinder part of the vessel, which commanded it with the greatest ease, was made very elastic, and might be used for rowing forward. The tiller was within the vessel, at the operator's right hand, fixed at a right angle on an iron rod which passed through the vessel. ' A compass marked with phosphorus directed the course above and under water. " The internal shape of the vessel, in every possible section of it, verged toward an ellipsis, as near as the design would allow; but every horizontal section, although elliptical, was yet as near to a circle as could be admitted. " The body of the vessel was made exceedingly strong; a firm piece of wood was framed parallel to the conjugate diameter, to prevent the sides from yielding to the great pressure of the incumbent water in a deep immersion. This piece of wood was also a seat for the operator. " Every opening was well secured. The pumps had two sets of valves. The aperture at the bottom for admitting water was covered with a plate perforated full of holes, to receive the water and prevent anything from closing the passage or stopping the valve 17o THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY from shutting. The brass valve might likewise be forced into its place with a screw. The air-pipes had a kind of hollow sphere fixed round the top of each, to secure the air-pipe valves fromi injury. These hollow spheres were perforated full of holes for the passage of air through the pipes; within the air-pipes were shutters to secure them, should any accident happen to the pipes or the valves on their tops. All the joints were exactly made, and were water-tight. " Particular attention was given to bring every part necessary to performing the operation, both within and without the vessel, before the operator, so that everything might be found in the dark. Nothing required the operator to turn to the right hand or the left. " DESCRIPTION OF A MAGAZINE AND ITS APPENDAGES DESIGNED TO BE CONVEYED BY THE SUBMARINE VESSEL TO THE BOTTOM OF A SHIP. " In the fore part of the brim of the crown of the vessel was a socket, and an iron tube passing through the socket; the tube stood upright, and could slide up and down six inches. At the top of the tube was a woodscrew, fixed by means of a rod, which passed through the tube and screwed the wood-screw fast upon the top of the tube. By pushing S~ the wood-screw up against the bottom o'f a ' THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY I7I ship, and turning it at the same time, it would enter the planks. When the wood-screw was firmly fixed, it could be cast off by unscrewing the rod which fastened it upon the top of the tube. " Behind the vessel was a place, above the rudder, for carrying a large powder magazine. This was made of two pieces of oak timber, large enough, when hollowed out, to contain an hundred and fifty pounds of powder, with the apparatus used in firing it. A rope extended from the magazine to the wood-screw above mentioned; when the wood-screw was fixed, and to be cast off from its tube, the magazine was to be cast off likewise, leaving it hanging to the wood-screw. It was lighter than water, that it might rise up against the object to which the screw and itself were fastened. "Within the magazine was a clock, constructed to run any proposed length of time under twelve hours; when it had run out its time, it unpinioned a strong lock, resembling a gun-lock, which gave fire to the powder. This apparatus was so pinioned that it could not possibly move till, by casting off the magazine from the vessel, it was set in motion. "The skilful operator could swim so low on the surface as to approach very near a ship in the night without fear of being discovered, 172 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY and might, if he chose, approach the stem or stern with very little danger. He could sink very quickly, keep at any necessary depth, and row a great distance in any direction he desired without coming to the surface. When he rose to the surface he could soon obtain a fresh supply of air, and, if necessary, he might then descend again and pursue his course. "EXPERIMENTS MADE TO PROVE THE NATURE AND USE OF A SUBMARINE VESSEL. "The first experiment I made was with about two ounces of powder, which I exploded four feet under water, to prove to some of the first personages in Connecticut that powder would take fire under water. "The second experiment was made with two pounds of powder, enclosed in a wooden bottle, and fired under a hogshead, with a twoinch oak plank between the hogshead and the powder; the hogshead was loaded with stones, as deep as it could swim. A wooden pipe, descending through the lower head of the hogshead and through the plank into the powder contained in the bottle, was primed with powder. A match put to the priming exploded the powder with a great effect, rending the plank into pieces, demolishing the hogshead, and casting the stones and ruins THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 173 of the hogshead, with a body of water, many feet into the air, to the astonishment of the spectators. This experiment was likewise made for the satisfaction of the gentlemen above mentioned. " I afterwards made many experiments of a similar nature, some with large quantities of powder. " In the first essays with the submarine vessel, I took care to prove its strength to sustain the great pressure of the incumbent water, when sunk deep, before I trusted any person to descend much below the surface; and I never suffered any person to go under water without having a strong piece of rigging made fast to it, until I found him well acquainted with the operations necessary for his safety. After that I made him descend and continue at particular depths without rising or sinking; row by the compass; approach a vessel; go under her, and fix the wood-screw into her bottom, etc., until I thought him sufficiently expert to put my design into execution. I found, agreeably to my expectations, that it required many trials to make a person of common ingenuity a skilful operator. The first I employed was very ingenious, and made himself master of the business, but was taken sick in the campaign of 1776, at New York, before he had an opportunity to I74 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY make use of his skill, and never recovered his health sufficiently afterwards. "After various attempts to find an operator to my wish, I sent one who appeared more expert than the rest from New York, to a fiftygun ship, lying near Governor's Island. He went under the ship and attempted to fasten the wood-screw into her bottom, but struck, as he supposes, a bar of iron. Not being well skilled in the management of the vessel, in attempting to move to another place; he lost the ship, and after seeking her in vain for some time he rowed some distance and rose to the surface of the water, but found daylight had advanced so far, that he durst not renew the attempt. On his return from the ship to New York, he passed near Governor's Island, and thought he was discovered by the enemy; he cast off the magazine, as he imaginged it retarded him in the swell, which was very considerable. "After it had been cast off one hour, the time the internal apparatus was set to run, it blew up with great violence. " Afterwards, there were two attempts made in Hudson's River,. above the city, but they effected nothing. Soon after this the enemy went up the river, and pursued the vessel which had the submarine boat on board, and sunk it with their shot. Though I afterwards THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY I75 recovered the vessel, I found it impossible to prosecute the design any further. I had been in a bad state of health from the beginning of my undertaking, and was now very ill. The situation of public affairs was such, that I despaired of obtaining the public attention and assistance necessary. I therefore gave over the pursuit for that time and waited for a more favorable opportunity, which never arrived. "In the year I 777, I made an attempt from a whale-boat against the Cerberus frigate, then lying at anchor between Connecticut River and New London, by throwing a machine against her side by means of a line. The machine was loaded with powder to be exploded by a gun-lock, which was to be unpinioned by an apparatus, to be turned by being brought alongside of the frigate. This machine fell in with a schooner at anchor, astern of the frigate, and concealed from my sight. By some means or other it was fired, and demolished the schooner and three men, and blew the only one left alive overboard, who was taken up very much hurt. "After this, I fixed several kegs under water charged with powder, to explode upon touching anything as they floated.along with the tide. I set them afloat in the Delaware, above the English shipping at Philadelphia, in 176 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY December, I 777. I was unacquainted with the river and obliged to depend upon a gentleman very imperfectly acquainted with that part of it, as I afterwards found. We went as near the shipping as we durst venture. I believe the darkness of the night greatly deceived him, as it did me. We set them adrift, to fall with the ebb upon the shipping. Had we been within sixty rods, I believe they must have fallen in with them immediately, as I designed; but as I afterwards found, they were set adrift much too far distant, and did not arrive until after being detained some time by the frost; they advanced in the daytime in a dispersed situation and under great disadvantages. "One of them blew up a boat with several persons in it, who imprudently handled it too freely, and thus gave the British that alarm which brought on the ' Battle of the Kegs.' The above vessel, magazine, etc., were projected in the year I77I, but not completed until the year I775. "D. BUSHNELL." The man who handled the submarine boat in New York harbor was Sergeant Ezra Lee, and the ship mentioned was the sixty-four-gun liner Eagle. It is a great pity that a full record of Bushnell's experiments and of the experi THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY I77 ences of Sergeant Ezra Lee, who handled the strange craft, was not made for the benefit of subsequent inventors, because much useless labor would have been saved. For instance, every inventor who has since worked on theidea has had to learn for himself that it is utterly impossible to see through the water after he has been once submerged, while other matters of little less importance have been worked out over and again. The attack on the Cerberus mentioned above was described by the British captain as follows: "Wednesday night, being at anchor to the westward of New London, in Black Point Bay, the schooner I had taken, at anchor close by me, astern, about eleven o'clock at night, we discovered a line towing astern that came from the bows; we immediately conjectured that it was somebody that had veered himself away by it, and began to haul in; we then found that the schooner had got hold of it (who had taken it for a fishing line), gathered it near fifteen fathom, which was buoyed up by little bits of sticks at stated distances, until he came to the end, at which was fastened a machine, which was too heavy for one man to haul up, being upwards of ioo cwt.; the other people of the boat turning out, assisted him, got it upon deck, and were unfortunately examining 4? I78 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY it too curiously, when it went off like the sound of a gun, blew the boat to pieces, and set her in a flame, killed the three men that were in the stern; the fourth, who was standing forward, was blown into the water; I hoisted out the boat, and picked him up much hurt; as soon as he could recollect himself, he gave me the following description, as near as he could remember. It was two vessels shaped like a boat, about twenty inches long, and a foot broad, secured to each other at the distance of four feet, by two iron bars, one at each end, and an iron tube or gun-barrel in the centre, which was loose (as he had himself turned it round with his hand); they swam one over the other, the upper one keel upwards; the lower swam properly, but was so under water as just to keep the upper one a few inches above the surface; to the after iron bar hung a flat board, to which was fixed a wheel about six inches in diameter, and communicated itself to one on the upper side of the boat, of a lesser diameter; opposite to these was another wheel, on the flat of the under one or loaded vessel, which had likewise communication with the wheels of the upper boat; it was covered with lead, and the keel heavily loaded in order to keep it down in the water. " The fatal curiosity of the seamen (who THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY I79 unfortunately had been bred in working in iron) set this wheel agoing, which it did with great ease backwards and forwards, and during their looking at it, which was about five minutes from the time of its being first put in motion, it burst. Upon examining round the ship after this accident, we found the other part of the line on the larboard side buoyed up in the same manner, which I ordered to be cut away immediately for fear of hauling up another machine, which I concluded was fast at the end, and might burst when near the ship. "l The mode these villains must have taken to have swiftered the ship, must have been to have rowed off in the stream a considerable distance ahead of the ship, leaving one of their infernals in shore, and floating the other at the distance of the line, which, from the quantity that we have got on board (near 70 fathoms), and what the man tells me they saved in the schooner, which was upwards of I50 fathoms more, must have been near 300 fathom; they at the length of this line put the other in the water, and left it for the tide to float down, which in this place runs very strong. " As the ingenuity of these people is singular in their secret modes of mischief, and as I presume this is their first essay, I have thought it indispensably my duty to return and give 180 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY you the earliest information of the circumstances, to prevent the like fatal accident happening to any of the advanced ships that may possibly be swiftered in the same manner, and to forbid all seamen from attempting hauling the line, or bringing the vessel near the ship, as it is filled with that kind of combustible that burns though in the water. "I am, sir, etc., "J. SYMONS." David Bushnell was born in Saybrook (now Westbrook), Connecticut, in the year I742. He entered Yale College in I77I, and graduated in I 775. During his collegiate career he turned his attention to submarine warfare, and after leaving college devoted his time and patrimony entirely to the subject. He was noted for his studious habits, great inventive genius, and eccentricity. The unfortunate issue of his projects rendered him very dejected. Disappointed by his failures and the neglect of the government, he went to France at the close of the war, where he remained for a number of years, when he returned and settled in Georgia, under the assumed name of Dr. Bush, desiring thus to conceal his identity and connection with the early efforts of his life. There he was placed at the head of one of the most respectable schools in the State, THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY l8l but subsequently engaged in the practice of medicine, by which he amassed a considerable fortune. He was much beloved and respected by all who knew him, and died at the age of ninety years, in the year 1826. By his will his proper name became known; his executors were required to.make inquiries in the town of Saybrook for persons of the blood and family of Bushnell, and whoever in the opinion of the executors was found to be most worthy, on the score of moral worth, should be regarded as the sole legatee. But should none of the kindred be found to fulfil the condition set forth in the will, the estate was to be transferred to Franklin College, Georgia. Legatees were found in Connecticut. The loss of the American frigate Hancock of thirtytwo guns followed the capture of the two valuable transports off New York. Itwas Signatures of John Manly and Hector McNeil. Signatures of John Manly and Hector McNeil. in May that the Hancock, under Capt. John Manly (he who in the Massachusetts schooner Lee worked such havoc on the British storeships off Boston in 1775), sailed from Boston i82 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY on a cruise, having in company the Boston of twenty-four guns under Capt. Hector McNeil. When four days out they overhauled a strange sail, and Captain Manly, after a bit of veering to and fro to determine the enemy's speed and power, gave him a broadside. At this the stranger tried to run for it, and with stern chasers strove to disable the Hancock's rigging. But the Hancock was then one of the swiftest American ships, and Captain Manly held his fire until alongside, when he gave him a broadside. Although manifestly of inferior strength, the enemy fought back bravely for an hour, and then, the Boston having arrived within range, he struck his colors. It proved to be the frigate Fox of twenty-eight guns, Captain Fotheringham. The Hancock lost eight in killed and wounded, and the Fox thirty-two. Having placed a prize crew on the Fox, Captain Manly made the mistake of sailing too close to Halifax, the principal British naval station in America. Here, on June Ist, he fell in with three British ships, the Razbzbow of forty-four guns, commanded by Sir George Collier; the frigate Flora of thirty-two guns, and the sloop-of-war Vzicor of eighteen guns. When the enemy was discovered the Boston was well out to sea, and having the weather gauge, she down with her helm and sailed .,ntiac. 0o n 7o as. J ad, rM b. s*x;L^-~,n r. 4t 4 L '.CC-. /ntroa#r.l t~n~. i *. Ae h. a, ^ 4C t nr-.< - elyC I;,< st /t c4etPYV y^^n tnt lb t At f A.&- woe I Ltn SIhCa / 7zlA -, [Over] Facsimile of a Letter from Thomas efferson to Captain McNeil. A,8 r& ftzZ > at [Over] Facsimile of a Letter from Thomas Jefferson to Captain McNeil. A 184 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY * A z - j t -/ e 4in r, j-and t y wer e ard pessed. in shore, and they were soon hard pressed. Manly, seeing himself deserted, at once began throwing overboard all unnecessary weights, THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 185 and so lightened his ship that he was in a fair way to escape, when the wind failed him, although the enemy still held enough to draw within easy range and in a position to rake. He was thus under the guns of the Rainbow of forty-four guns and the Victor of twenty, and could not turn his ship in any direction. Of course he surrendered. Meantime the Flora had recaptured the Fox, although the prize crew, few as they were in number, made a good fight. It was the belief of Captain Manly that had the Boston come down to engage the Flora and so pitched the Victor against the Fox, he would have been able to account for the Rainbow, and when the affair came before Congress Captain Manly's view prevailed, and Captain McNeil was dismissed from the service for running away. On the theory that ships are sent to sea to fight to the last gasp, the fate of Captain McNeil was merited, even though one prominent naval historian tries to justify his conduct. Had a Biddle or a John Paul Jones had the Boston, one can well believe that the whole British squadron would have been carried into port. As for Manly, it must be told that, in spite of the record he had made when he was in the service of Massachusetts-a record that had i86 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY induced Congress to put him third on the list of captains when it made its first revision of the list-he was permitted to leave the navy for the privateer service after he was exchanged and returned to port. The naval record for I 778 opens in January, when, on the 27th, in the Providence, armed with twelve four-pounders, Capt. John P. Rathburne descended on New Providence island in the Bahamas. He landed at I I o'clock at night with twenty-five men (half of his crew) and released thirty odd American prisoners confined on shore. Then he captured Fort Nassau with its cannon and ammunition and 300 stand of muskets. At daylight he captured, without a fight, an armed vessel of sixteen guns, together with five merchantmen and another fort A British sloop-of-war (ship) having appeared off the port, she was fired on from the shore, when she made haste to sail away. After holding the place two days and getting all the portable munitions of war on board and spiking the cannon, Captain Rathburne burned two of the prizes and carried four home. The loss of one of the new American frigates which.the Congress had ordered, the Vzirginia, of twenty-eight guns, followed. She was coming down Chesapeake Bay and grounded at night. In the morning two British warships .............................................................................................................................................................................................................. gm.................................. i88 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY The next exploit of note was that of Capt. John Barry, who, while in command of the brig Lexington, had had an honorable career. It will be remembered that the command of the Effinzgham, then building in the Delaware, was given to him and that the British captured Philadelphia before the ship could get away to sea. To keep the ship out of the British hands she was moved up the river to White Hill, New Jersey, and by order of Mr. Hopkinson of the Navy Board was sunk. Barry and Hopkinson had a very loud dispute over the sinking of the Effingham, for Barry was confident that, with the ten guns already on board and the thirteen guns on the frigate Washington that was in company with her, a good fight could be made against any of the force the British were able to send. Hopkinson became personal in his remarks, and Barry's Irish blood got hot, and some things not quite courteous were said in return.; but Barry, to his great disgust, had to sink the ship, and afterwards, on the order of Congress, withdraw the offensive remarks, although time had proved him entirely right in the matter of sinking the ship. However, while charges were pending against him in this matter, he led a boat expedition down the river, carrying four rowboats manned by twenty-seven men, all told, THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY i89 past the British ships and soldiers at Philadelphia, and arrived safely off Port Penn, which was then in the hands of the Americans. On the opposite side of the river lay two ships, the Mermaid and the Kitly, with two others not named, laden under convoy of the large schooner Alert armed with ten guns. The ships were loaded with food supplies for the British at Philadelphia. The run past Philadelphia had been made at night, of course, and so Port Penn was reached in broad daylight. But in spite of the fact that the British were already astir and the Americans in plain view, Barry with his gallant band made a dash at the schooner, and before the British could rally for a defence clambered over the rail, cutlass in hand. At that the British dropped everything and fled below, leaving Barry to put on the hatches and keep them there. In view of the many occasions on which the British historians charge the American sailors with cowardice it must be told here that this "wild Irishman" with his twenty-seven men beat down under the hatches one major, two captains, three lieutenants, ten soldiers, and ioo seamen and marines-he captured i i6 armed men with just twenty-seven. When he had secured them he stripped and burned the transports, and carried the I90 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY schooner over to Port Penn. This was on February 26, 1 778. The British sent a frigate and a sloop-ofwar down the river to recapture the schooner, and so, finding he could not get her away to sea, Barry was obliged to destroy the vessel, which he did by pointing his guns down her hatch and shooting holes through her bottom. But he had in the meantime for two months patrolled the lower Delaware and cut off the British supplies to such an extent that there was actual suffering in the British camp. He gave them a taste, at least, of what Washington's brave hosts were suffering that winter at Valley Forge. He returned to White Hill by travelling through the forest that then surrounded Philadelphia. Having by this effort once more commanded the attention of the authorities, he was sent to the RaleztA at Boston, and on September 25, I778, sailed away with two merchant ships in convoy. Three days later he was a wanderer in the unbroken forests of Maine. The little fleet got to sea early in the morning. At noon two sails were seen in the south, and Captain Barry, after signalling the convoy to steer close-hauled, ran down for a look at the strangers. Because the wind was light it took him the whole of the afternoon to learn their character, but at sundown he found they were 192 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY Seeing this, Barry came up close-hauled and crowded on all sail, while the enemy came on in like dress until 3 or 4 o'clock, when another fog shut them from view. Then Barry headed away eastwardly with a free wind, and ran so until daylight on the 27th, when he furled the canvas and let her drift under bare poles until 6 o'clock, while he searched the horizon for the frigates. Having seen nothing, Captain Barry made sail, and held a course to the southeast until 9.30, when he again saw the enemy. At this he came up to the wind, tacked about, and heading away to the northwest with " a staggering breeze," the Ralezgh made " I I knots and 2 fathoms on a dragged bowline," per hour. That was a pace that the Englishmen could not hold, and the Ralezgh soon dropped them behind the horizon, but at noon the Ralezgh ran out of the streak of wind, as a sailor might say, while the enemy were still holding it. The leader of the frigates rapidly overhauled the Ralezg-z after that, and at 4 in the afternoon the Raleigh tacked to the west to see what the force of the leader was. Captain Barry hoped he might make a good fight with her single-handed before the other could come up, and at 5 in the afternoon " the Raleigh edged away, brailing her mizzen and taking in THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 193 her staysails." Crossing the enemy's bows, the Ralezgh dropped down abreast of him, and set the American ensign. The frigate, showing fourteen guns on a side, hoisted the king's flag, and then the Raleigh gave her a broadside. She replied swiftly, and at the second fire had the good fortune to carry away the Ralezgh's foretopmast and mizzen-topgallantmast. She was now able to outsail the Ralezkh, and so shot ahead to get clear of the too hot fire of the Yankee, and then began to fire at long range while Captain Barry was clearing away the wreck aloft. Once the wreckage was down, however, Barry bore up and strove to get alongside and board, but with her superior canvas the frigate avoided this. Meantime the other ship was coming near, and Captain Barry, finding he could not, in his crippled condition, maintain a fight with two, decided to run his ship ashore on some islands that were visible, for the fight was made off the coast of Maine. And then night came on with a still fading breeze. The Ralezgh, with all sail set, headed for the coast. The frigates followed, and until midnight the two ships drifted along with the red flames spurting from their sides, and the nearing cliffs echoing to the thunder of the conflict. At I2 o'clock the enemy hauled off for a I3 I94 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY brief interval, but the other ship having come up, the two renewed the conflict, and then the Raliagk grounded. The enemy now took positions on the Ralezig 's quarter. Captain Barry kept the four stern chasers working, but lowered his boats forward and went ashore with a lot of his men to fortify the island on which he had grounded, being determined to fire his ship and resist capture in any event. But while he was away a frightened petty officer hauled down the flag. The Ralezith was eventually put into the British navy, but Captain Barry and his men on the island escaped to the mainland. The ship that made so good a fight against the Ralez2k was the Unicorn, of twenty-eight guns. Her consort was the Experimnent, of fifty. The Americans lost twenty-five killed and wounded, and the Unicorn ten killed and an unknown number of wounded-probably twenty-five or thirty. On the whole, the years I 777 and I 778 were disastrous, and the record was, in a sense, to the discredit of the American navy. Two captains were, indeed, dropped from the naval list for failing to support the flag, and where they failed the record was in part only made good by the heroism of the others. Of the thirteen frigates which the Congress decided THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 195 to build in December, I 775, but four remained. Some were lost at sea, as already described, and the rest fell into the hands of the British through the operations of the land forces. But if we compare the American forces with those of the English, the wonder is that the Americans were able to keep the flag afloat at all, for the British navy in American waters in I778 numbered eighty-nine ships mounting 2,576 guns, while the Americans had fourteen ships mounting 332 guns. And what is of more importance, the British ships were at this time manned by crews that were disciplined, while, as already noted, the Yankee ships were to a very great extent manned by landsmen. A time was to come when, in the matter of training, the superiority was to be on the other decks, but in I778 it was all in favor of the British. CHAPTER VIII PRIVATEERS OF THE REVOLUTION A TALE OF THE AMERICAN PATRIOTS WHO WENT AFLOAT OUTSIDE OF THE REGULAR NAVY-THEIR PART' IN DRIVING THE BRITISH FROM BOSTON-REMARKABLE WORK OF THI-E LEE —TRUXTON AS A PRIVATEER-DARING CAPT. JOHN FOSTER WILLIAMS-WHEN CAPT. DANIEL WATERS, WITH THE THORN OF SIXTEEN GUNS, WHIPPED TWO SHIPS THAT CARRIED THIRTY-FOUR GUNS 13ETWEEN THEMI-GREAT WAS JOSHUA BARNEY-THE STORY OF THE MOST FAMOUS STATE CRUISERS OF THE REVOLUTION-WON AGAINST GREATER ODDS THAN WERE ENCOUNTERED BY ANY SUCCESSFUL SEA CAPTAIN OF THE WAR-BRITISI- ACCOUNT OF THE WORK OF AMERICAN PRIVATEERS-THE HORRORS OF THE 7ERSEY PRISON SHIP. GREAT as was the influence of the burning of Falmouth (Portland), Maine, in driving the Continental Congress into providing a continental navy, the whole story of the results of that infamous act has not yet been told. The " indignation against the commissioned pirates and licensed robbers" was not felt in the halls of the Congress alone. " The General Court of Massachusetts passed an act encouraging the fitting out of armed vessels," and one for "erecting a court to try and condemn all vessels that should be found infesting" the Amer THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 197 ican coast. This act was passed on November Ioth, and John Adams declared it one of the most important documents in our history. Connecticut and Rhode Island immediately followed the example of Massachusetts, and on March 23, I776, the Congress provided for private armed vessels under the continental flag. Of the very early deeds of these privateers only meagre details are found recorded, but it appears that Washington, when he found the troops under his command, in the fall of 1775, were well-nigh absolutely destitute of powder, determined to supply them from the transports that were continually bringing munitions of war to the British forces in Boston and to the British ships in the harbor. Accordingly, he caused several small vessels to be armed and sent afloat in Massachusetts Bay and along shore to intercept the transports. He did this without waiting for authority from the Congress, and the vessels sailed as Massachusetts cruisers. Of the number sent, it is said that all but one proved to be manned by incapable officers or mutinous crews, which is not quite true, but the one, the schooner Lee, of eight small guns, Capt. John Manly, redeemed any failure of the rest by the capture of the brigantine Nancy already noted. "This was an ordnance I98 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY A PROCLAMATION. "W6 tI!H E R EA S Congrefs have received information and complaints, " That violences have been done by American armed veffels to neutral nations, in feizing nlips belonging to "thcir fubjets and under their colcurs, and in making captures of thofc of the enemy " wbilft underthe protctionof neutral coafts, contrary to the ufage and cuflom of Na;ions." To the end that fuch unjuflifiable and piratical afs, which rcflic difhonour upon the national character of there States, may be in future effectually prevented, the faid Congrefs hath thought proper to dircc, enjoin and command, and they do hereby direCt, enjoin and command, all Captains, Commanders and other Officers and Seamen belonging to any American armed vcfels, to govern themfclves firiclt in all things, agreeably to the tenorof their Commiflions, and the Initruaions and Refolutions of Congrefs; particularly that they pay a facred regard to the rights of neutral powers, and the ufage and cuftom of civilized nations, and on no pretence whatever prefume to take or feize any ihips or vciels belonging to the fubjeds of princes or powers in alliance with thefe United States, except they are employed in carrying contraband goods, or foldicrs to our enemies; and in fuch cafe that they conform to the Sripulations contained in Treaties fubfihing between fuch princes or powers and thefe States; and that they do not capture, feize or plunder any fiips or vffcls of our enemies being under the prot:ction of neutral coafts, nations orprinces, under the pennlty of being condignly puniflhed therefor, and alfo of being bound to make fatisfaation for all matters of damage, and the intcreft thereof by reparation, under the pain and obligation of their pcrfons and geods. And further; The faid Congrefs doth hereby Rcfclve and Declare, That perfons wilfully offending in any of the foregoing inftances, if taken by any forcign-powers in confcquence thereof, fliall not be tonfidered as having a right to claim protccion from thcc States, but fiall fuffer fuch puniflment as by the ufage and cullom of nations may be inflited upon fuch offenders. ' IVEN in C G R E S S at YORK, in the State of PENNSrYLvANI, this N;int Day of May, Anno Domini On ThoVand Seven Hmndred and SevntygEi;gB. HENRY LAURENS, Prefident. ATTEST. CHARLES THOMSON, Scrctary.. TORK-TOIJAV; PANTEDiBY JOHN DUNLAP. Front the copy at the Lenox Library. ship," says Dodsley's "Annual Register," of London, for I776. She "contained, besides a large mortar upon a new construction, sev THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 199 eral pieces of fine brass cannon, a large, quantity of small arms and ammunition, with all manner of tools, utensils, and machines necessary for camps and artillery, in the greatest abundance. The loss of this ship was much resented in England." As a matter of fact, she carried 2,oo000 muskets, 8,ooo fusees, 31I tons of musket bullets, 3,000 solid shot for twelve-pounders, and two six-pounder cannon, besides gunpowder, etc. The mortar was of thirteen-inch calibre, and afterward exploded. She was brought into Cape Ann Roads on November 29, '775. On December 8th the Lee took three more transports that were less valuable to the Americans, but the loss hurt the British rather more. For, insignificant as were the vessels captured when considered as a part of the whole fleet employed against the colonies, one need only glance at the state of affairs in Boston to understand Why the loss of one ordnance ship was "resented in England," and why the taking of three other transports was a still more serious matter. Boston was cut off from the back country. All supplies had to come from over the water. "Toward the end of the season Government went to a vast expense in sending out provisions and necessaries of all sorts," says the British authority just quoted. "The want of fresh provisions had caused much sickness there. 200 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY.. No less than 5,00ooo oxen, I4,00ooo of the largest and fattest sheep and a vast number of hogs were purchased and sent out alive." They also sent out coal and even kindling wood, not to mention vegetables. But the winds were against them. The live stock died on board before they got away from the home coasts, "so that the channel was everywhere strowed with the carcasses of these animals." The vegetables "fermented and perished." On top of all these losses the capture of even such small vessels as schooners of a hundred tons was a serious loss, for the whole British force in Boston was hungry, while houses had to be torn down to supply fuel. To add to the mortification of the enemy, some of the captures were made within sight of British frigates which, through the failure of the wind or the action of the tide, were unable to interfere. A British account of one of these audacious attacks that in the end was frustrated will illustrate the character of the Yankee privateer. "On the 23d of November a small fleet of transports under convoy of the frigate Tartar arrived off Boston, and with the exception of two safely entered the port. The ship Hunler and a brig, owing to a shift in the wind, were obliged to anchor outside the THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY tot harbor, which being observed by two American privateers that had been following the convoy, they in the most daring manner attacked and boarded them, setting them on fire. A signal was immediately made for the Raven to weigh anchor and go in chase, but Lieutenant John Bourmaster, who had been appointed to protect Boston Lighthouse, then under repair, and who was in command of an armed transport, on observing the privateers fire upon the Hunter, set sail and reached the transports in time to save them from destruction." Among the little cruisers that saw the most service was the Franklin schooner. Under Capt. John Selman she went with the Lynch to the St. Lawrence River to intercept the two transports mentioned in the report of the doings of the Congress on October 5, I775, wherein it was resolved that "a letter be sent to General Washington to inform him that Congress having received certain intelligence of the sailing of two north country built brigs, of no force, from England on the i ith of August last, loaded with arms, powder and other stores, for Quebec, without convoy, which it being of importance to intercept," etc., the general was to send two cruisers after them. Captain Selman failed to find the brigs, but ~iili~, I,,,,,,.,:,,,.111 lil[IA1111:,,,,,,~~~s~~,~,~~~,~~~,~,~ —,~~~~~,~~~~ siaaaaara~*a~;a;iiiaraiir rii8l;iilIjlB.i.: ii;snasrnr~,irrnar liilnj%il Illllli:i~illllliiilllillliiillll',,,,,,,, i aaaarsrrg arD:r aaial.;;El; isr.Er a"m r;i~l%ii BaB:jiji iElxiwa- 13il'a~;.~l;~rE~~~.n xailiiaagrn;n,ir. ~n laralijg sa8rE I;in r~iE:i;aQ"iBBPia effitliiP.ldRi!XilY.IRRRslBII [ ~YI.T -~.r rra,parii8xs;lair 9?igi UR-rpix a6li:l~ anr i~ser;;:i?:~~lp,ni iU(,LrlXY Uiii,~g,, :*rP iIls1%17811~8BijSB~ agli?3ip~ll.Ell, isc;;aulMi.c !J.laai! ra;!nniiliislI!lilaalahiliui mlr.rul8arxMaasi,,E:l?l;iE~IP4a~Fasna",'ix? B;Ii',;;a;'si~i~.IEe rIIr;ii~XiXiXi3?,i~B, iXiilBij~yi JPTLIBilll,'BHiiib ~il ~rilnilii ~aa,r~9srninxai~aiixisl b0 1,8il:,iiiiiiiHHia:?i?4i XBBa~IXnm(?i,Si?ll illil ~lirrlgnlia~ nlsarraj?8 ~6rsB ,ii~iBESEi a.;iC Ilraasni~Blj xi ~gl:fi;iB~_r 'iaraB La;lHqlipg=j;P1~ %iiPiBii ~XB~ Clis*: sa:xini:~aas~: X a,a ~Hii~. rs;rbbCZ:Id rr:;;~;s:?i~~i,~is, ~~llri:8s?,snrrmia::pn:al~sll'~,' ~I~,i,iilRa re rxrm, c n ci r""biil BErlC I'8IB~iiraliIxU I'iQi anin8 ~I rrauaiiiirEv??i E13E XEinxUFIil*.lnJE~x ll"i sa::Ha;u ~8isriri gp~~8nxx~jd8i,,~riii,lijil~ aiaiwr sE I~~arima ~rs, d aibxxln;~sb ic ar lixi~i:X s ~iailarH~~inraE aZDlil~ aa saljJil ~16; IisLLBil ~RB,8ia:,::rir j8a"i I rr~rr jllU , sriaa~HHias: IliLb iE: srarl6c;Par iB ojarll,'ixrx?'-a~is r8i;II,,,I,; ~~,~r,~~~ras~~,~,,~~ '51:1 Kurrr qxr Lixr_le.aH, in s,~,nr~,i:inrri;:s~rnr, surlr . '"XiBBa.iHE'XI:Ei%ai ZBXg~~ a,~'Pil",i,:jso: iiimiil3 ~lal~s~ 0*01;11.*.il. 81386HiruH"~IjgE'liiBBe:rBiil +B; rdikrnir;n; 8;;aiaxi,~lr~;9jmuil,,1s;a4~iiaelsal a:aas,iai:~iii,~liE8ii8 " iulii srpiici rcsrra sal~ saz ~~:~n ~~~ ~nu:sl~i8n :811.a:nnl,;tl.l.l:,:n~IHlnl ;;xr,,rxirr, IBHi;rzr~LIBBB, LiBB~ISsi,~il islBil xii: saxrri~ali +~ig EisjaHa Ii;lp iiH Ir:,ir:nsrn, j~ra,~,r "i! nnrrrnn rL Ilrll:la%'rie oaai, %III l:lsLI IE IBilRE i x airl,sEl~ Bar-a rira 8jie: Z."PX.*II.I.X.riR"fEntXH 9iii s aH8i::l$gb Bli6i aax at:i8a;pr ',pss?,~lili H,:l: ~nn r~. iBil ri~rnr.b;ipl,irE~ gH8i,Xd;BiBi,aa,ilBrr;H: Hji~'BU6~i,ir6i~ jbxiii~ld;Cs ~I"~ti8inHii;ia;~EB~iiaisn %I r:r Iraacrru ;i* '*isaia8181 asp 11ESal; %iaailre Icrr~aiE~ie~nnrs bBBi,l B,Lia8XI slp~rrera.%?Xil8s,l,~Oii;iirrL; 188'El"llr:IlldJrlIlE~IIBlli~l*rsil i!ir~saailr~r ea ~sic~aaitau ~iair%.raH1~.lrl-i~l*:aag. ,8:li'BI %XBiiLi,lUiliI;~~8? ~b'r 1HBi? Bp, jB. ($ 1 IIL lii"bbi,~liiii ~Zliiiiiir,, SBd 1 Xi Rr~EiBllali ,EBnlQ b8asrii, lariiarlri :i'~al a8a;sriagrr ~I BiBin iBjlU~ gn irikixri9lsE. gg,ca~rsjoirs,jr Erii 8,,%n~niiis;?jr.iaP~i:rxarniHainjliaa ija ii,, anraix:asrrrr.iid,~SPIIEllir IBBil ~XIIBX1. aH* i 8 iiP rl.,lf3 jbiiiail arri iiiui rdi%iiitiar pprrcb %llr r?88i"aarx iar rir ian~ri BIPaarrr* ll'aul"i.:s rx~aau:i,iaiamxxi~:-i; ilwnpi ylialYYuai PwiYllaaa~ YII ~ili ~ilsr nib:a,,~i~i~ii~,;ii;,~a?,;i,,ix~E d~"FII blle ~iiJ iad a; bs Er~~8 ii~isi;r THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 203 "missing them, they took ten other vessels and Governor Wright of St. John's. All these vessels were released as we had waged a ministerial war and not one against our most gracious sovereign." They changed their tactics after their most gracious sovereign was pleased to send Hessians to crush them. The Franklin was thereafter stationed in and near Massachusetts Bay, and early in the spring of I 776, under Capt. James. Mugford, captured a transport having 1,5oo barrels of powder in her hold, besides other war supplies. It is recorded that Capt. Samuel Tucker, while in command of Massachusetts cruisers, captured no less than thirty vessels belonging to the enemy. The most brilliant achievement of this mosquito fleet during 1776 was on June I7th. The Connecticut cruiser Defence, Captain Harding, heard a cannonading to the north of Plymouth, and cruising in that direction, met the schooner Lee, now under Capt. Daniel Waters, and three other privateers. They had had a running fight with two big transports that had gone into Nantasket Roads. So the Yankees determined to follow them there. At II o'clock at night Captain Harding ran in between the two transports and came to anchor. He was but a dozen 204 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY yards from each of them. Having everything ready, he hailed and ordered both of them to strike. "Aye, aye -I'll strike," said a voice from one of them, and then a broadside was fired from it into the Defence. The Defence replied, but the enemy held out for an hour. When they surrendered it was found that the two contained 200 regular soldiers of the Seventyfirst Regiment. Major Menzies, who had been in command, was the one to answer the hail by saying he would strike, and then firing. He was killed with seventeen others during the battle. The next morning another transport with Ioo more men of the same regiment was captured. But if this was counted daring work by the British authorities, there were other deeds to comne which were unquestionably shocking to the British merchants, for, following the example set by the Revenge and the Surprzse of the regular navy, the privateers went seeking prizes on the coasts and in the very harbors of Great Britain herself. In daring, these privateers quite equalled Connyngham and John Paul Jones. A British account of one of these descents says: "An American privateer of twelve guns came into this road (Guernsey) yesterday morning, tacked about on firing of the guns THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 205 from the Castle, and just off the Island took a large brig bound for this port which they have since carried into Cherbourg. She had the impudence to send her boat in the dusk of the evening to a little island off here called Jetto and unluckily carried off the lieutenant of Worthley's Independent Company, here, with the adjutant, who were shooting rabbits for their diversion. The brig they took is valued at seven thousand pounds." It is unfortunate that the log-books and diaries kept on most of these cruisers have disappeared, for many a stirring tale of adventure has thus been lost. Nevertheless, authentic details of some of the deeds done are by no means wanting. For instance, there was one Thomas Truxton of whom the British heard to their sorrow in after years. He was in command of the privateer Independence, of New York, in I777. Going to the Azores, he captured a number of small prizes, and then had the luck to fall in with the convoy from the Windward Islands. There were frigates to protect the fleet, but Truxton cut out three big ships, of which one was armed and manned better than the Independence, save only for the difference in captains. Returning to port, he fitted out the Mars with twenty odd guns and made a cruise in the English Channel. Here his prizes were 206 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY numerous, and it is said that those he sent into Quiberon Bay "in a great measure laid the foundation of Lord Stormonth's remonstrance to the French Court, against the admission into her ports of our armed vessels and cruisers "-a remonstrance that was not heeded, and so the French became involved in war with England to the great advantage of the colonies. Later still, while en route to France in the St. James of twenty guns, he beat off a ship of thirty-two guns that had been sent out expressly to capture him. A good story is told of this fight. A ball had passed through her side and lodged in her mainmast. "A fine forecastle man named Jack Sutton, perceiving the ball the moment it struck the mast, seized it, ran with it to a gunner, and said: 'Here, gunner, take this shot, write post paid upon it, and send it back to the rascals.'" Capt. John Foster Williams was another daring privateer. In I 778, in the Hazard, that mounted fourteen four-pounders and two three-pounders, he captured the brig Active, that mounted eighteen six-pounders, six smaller guns, and ten one-pounder swivels. The fight lasted forty minutes, and the Active lost thirtythree in killed and wounded to the Hazard's eight. In May, I 779, he was placed in the twenty THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 207 gun ship Protector, belonging to Massachusetts, and in June he fought the British privateer Admnzral Dzff, an equal ship, yardarm to yard-arm, for an hour, when the enemy took fire and blew up. Only fifty-five of her crew were picked up. Returning from this cruise, he fell in with the thirty-two-gun frigate Thames, and after a running fire compelled her to haul off. And then there was Capt. Alexander Murray. In the Revenge, of eighteen guns, in 1780, he beat off two ships of the British navy, of which one mounted eighteen and the other sixteen guns. This was at the capes of the Chesapeake. Afterwards he took a cargo of tobacco from Richmond, Virginia, in a ship that had only five six-pounders for armament. At sea he fell in with a privateer of fourteen guns and ioo men. Murray, having so few guns, shifted them across the deck as occasion required, and blazed away. His ship, owing to the superior number of guns of the enemy, xvas eventually so cut up aloft that only the mainmast and bowsprit remained standing; nevertheless, Captain Murray beat off the enemy in spite of four desperate attempts to carry him by boarding. Greater still was the renown of Capt. Daniel Waters. Captain Waters was sent to sea by General Washington in the Lee, as ai i i il ifi i.iifi2UIh j ii IFRI fift wti iz I a 1 MIM ChNd XM iiaV THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 209 Governor Tryon, of sixteen guns, Captain Stebbins, and the other the Sir William Erskine, of eighteen guns, Captain Hamilton. After two hours of such desperate fighting as was shown but rarely, the Tryon struck and the Erskzine hauled off. But Captain Waters would not let the Erskine escape. He set more sail, overhauled her, and compelled her to strike. As night came on the Tryon managed to escape, but Captain Waters manned the Erskine and sent her in. He had but sixty men left in the Thorn. Nevertheless, when he fell in with the Sparlin, of eighteen guns and ninety-seven men, next day, he gave battle and captured her also. If any further proof be wanted of the fact that it is the heart of the commander and not the number of his men or the weight of his metal that wins in a sea-fight, it will be found in the tale of the American privateer Hyder Ali and the British ship General Monk. Capt. Joshua Barney commanded the Hyder A/l; and he had had a lot of good training before he became the hero of the story now to be told. He had had (through accident) command of a ship when but seventeen years old, and acquitted himself with honor. He had sailed in the Hornet in the first American naval squadron. He had seen exciting service in the Wasp under Captain Alexander. I4 & 64 i~~;~P ~ l '""";~" ) lu N D a; Y mi hl T4iA WE~ Yk I. 2~.ow4 W THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 211 He had captured a British privateer while commanding the little sloop Sachem. He was in the Andrea Doria when she fought the Racehorse. He had been captured while bringing in a prize, and had survived the frightful illtreatment the prisoners on the prison ship Jersey received. He escaped thence, and while in command of a cargo ship, had beaten off the Rosebud, Captain Duncan, a ship of sixteen guns, by firing a crowbar at her, and so cutting away all her headgear and disabling her foremast. And so the 8th of April, I782, arrived.. On that day he took command of the Hyder Ali, of the Pennsylvania State service, and started to convoy a fleet of merchantmen from Philadelphia out to sea. The Hyder Ali carried sixteen six-pounders and i:o men. At the capes the fleet found the British frigate Quebec, the brig Fazr Amerzcan, of sixteen guns, and the brig General Monk, Captain Rogers, carrying " only (sic) sixteen carronades, twelvepounders, and two long six-pounders" (so says Allen). The Quebec could not get around the shoals, and had no part in the affray. The Fair Amerzcan went hunting the convoy, and the General Monk came after the Hyder A Ii. As the Englishman approached, Captain Barney saw his immense superiority in men 212 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY and metal, but determined to make a fight. Calling his officers and men around him, he said: t If I direct you to prepare for boarding you are to understand me as meaning that you are to remain at your guns, and be ready to fire the moment the word is given. If on the contrary I order you to give him a broadside, you are to consider me as calling for boarders, and to hold yourselves ready to board as soon as we gain a proper position." A little later the Englishman ranged up within a dozen yards or less, and in a loud voice demanded that the Hyder Ali strike her colors. " Hard a port your helm-do you want himn to run aboard us? " bawled Captain Barney to the man at the wheel of the IIyder A/i. "The ready witted seaman understood his cue and clapped his helm hard a starboard. The enemy's jib boom caught in the fore rigging of the Hyder Ali and there remained entangled during the short but glorious action that ensued. The Hyder Ali thus gained a raking position of which she availed herself to its utmost benefit. More than twenty broadsides were fired in twenty-six minutes and scarcely a shot missed its effect; entering in at the starboard bow and making their way out through the port quarter. In less than I THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 21I5 half an hour from the firing of the first broadside the British flag waved its proud folds no longer in the breeze." This quotation is from a " Biographical Memoir" of Barney, made from his private papers by Mary Barney. Having captured the Monk, Barney stood up the Delaware, drove the Fair Amerzcan ashore, and easily escaped the frigate. A comparative statement of the forces of the combatants is worth giving. The British ship carried a crew of 136 men; the American, I IO. The British ship was armed with sixteen twelve-pounders and two long sixes-she could throw 102 pounds of metal at a broadside; the American carried sixteen six-pounders-she could throw fortyeight pounds of metal at a broadside. The British had more than twice the metal and they had a much greater number of menmen, too, who had long been fighting together, while the American crew had not been on board a month. The comparison of losses is equally significant. The Monk lost twenty men killed and thirty-three wounded-fifty-three out of I36. The Hyder Ali lost four killed and eleven wounded. The first lieutenant, purser, surgeon, boatswain, and chief gunner were among the Monk's killed, and her captain was severely wounded. 216 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY It is said that the General Moznk had captured sixty American vessels in two years. Did space permit, many other brave deeds of the privateers might be given. Of. especial SHipped by the Grace o5d in good Order and vellcConpitined, by;c st r.y,-iV.a, y4 in and upon the good 1*'/O called the zt/-ea-. 'E 4 'Zwhereof is Mafter under God bor, this prelen voyage C. 7-r/4zk tZ a -y _. and noriding atanchor ig the harbour of FOrient, and bound fo% yI,' A / being marked and numbered as in the Margin andare to be delivered in the like good Order and well condicionned,at the aforefaid Port of iZ.e, _or Port of discharge (the danger of dithe feas only excepted) unto cy z trt, or to i/j affigns, ho or they paying Freight for (aid Good., 4y. 4 - o/ vith primage an4verage acculomed. In wirnefs whereof the Malter or Purrer of the raid iy' has affirmed to c Billso Lading, all of this tenor and date one of whficht, Bills bing accomplishe othehtr., aond void ^ Orient _ 2 Q S /712. A Relic of Two Revolutionary Captains: Bill of Lading for John Barry Signed by Joshua Barney. Fromn the original at the Lenox Library. interest, though of small moment in their immediate effect upon the war, was the work done in whaleboats along the coast and especially upon Long Island Sound. The THE HISTORY,OF OUR NAVY 217 adventures of these brave-they were often even reckless-men lived in the tales told at the firesides long after the Revolution, and stirred the hearts that in another war were to emulate the deeds of this one, and with a success that astounded the natural enemy of the struggling young nation. But if all the tales may not be repeated here, something may be told of what these Yankee privateers accomplished. In the following quotation fromn Dodsley's "Annual Register" for I778 is found a statement made in Parliament regarding this work up to the end of I777. It says: "The number of vessels belonging to Great Britain and Ireland, taken by ships of war and privateers belonging to the said colonies, amount to 733.-That of that number, it appears that 47 have been released, and 127 retaken; but that the loss on the latter, for salvage, interest on the value of the cargo, and loss of a market, must have been very considerable. —That the loss of the remaining 559 vessels, which have been carried into port, appears, from the examination of merchants, to amount at least to 2,600,000 1.-That of 200 ships anually employed in the African trade, before the commencement of the present civil war, whose value, upon an average, was about 9,0oo 1. each, there are not now forty ships, 218 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY employed in that trade, whereby there is a diminution in this branch of comerce of I60 ships, which at 9,000 1. each, amount to a loss of 1,440,000 1. per annum.-That. the price of insurance to the West Indies and North America, is increased from two, and two and a half, to five per cent with convoy; but without convoy, and unarmed, the said insurance has been made at fifteen per cent. But generally ships in such circumstances cannot be insured at all.-That the price of a seaman's wages is raised from one pound ten shillings, to three pounds five sliillings per month.-That it appears to this committee, that the present diminution of the African trade, the interruption of the American trade to the West Indies, and the captures made of the West-India ships, have greatly distressed the British colonies in the West Indies.-That the numbers of American privateers, of which authentic accounts have been received, amount to 173; and that they carried 2,556 guns, and at least 13,840 seamen, reckoning 80 men in each ship.-And that, of the above privateers, 34 have been taken, which carried 3,217 men, which is more than 94 men to each vessel." To this may be added a statement from the London " Remembrancer" (vol. v), which says that " the number of English vessels employed in the West India trade, captured by Amer min Allies ngg SA, 220 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY ican cruisers, amounted on the Ist February, I777, to two hundred and fifty sail: value of their cargoes, about ten millions of dollars. In the course of one week fourteen English vessels were carried into Martinique. So overstocked was the market of this island, by these privateers, that English silk stockings, which had usually sold for two or three dollars, were disposed of for one dollar. Sailors went from door to door, offering their prize goods for sale; nor could they dispose of Irish linens for more than tzo dollars per piece. Other goods sold in proportion. Of a fleet of sixty vessels, from Irelancad, for the West AZdies, thirty-five were captZured by Aymerzcan prZvateers / " Still another British account of the distress occasioned by the privateers, written from Grenada, says: " We are happy if we can get anything for money by reason of the quantity of vessels that are taken by American privateers. A fleet of vessels came from Ireland a few days ago. From sixty vessels that departed from Ireland not above twenty-five arrived in this and neighboring islands, the others, it is thought, being all taken by the American privateers. God knows if this American war continues much longer we shall all die with hunger. There was a Guineaman that came 00 eft -em ME RENEE MHO 222 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY vateers was the dismantled man-o'-war hulk Jersey. As consorts she had four other hulks, but the Jersey was the receiving ship. If the unfortunates captured and taken to England were, by the deliberate and publicly debated act of Parliament, fed with an allowance of bread that was half a pound less per day than was allowed to the hated Frenchmen, one would naturally expect still worse treatment for those who were kept by jailers unrestrained by the sentiments of the humane portion of their countrymen. The Jersey was at first anchored near the city of New York. She leaked constantly, and her hold, where the prisoners were confined, was damp and rotten. They had no means for cleaning themselves or the hold. The careless were herded with those who would have been careful. The damnable conditions there bred the ship-fever and other diseases. Instead of disinfecting the hulk the authorities moved it over to Wallabout Bay, where the Brooklyn Navy Yard is now located. This was done to keep the contagion from spreading to the city. Then a regiment of renegade Americans was quartered in most comfortable fashion within sight of this prison ship, and the terrors of the ship were then deliberately increased. The food of the prisoners consisted of the bread and meat that THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 223 had been ordered for the British forces, but was condemned as unfit for human beings. And the quantity was very scant at that. r /.r tt^4J t ras S.4 jft7 ATA4 bsick were plaedint bunkswhe- Itie. snow could sift down through hatchways and in through open seams on to the one blanket 'in through open seam~s on to the one blanket 224 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY allowed for covering. To the ravages of disease were added the horrors of frozen limbs, and living men saw their own feet drop off because of this treatment. At night the prisoners were driven to their bunks with curses and the cry of "Down, rebels, down!" In the morning they were turned out with other imprecations and the words " Rebels, turn out your dead!" And there were dead a-plenty to turn out every day in the year. The British jailers would point to the well-kept renegades and offer to send any prisoner who would join them to enjoy the same comforts, but the love of home and of liberty was so strong in the hearts of these mien that they chose death instead of such a release from prison-more than ten thousand Americans chose death by lingering torture on the British prison ships in New York rather than dishonor. David Sproats was the chief keeper of the prison ships. He boasted that he had killed more "rebels" than all the king's armies had done. To aggravate his offences, he offered to exchange the sick and dying privateersmen in his charge for an equal number of British regulars who could pass inspection as fit for service, and because Washington refused to thus aid in recruiting the waning forces of the enemy the horrors of the prison ships were tn ~-q AA MAP OF THE WALE BOGT AND ITS VICINTY, AT THE TIME OP THE REVOLUTIOXARY WAR 226 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY increased. And because of this refusal the English writers say to this day that if any American died on the prison ship it was his own fault, or the fault of the'American authorities who refused to make an exchange!.) Ja ImidAMN i IRVA& AHO Im ii Amikio Ii MHW WA I!"1 fau ta Wi RO Ed Wh lilfidf Iv >dhIAidi f IkI 1Iii i~iIdi I A I I I M I II I E I I I I I iIi I _1 li 1i i3if ll IP I I ii OR I E I9 U5 Micounidi Ea 270 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY more formidable than the britons, I mean fire and Water. the Serapzis Was attacked only by the first, but B. A. R. Was assailed by both, there was five feet Water in the hould, and tho' it Was moderate from Explosion of so much gun powder, yet the three pumps that remained could with difficulty only keep the Water from gaining. the fire broke out in Various parts of the Ship in spite of all the Water that Could be thrown (immediately) to quench it, and at length broke out as low as the powder magazine and within a few inches of the powder. in that dilema I took out the powder upon deck ready to be thrown overboard at the last extremity, and it Was ten O'clock A.M. the next day the 24 before the fire Was entirely extinguished. With respect to the Situation of the B. h. R. the rudder Was cut Entirely off the sfern frame and transoms Were almost Entire Cut away, the timbers by the lower Deck especially from the mainmast to the stern, being greatly decayed With age, were mangled beyond my power of description, and a person must have been an Eye Witness to form a Just idea of the tremendous scene of carnage, Wreck and Ruin that Every Where appeared. humanity cannot but Recoil from the prospect of such finished horror and Lament that War should produce such fatal consequences. .................................- RES M........................... MMM -.............. it........................................................................... 272 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY every person to be convinced that it was Impossible to keep the B. A. R. afloat So as to reach a port if the Wind should increase it being then only a very moderate breeze. I had but little time to remove my Wounded, which now became unavoidable and which Was effected in the Course of the night and next morning. I was determined to keep the B. A. R. afloat and, if possible, to bring her into port for that purpose the first Lieutenant of the Pa/las continued on board with a party of men to attend the pumps with boats in Waiting ready to take them on board in Case the water should gain on them too fast. the Wind augmented in the Night and the next day on the 25, So that it was Impossible to prevent the good old ship from Sinking. they did not abandon her till after nine o'clock. the Water was then up to the Lower deck, and a little after ten I saw With inexpressible grief the last glimpse of the B. A. R." The Bonlhomme Richard had gone into the fight with a great American ensign, four times as long as it was broad, floating in the breeze. It was shot away duringthe conflict and lay floating over the stern for a time, but it was rescued. And when it was seen that the old ship was past saving, the battle-torn flag was hoisted to its old place, and with that fluttering in the brisk air the famous old ship sank out of sight. I LI) II 11II 1III Aivl A TiffVI liA I K ~ U dl. I lv if I i..1 DI I, i Ad iff l; 274 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY attitude of the Dutch court, which was not friendly to the Americans, refused the permission, but later he grudgingly granted it, and the Americans arrived in after a narrow escape. The conduct of Captain Pearson of the Serapis on arrival in Texel must be noted because it helps to portray that of his conqueror. When the plate, linen, etc., that had been taken from the Serapis were offered to him by John Paul Jones, he refused to accept it from Jones, but said he would take it if offered by Captain Cottineau of the Pallas. "Paul Jones magnanimously overlooked this vulgar subterfuge, and returned it through Cottineau." In view of this undisputed fact, is it really a slur on Captain Pearson to suppose that he said what he is charged with saying when he surrendered his sword? The British, through their ambassador, demanded that the Serapis and her consort be returned and that the Americans be delivered up as pirates. The Holland court did not yield that far, though they compelled John Paul Jones to go to sea in the face of a blockading squadron, and because the request of the British was refused, war was declared against Holland. And so the victory of the Bonhomme Richard was far-reaching in its effects. To offset the manifest advantages which THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 275 accrued to the Americans through this fight, and especially to counteract the fear and depression which it occasioned throughout England and Scotland, the British ministry adroitly chose to treat Pearson as well as if he had obtained a victory. He was made a knight, and some London merchants were induced to give him silver plate worth Zioo. Piercy was promoted, and got silver worth 50o. When John Paul Jones heard of Pearson's luck he said: " He has deserved it; and if I should have the good fortune to fall in with him again, I will make him a lord." The flight of John Paul Jones from Texel in the Alliance was characteristic of the man, for instead of taking the long route around the north of the British Islands he boldly headed for the narrow Straits of Dover, leaving port in a howling gale. He passed so close to Dover that he counted the warships in the Downs, and he counted those at Spithead also. He sailed from Texel on December 27, I779, and he reached Corruna on January i6th. It is worth noting that throughout this extraordinary passage he kept the American flag flying. On reaching Paris, John Paul Jones was the hero of the day. The American commissioners paid him every honor. The king 276 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY John Paul Jones's Medal. (Louis XVI) gave him a gold-hilted sword appropriately inscribed and the Grand Cross of the Order of Military Merit. When he appeared in the queen's box at the opera the THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 277 whole audience rose up to cheer. Later in the evening a laurel wreath was suspended above his head, but he left his seat then-" an instance of modesty which is to this day held up as a model to French schoolboys." In the autumn of I780 Jones sailed to America in the Arzei with supplies for the American army. He was the honored guest of the greatest men of the nation. The Congress passed resolutions in his honor three times. It gave him a gold medal, and it placed him at the head of the navy, which was an honor that he had fully earned and which was to him a greater satisfaction than all other honors. Meantime the British government denounced John Paul Jones as a pirate and put a price upon his head. It offered ten thousand guineas for him, dead or alive, and that sum then was equal to more than $Ioo, ooo now. It is to the glory of this naval captain that it was so. The English writers to this day deliberately misrepresent the man. They strive to distinguish him from all other heroes of the American Revolution because he was born in Scotland. They pretend to admire those who were born in the colonies. But in so distinguishing Jones they ignore the fact that the heroic General Montgomery, who perished MAN. iM10 Will WE CjRWISi Wa~i l ine rii M rnel gig Wid oni.ridiffdi Jah flrrn aicafi J fiii&Rdir himi T\iiAi i~ g m III j d 6pii I lineid i Mind Ed dn I I Ai beame a cifi dd I rid.r hfi ile fidhw dir li &iii hiixd tiei P17C)ICI bi ii thit eldiii iliutiri th Aififft fi\ flaui no Add dli I di l i IiI Ir O di Ii 6 AIi ii flu6 F %fwii IbiLc Ii S u i~ AliEiiuipd li Ii.teI I didi 16616141 fnih I1 tidi 14dijd if THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 279 "John Paul Jones, a citizen of the United States." "The fame of the brave outlives him; his portion is immortality." ak~fl ~ ti —~ Ac tVICQ &V..,. 2S 7. ez-. tn/ no eS~ Artyn,.Z? A Letter from John Paul Jones to Thomas Jefferson. o te origia a te Leox Library. A Letter from John Paul Jones to Thomas Jefferson. From the original at the Lenox Library., CHAPTER XI THE YEAR 1779 IN AMERICAN WATERS LUCKY RAIDS ON BRITISH TRANSPORTS AND MERCHANTMEN-DIS-" ASTROUS EXPEDITION TO THE PENOBSCOT-THE TRUAfBULL'S GOOD FIGHT WITH THE WATT-THE FIRST YANKEE LINE-OFBATTLE-SHIP-WHEN NICHOLSON, WITH A WRECKED SHIP AND FIFTY MEN, FOUGHT FOR AN HOUR AGAINST TWO FRIGATES, EACH OF WHICH WAS SUPERIOR TO THE YANKEE SHIP-CAPTAIN BARRY'S EXASPERATING PREDICAMENT IN A CALM-THE LAST NAVAL BATTLE OF THE REVOLUTION. WHILE John Paul Jones was moving heaven and earth to get away to sea with his famous Bonhomme Richzard, the American naval ships in home waters were by no means idle, even though British successes, with combined land and naval forces, had seriously reduced the fleet. On March i8, 1779, a squadron consisting of the frigate Warren, thirty-two guns, Capt. John Burroughs Warren; the Qzueen of France, twenty-eight guns, Capt. Joseph Olney, and the famous old Ranger, of eighteen guns (she that whipped the Drake), under Captain Simpson, sailed from Boston. A few days later a privateer was captured. From her crew it was learned that a fleet of armed THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 28I transports and storeships had sailed with supplies from New York for the British army in the South. How the Yankee squadron crowded on sail in pursuit of this fleet; how the ships of the fleet were sighted two days later, jogging along at the ordinary pace of the slowest; and how they came to the wind or squared away or tacked or wore ship in a confused effort to escape at the sight of the Yankees would have been something worth seeing by any one interested in ocean races. There were nine of the transports, and seven were taken. These included the Jason, twenty guns; the Maria, sixteen guns; the Hzibernia, eight guns, and four unarmed transports. Captain Campbell and twenty other English army officers were in the fleet en route to join their regiments, and these were by no means an unimportant part of the capture when one recalls the treatment Americans were receiving from the British when captured. The Captain Hopkins who had this good luck was a son of Esek Hopkins, the first American naval captain. He carried his prizes into port at once. Then, in May the frigate Queen of France, under Capt. John P. Rathbourne; the Ranger, under Simpson, and the Providence (twentyeight guns), under Capt. Abraham Whipple, 282 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY went on a cruise. Whipple, it will be remembered, was the leader of the party disguised as Indians who, with paving stones as their chief weapons, captured and destroyed the schooner Gaspe in the first salt-water conflict of the war (1772). Captain Rathbourne was he who, in the little brig Providence, captured New Providence Island on January 27, 1778, with six vessels that were in the harbor. For two months this squadron did nothing, but early in July they fell in with a great fleet of merchantmen escorted by a ship-of-the-line (seventy-four guns) and a number of frigates. Notwithstanding the efficiency of this guard, the Yankees cut out eleven of the merchant ships and carried them into port. It is recorded that the cargoes of these ships were worth over a million dollars in gold, and that this cruise was financially the most profitable of the war. Meantime there was a fight between brigs that shows at once the wonderful courage and endurance of the Anglo-Saxon seaman, no matter on which side of the Atlantic his home is found, and the further fact that in 1 779 the Yankee sailor was becoming somewhat skilled as a man-o'-war'sman. The American brig Providence, Capt. Hoysted Hacker, fell in with the English brig Dizzgent, Capt. Thomas Davyson, May 7th. At the end of an hour THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 283 the Dilzgenf struck her colors, but she had lost twenty-seven in killed and wounded out of her crew of fifty-three before she did so. The Providence lost only four killed and ten wounded. The Diligent was at once taken into the American service, but disaster overtook the squadron in which she sailed. The enemy y~~~~ /^O-^~~le #S ^r Signature of Samuel Nicholson. Fromz a letter at the Lenox Library. boys who had never been outside of any harbor-than of seamen. With such a mob as this in place of a crew, he fell in with a big British privateer on June 2d. Nicholson had his sails trimmed like a merchantman's, and the privateer drew near to inspect, but soon saw that the Trumbull was a man-o'-war. At that, although he carried thirty-four guns to the Yankee's twenty-eight, he made sail to escape. But Nicholson was after him with a swifter ship, and fight he had THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY I *. 1 291 to. A right stubborn fight it was, too. It began at a range of ioo yards, and it was soon carried on with yardarms interlocked. The blazing gun-wads of the enemy were several times blown through the open parts of the Trumbull, and she was twice set on fire. But at the end of three hours, and just when the enemy's fire had slacked away to the point of surrendering, the Trumbull's mnainmast went by the board, dragging the fore topmast and the mizzen after it, and there she lay helpless. The privateer might have riddled her then, but he had had enough, and was glad to get away. It was learned afterward that the enemy was the Watt, a privateer especially designed and fitted to whip any American frigate. She lost ninety in killed and wounded. The Trumbull lost thirty-nine in killed and wounded. Perhaps the most curious fact abou't this fight was this, that a very large proportion of the Trumbull 's crew were suffering from the worst stage of seasickness when she opened fire. The Trumbull made port, but was unable to see service again until August of the next year. Meantime. the Saratoga, under Capt. James Young, sailed from Philadelphia in October, I780, and on the 8th fell in with 292 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY three vessels. By hoisting Ennglish colors, the largest, a heavily armed ship, was decoyed alongside, where she reported herself as a merchantman called the Ckarming Holly, from Jamaica. At this the Saratoga hoisted the American flag, gave her a broadside, and crashing alongside, threw grapnels over her rail and rigging and held her fast. The first lieutenant of the Saratoga, at this time, was Joshua Barney, whose exploit in the Hyder Ali has already been described. At the head of a party of fifty boarders Barney climbed over the rail of the merchantman, and after a sharp fight cleared her deck. Then it was learned that she carried ninety men. She was manned by a prize crew under Barney, and sent in. The Saratoga then made sail after the other two, who had been fleeing down the wind to escape. It is not hard for a sailorman to picture their hopeless race as the long Yankee, with a cloud of canvas aloft and the white foam roaring away from her bows, came a-whooping after them. It was a hopeless race because they were only brigs, the one carrying fourteen and the other four guns. They were taken without resistance, and manned and sent toward port. Nevertheless, that was a most disastrous cruise for the Saratoga. With her prizes she sailed for the Delaware, but she fell in with THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 293 the Intrepid, a ship of seventy-four guns, on duty there. Ordering her prizes to scatter, she made all sail, and with success, for she got away. But she found an enemy more powerful even than a ship-of-the-line. She found, doubtless, an October hurricane, for she was never heard of after she disappeared from the view of the Intre'pid's lookouts. The prizes, too, were all recaptured. So five warships only were left to carry the American flag. Another was building at Portsmouth, New Hampshire-the America, a seventy-four-gun ship-of-the-line. John Paul Jones was assigned to her, but before she was launched, the French ship-of-the-line Magizz fique was wrecked in the Massachusetts Bay, and the Congress, to show its appreciation of what the French had done to help the United States, presented the America, while still on the ways, to the French king. That act was crushing to John Paul Jones; but when all was ready for the launching, he hoisted the flags of both nations, and so sent her into the water. And that was the last service he rendered his adopted country. No other ship fit for the head man of the navy remained afloat, and the Congress could not build another like the America. And then came the end of the war, when Jones entered the Russian service, subject to a call at any 294 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY time from the American Congress, and without sacrificing his American citizenship, and there he became a rear admiral. Leaving that service, he was appointed American consul to Algiers, a most important post, as will appear further on; but before the slow mail brought his commission he died in Paris on July i8, 1792. To return once more to the frigate Trumbull, it must be said that if any doubt as to his courage or persistency was created in the minds of the American people when he abandoned the grounded Virginia without firing a gun in her defence, Captain Nicholson redeemed himself in his last battle in the Trumbull, even though he lost her. The Trumbnll sailed in August, i 88 i, as an escort for a fleet of twenty-eight merchantmen. If her crew was inefficient when she fought the privateer Wall, it was now well-nigh the worst conceivable for the occasion; for in numbers she lacked 200 men of a full complement-she had less than half the number needed to work and fight the ship-while of the hundred and odd men she did carry, many were landsmen, and a lot more were Englishmen, who, on learning that she was certain to go to sea shorthanded, shipped in her in the hope of finding opportunity for a mutiny. This was not an unusual circumstance during THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 295 the Revolution, for the British Parliament had passed an act offering a large bounty to her " loyal subjects" who, after making oath to support the American Constitution, should be able to carry an American ship into a British port. When off the capes of the Delaware this worse than half-manned Trumbull, in a gale lost her fore topmast and main topgallantmast -a misfortune unquestionably due to the misconduct of her English crew. She was then not only worse than half-manned, but she was worse than half-found in sails. While in this condition (and it should be remembered that the Trumbull carried but twenty-eight guns) the British frigate Iris (formerly the American frigate Hancock), of thirty-two guns, ranged up on one side of her, and another British ship, name unknown, on the other. Instead of surrendering, as he would have been justified in doing, Captain Nicholson cleared the ship for action, and the battle began. And then at the first broadside the Englishmen to a man, by preconcerted action, fled to the hold and succeeded in frightening the landsmen into following them, so that but fifty men were left to fight the enemy. IBut among those fifty were Richard Dale from the deck of the Bonhomme Richard, and' 11i IChiLK~lfs Itiyill Aid IIOS IL6 Wll LI bdlftll df1 Mule figiK Ia 111 ulIi 111d 111 was 1:11111 E Ni Ll(il II6lAI HEL Ififi 1 O aiI jil liLl A W il it If I II -C1gL it1 II El ALIII E c jAiiLA NOW I6 RilA Ad Lis Ei 1. 1h1 tpl~jidl R~A)rIIfI 11 Pfi ill Ofir niI 1 1 1111 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 297 guns. Sixteen men were killed and wounded out of the valiant fifty. Even then the flag was still flying. There is no telling how long the desperate conflict would have continued; but a third British ship, the General Monk, came into the fight and in a position to rake the American at short range. It was a case then of surrender or sink, and the flag of the Trumbull was hauled down. In March of 178I the Alliance, under Capt. John Barry, was found in a most exasperating position off the British coast. She had sailed from Boston in February, and after taking a privateer called the Alert, reached L'Orient safely. There she was joined by a French privateer of forty guns, called the Marquis de a Fayette. Sailing on March 3Ist, they captured the British privateers Mars, of twenty-six guns, and the Minerva, of ten, the two carrying crews aggregating 167 men. Then the Alliance went on alone, and on May 28th fell in with two smaller vessels that boldly attacked her. It had been a quiet day, but as the two smaller vessels approached, the Alliance lost the wind altogether, while the others, with the aid of big oars, came on, took safe positions at short range under her quarters, and opened fire. Captain Barry could bring only three nine-pounders to bear on each of the enemy, 298 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY while they were delivering heavy broadsides of eight and seven guns, respectively. Captain Barry was so badly wounded by a grapeshot that he was carried below; but just when the surrender of the Alliance seemed inevitable a breeze filled her sails, and swinging around, she ran in between the two enemies, and with broadsides from her eighteen-pounders quickly brought down their flags. One was the sixteen-gun brig Atalanta, and the other the fourteen-gun brig Trepassy. They lost ten killed and thirty wounded between them. The Trepassy was sent to England with prisoners, and the Atalanta to the United States, but she was recaptured off Boston. The Alliance reached port safely. A little later (June 22, 1781) the Confederacy was captured by the English. She was employed as a government packet to keep open communication with France, but while returning home laden with military supplies a two-decker and a frigate, the Orjpheus and the Roebuck, overtook her, and her commander, Capt. Seth Harding, had to strike his colors. The last naval action (the General Monk was captured later by a privateer) of the Revolutionary war was fought by the Alliance, Capt. John Barry. He had sailed from Havana with a large quantity of specie for the United States. This was March 7, 1 782. She had THE HISTORY OF 'OUR NAVY 299 the Due de Lauzan in company. When not long out of port three British frigates were encountered. The Yankees started to run for it, and the Lauzan, a 'slow sailer, was ordered to throw her guns overboard. However, a French ship of fifty guns hove in sight on the weather bow, and at that Captain Barry waited for the leading English frigate, supposing the Frenchman would join in, of course. A fight that brought glory to Barry and credit to the Englishman followed, but at the end of fifty minutes the Englishman had out signals of distress. As the Frenchman held aloof, Captain Barry was compelled to let the Englishman haul off under cover of his consorts. The English ship was the Sybille (sometimes written Sibyl), of thirty-eight guns-a heavier ship than the Alliance. She lost thirty-seven killed and fifty wounded, while that of the Alliance was three killed and eleven wounded. The significant feature of this fight is in the wide margin between the two lists of killed and wounded. The Yankees had at last learned to handle cannon effectively. But now the end of the war had come. Four months before this last naval fightof the American Revolution Lord North, the British premier, on hearing of the surrender 300 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown, had strode up and down his room with his arms frantically waving above his head, while he cried: "Oh, God! it is all over. It is all over. It is all over." The " most accursed, wicked, barbarous, cruel, unjust, and diabolical" war known to the history of the English-speaking people was over, and during the latter end of March, 1782, " Lord North bowed to the storm and resigned." On July 4, I776, when the Congress declared the independence of the colonies, the American navy consisted of twenty-five vessels, all sizes counted, mounting 422 guns. Thereafter other ships were built, and some were purchased and some were captured from the enemy and put into service. But because the enemy at all times had more than five guns afloat and in service on the American coast to every one that the Americans mustered in the naval list, the American ships, one by one, fell into the hands of the enemy, or were destroyed to save them from such a fate, or were lost at sea. 'When the war ended but three naval ships, bearing eighty-four guns between them, remained. The American navy had almost perished, but, like Arnold's fleet on Lake Champlain, it had given the Englishman an opportunity to see the face of the ~a ~.,/,,_ ^FW r —' 44, 9, An Old Naval Order. From the original at the Lenox Library. ^.c^ ^ i'C ^w<^<<< ' -.^ ^f^ ^,^ ^^^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~cc~ L14^^^"6l"S&7i-q^~ <^ < An~~c OldNavl Oder ~~~~~~~~~~~~~^~ Cj I/A^i~~ I oriCgina atteLnxLbay 302. THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY enemy. Even as in the fight which the Bonhomme Richard waged, it won victory even when it was so shattered as to all but disappear while yet the smoke of battle hung over the water. For without the aid of the sea power the war of the Revolution would have failed. From that glorious day before Boston when the hearts of the Continentals were fired by the long wagon-train, loaded with war material, captured by an American cruiser from the enemy, until the last service of the Alliance in bringing specie from Havana, there was never a time when the sea power did not render helpful and glorious service to the struggling patriots ashore. In the 8oo ships that were captured from the enemy were found the materials that succored the life of the nation. Not one American cruiser was captured by English privateers, while sixteen English cruisers were taken by American privateers, which were manned in many cases for the most part by boys and haymakers, while in many an American victory the odds in weight of metal and number of men were greatly in the favor of the British. By their daring and persistence the Yankee cruisers made Yankee prowess known throughout Europe and even to the yeomanry of England. CHAPTER XII BUILDING A NEW NAVY WHEN ENGLAND, IN HER EFFORTS TO WREST COMMERCE FROM THE AMERICANS, INCITED THE PIRATES OF AFRICA TO ACTIVITY, SHE COMPELLED THE BUILDING OF THE FLEET THAT WAS, IN THE END, TO BRING HER HUMILITY OF WHICH SHE HAD NEVER DREAMED-DEEDS OF THE BARBARY CORSAIRS-AMERICAN NAVAL POLICY AS LAID DOWN BY JOSHUA HUMPHREYS-THE WONDERFUL NEW FRIGATES-TROUBLES WITH THE FRENCH CRUISERS ON THE AMERICAN COASTS-TRICK OF A YANKEE CAPTAIN TO SAVE A SHIP-A MIDSHIPMAN WHO DIED AT HIS POST-CAPTURE OF THE INSURGENT-A LONG WATCH OVER THE FRENCH PRISONERS-ESCAPE OF A TWICE-BEATEN SHIP-THE VALIANT SENEZ -STORY OF ISAAC HULL AND THIE LUCKY ENTERPRISE. IT is with feelings of distress and shame, not unmingled with indignation, that the patriotic American of these days reads such parts of the history of his country as have a bearing upon the navy during the years that followed the Revolutionary war. No sooner was the war over than all the. men that remained in the naval service were paid off and turned adrift on the beach, while every ship that remained-even the Allzance, that had well demonstrated her efficiency-was sold. The people of the new nation were so 3 304 THE HIISTORY OF OUR NAVY fearful of a monarchial form of government, and of everything that in the old world pertained to it, that they went to the remarkable length of sacrificing the one weapon that could defend them from old-world encroachmentthe navy-lest scheming politicians use it to enslave their own people. But while the politicians wrangled over the chaotic conglomeration that, at the time, was called the general government, the business men made haste to retrieve the losses brought upon them by the war, and as there had been but two sources of income worth mention before the war-the commerce of the seas and agriculture-it was to them that the energies of the people were applied. It was an alongshore nation. The salt air fanned its most populous cities. So familiar were the people with the ocean, that every one spoke of the time when he should be rich as "when. my ship comes home." So to the sea went hosts of people seeking fortune. The merchant with his capital, the land-owner with his timber, and the mechanic with his skill and muscle, united to build and man ships for the ocean-carrying trade, and so well did they work together that ships the equal of any other, in some cases the superior of any in the world, were sent down the ways. Men who had learned to be aggressive while afloat with THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 305 the flag in war-time were placed in command of these ships, and the contest for supremacy in trade, which had had so great a part in bringing on the Revolutionary war, was renewed with an energy and an independence of action of which the people as colonists had not dreamed. Even so small a craft as an Albany sloop was sailed away from New York for Canton, China. She had only a page-map from a school geography for a chart of the world, but she made her port and made home again, and she was the first sail to make the direct passage from New York to China waters. The British merchants with dismay saw their own ships passed by and the Yankees chosen by shippers of cargoes-chosen because both safer and swifter. And when the British merchant complained, he found (as he has always found) his government ready to listen and to act in his behalf. What that government was willing to do to aid the British merchants was so discreditable that the story of it well-nigh staggers belief, although the proofs are, in fact, beyond doubt. On the Mediterranean coast of Africa were found a number of small Mohammedan states ruled by vassals of the Turk. For time out of mind these petty rulers had levied a blackmail tribute from every seafaring na2Q 306 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY tion that traded in the Mediterranean Sea, and even sailed in their cruisers out upon the Atlantic to capture ships that were not intending to enter the enclosed waters. When one recalls how much superior the power of England was to that of all these pirates com A Mediterranean Corsair Anchoring. From a ticture drawn and engraved by Baugean. bined, it seems astounding that even she should have contributed to the blackmail, but the reason for her doing so may be found in the debates of Parliament of that day. Said Lord Sheffield in I 784: " It is not probable that the American States will have a very free trade in the Mediterranean. It will not be to the inter THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 3~7 e est of any of the great maritime powers to protect them from the Barbary States. If they know their interests, they will not en-' courage the Americans to be carriers. That the Barbary States are advantageous to maritime powers is certain." In short, England deliberately encouraged these infamous pirates because they harassed the ships of other nations, and on the payinent of a small tribute, which was kept small because of her great navy, they left hers wholly unmolested. But the mere avowal of this policy in the hall of Parliament was by no means all that she did. For some time previous to I 793 Portugal had maintained her rights upon the sea as against these pirates by keeping a strong fleet at the Strait of Gibraltar-a fleet that pounced upon every Barbarv corsair that appeared. It was not for the protection of her own commerce only that this was done. By an understanding with the United States the American flag was protected and American merchantmen furnished with convoys when needed. Under the protection thus afforded, the American merchantmen swarmed into the profitable trade on the east side of the Atlantic. English merchants viewed the increasing numbers Qf American ships there with dis 308 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY may, and English diplomacy, as said, at once intervened. Taking advantage of a general agreement among the so-called Christian powers, under which England was to be allowed to act for all in certain minor matters when negotiating with the Barbary powers, the British government instructed the British agent at Algiers to bargain secretly for a truce between the Dey and the government of Portugal. The truce was to last a year, and in consideration of allowing the Portuguese ships to trade free of blackmail, the Portuguese blockade was to be removed from the Strait of Gibraltar, and it was further provided that "the Portuguese Government should not afford protection to any naztion against Alger'an cruzsers." The only nation that had been protected by Portuguese men-of-war was the American. This truce, which was arranged by the British consul-general at Algiers, Mr. Charles Logie, was deliberately planned to turn the pirates against American ships. Worse yet, it was done without even consulting Portugal, and in secret so that the pirates could get away before the Americans could possibly be warned. And once it was made, British influence at the Portuguese court prevented its abrogation. THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 309 As early as July 25, I785, the Boston schooner Maria, Capt. Isaac Stevens, had been captured by Algerian pirates near Gibraltar, and on the 3oth of the same month the ship Dauphin, Capt. Richard O'Brien, was also taken. Thus twenty-one American citizens were made slaves to the Arabs. Because of the Portuguese blockade of the strait no other American ship had been captured, but the moment British diplomacy had freed the pirates from that restraint, the Dey sent his corsairs seeking the American flag. There is no doubt in reasonable minds that a special search was made, at the request of the British agent, for the Stars and Stripes. In one cruise of the pirate squadron eleven vessels were captured and I I2 American seamen were reduced to slavery. Did the American nation declare war at once? It did not. It could not. There was not a warship afloat bearing the American flag. Having no ships of war, Congress was forced to buy the freedom of these enslaved Americans. The men captured in I 785 were ransomed for $59,496 (coin). For the II2 captured at the instigation of the British agent, a far greater ransomn was paid. The Congress had refused to build a navy for the protection of Americans when abroad, but now they were compelled to buy the release of enslaved 310 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY Americans by building the Crescent, "one of the finest specimens of elegant naval architecture which was ever borne on the Piscataqua's waters." They had to arm and fit her for sea. They had to freight her with " twenty-six barrels of silver dollars and many valuable presents for the Dey," and then send her to Algiers, where ship and cargo were given in exchange for the enslaved Americans. " It is worthy of remark, that, as appears by documents published at the time, the peace obtained from the Dey of Algiers cost the Government of the United States near a million of dollars ($992,463.25), a sum quite sufficient to have kept the barbarian's port hermetically sealed until he should have humbly sued" for peace, had it been expended in building suitable warships. And so would have been saved the noble lives and the property afterwards lost on the African coast. But out of the national humiliation sprang a new navy. The people who had called every legislator that spoke for the honor of the flag a blatant demagogue; the people who had feared naval tyrants, who had feared taxation, and who had argued that a small navy was worse than none-the peace-at-any-price men had been in a great majority. Now the publication of these facts opened the eyes of enough to make a majority the other way. Neverthe THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 3rI less, so little regard had the members of Congress for the honor of the nation that " the resolution of the House of Representatives, that a naval force adequate to the protection of the commerce of the United States ought to be provided, passed by a majority of two votes only.) However, pass it did, and was approved on March 27, 1 794. At that time the ablest shipbuilder in the United States was Joshua Humphreys, a Quaker, who for thirty years had been laying down keels at Philadelphia. Going to General Knox, the Secretary of War, he made a notable statement. The number of ships which the United States could support, he said, would always be less than the number in any of the large European navies. It was therefore necessary that such ships as we did have- should be fast-sailing enough to either fight or run at will, and when they chose to.fight they must be equal, ship for ship, to anything afloat. To accomplish this they must be longer and broader than the existing type and yet not so high out of water. On this model they would carry, he said, as many guns on one deck as the others carried on two; could fight them there to better advantage; and, what was more, the improved model would give much more stability-would allow so much 312 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY more canvas to be spread aloft that, blow high or blow low, the Yankee could show her teeth or her heels, as occasion demanded. Not only were Humphreys' theories accepted then; they have prevailed in the American navy to this day. However, this is not to say that the theories of Mr. Humphreys have always been realized in practice. Six frigates were ordered laid down on this model: the Constz'iulzoz, of forty-four guns; the Preszdezt, of forty-four; the Uzniled States, of forty-four-all sister ships-and the Chesapeake, the Congress, and the Constlellza/on, all of thirty-six guns each. The United Staes was built by Humphreys, at Philadelphia, and he sent her afloat on July 10, I797. The CoGzstiz'ztiozn, the famous "Old Ironsides," was built by Cloghorne & Hartly, of Boston, and she floated on October 21, I797-just Ioo years ago. And she is still afloat to bear the flag. Capt. Samuel Nicholson had charge of her (Congress had provided for officers and men), and on the day she was to be launched he proposed to hoist the flag with his own hands. But instead of doing so at once on reaching the yard that morning, he gave orders that no one else should do it, and then went away to breakfast. That was an error fatal to his ambition. When he was out of sight one Samuel Bentley, a ship .31 No HH MmH........... INS Hm R. ICWN HN, HHH. MA No mu OW;No m 314 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY wright, bent the flag to the halliards, and, with the help of another man, hoisted her to the mizzen-truck. Captain Nicholson swore like a pirate, it is said, but the flag was up and he would not haul it down again. Later a dozen smaller ships were ordered built or purchased, besides galleys, schooners, and brigs. And then came a time when it was absolutely necessary to use them. The Revolution was on in France, and the European powers, with England in the lead, were trying to crush the new republic. In fighting back, the French cruisers had played havoc with American ships carrying legitimate goods to European ports-had captured and condemned many American merchantmen laden with American products not contraband of war, simply because those ships were en route to ports of nations at war with France. So retaliation became absolutely necessary, disagreeable as it might be to fight a former ally. It should be noted here that the United States government did not actually declare war against France, but on July 7, I 798, all treaties in existence between the governments were declared abrogated, and meantime, on May 28, I 798, the American cruisers were authorized " to capture any French vessel found near the coast preying upon American commerce." It was under the act of May 28, THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 3I5 1798, as strengthened by that of July 7th of the same year, that the American ships went hunting the Frenchmen. But while there was an actual state of war on the ocean, there was never a time when the American State Department was not striving to negotiate a permanent peace with the discordant* elements that, in those days of the French Revolution, ruled at Paris. When hostilities began the American navy had in all twenty-two ships, mounting 456 guns and carrying 3,484 men, ready for battle; they were made ready before the end of the year. As originally organized in the war for freedom, the American navy had held but a few puny merchantmen-thin-walled, crank, and slow. But now, though still comparatively few in number, the ships of the nation were " fore and fit," and, better yet, they were manned by men who had smelled the sulphurous breath of an enemy's guns. Officers and men from the old cruisers and privateers came forward to volunteer in such numbers that a ship's complement was filled in some cases in half a day. Meantime some new blood, the sons of the officers and seamen of the other war, and others, too, came, eager to take the chances of war, and some were accepted. Even before the treaties were abrogated 316 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY two ships were sent to sea-the Constellation, under Capt. Thomas Truxton, who had made fame as a privateer, and the Delaware, under Stephen Decatur, Sr., father of the Decatur who made fame later on. The French ship Croyable, of fourteen guns, was found off the Delaware. She had taken several American ships, so she was sent into Philadelphia, and not long afterward came out again under the American flag, and bearing the appropriate name Retalialion. She was commanded by William Bainbridge, an able officer. But luck was not with her. Early on the morning of November 20, 1798, while cruising with the Montezuma and the Norfolk, two small fleets were seen. The Retalza/ion went looking at one fleet and the other two at the other. When too near for comfort the Re/alat/ion found she had two French frigates before her, and one, the Insurgent, of thirty-six guns, quickly overhauled her when she strove to fly. Captain Bainbridge, after surrendering, was taken on board the second Frenchman, the Volontaire. Her captain refused to accept his sword, and after the proper civilities of the occasion he was allowed to go to the topgallant forecastle with the other officers to watch the Insurgent chasing the Montezuma and Norfolk. It was a mighty cheering spectacle to THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 317 the French, for the Insurgent, with her great spread of canvas bellying to the wind, was overhauling the Yankees hand over fist.. But just when the Insurgent was expected to open fire Captain St. Laurent of the Volon/aire turned to Bainbridge and said: " Pray, sir, what is the force of those vessels?" " The ship carries twenty-eight twelve-pound-' ers and the brig twenty nine-pounders," replied Bainbridge in a matter-of-fact way. That was double their real weight of metal, and it was a weight that outmatched the Insurgent. Greatly alarmed, Captain St. Laurent, who was the senior French officer, ordered the Insurgent recalled. When she got back within hail her captain shouted: "Sir, if it had not been for your signal I should have had those vessels in ten minutes more." " Citizen Captain, you do not know, sir, what vessels you were chasing. Your ship is not able to contend with a force of twenty-eight twelve-pounders and twenty nine-pounders," said Captain St. Laurent. At that the Insurgent's captain chopped the air violently with his hands and replied: "Sir, they have nothing heavier than szixes, and do you suppose that this ship could have anything to fear from such guns?" ."a 0 UP magy &M a M ium Ahjumo I mums g 1 lo Poison gommij V.......... THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 319 " Did you not say, sir," demanded St. Laurent, turning on Bainbridge, "that the ship carried twenty-eight twelve-pounders and the brig twenty nine-pounders?" "Yes, sir," replied Bainbridge, cheerfully, " and if I had thought at that moment that I could have saved the ships, by telling you that they carried twenty-four-pounders, I would have done so." Three months later the fighting captain of the Insurgent (his name was Barreaut) had an opportunity to show his metal, and it is fair to say that he took advantage of it nobly. At noon on February 9, I 799, while the Cons/ella/ion, Captain Truxton, was cruising between Nevis and St. Kitts at the northeast corner of the Caribbean Sea, the lookout discovered a sail to leeward. There was a fresh breeze from the northeast, and squaring away before it, the Cons/ella/ion spread studding-. sails, and with the white foam roaring away. from the bow and a swirling wake dragging astern, she went swooping down to reconnoitre. But no sooner had sail been spread than a black squall came down with the wind, and all hands had to turn to, as if for life, to shorten sail. There were lively lads aloft on the Yankee ships of those days, for the crews, down to the powder monkeys, were inspired by a sense of 320 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY honor. They stripped the Constellation in time to save her spars, but the other ship lost her main-topmast, and when the squall had passed, it was seen that she had changed her course, hoping to reach port at St. Eustatius. But the Constellationi was soon upon her. She hoisted American colors, but could not answer a private signal, and a little later sent up the French flag and fired a gun in defiance. Later still (it was at 3.15 o'clock), when the Constellation, with her canvas above the topsails furled, camne bowling down, the enemy hailed, but no reply was made. Captain Truxton was not yet ready, but when he had arrived within ten yards just off the enemy's weather quarter and the hail was repeated, Captain Truxton answered with a full broadside. The fire was instantly returned, and then the enemy shoved his helm hard down, intending to luff up yardarm to yardarm and board the Constellation. In that move lay his only hope for victory, for he carried a hundred men more than the Constellation. But Captain Truxton was not to be caught. The Constellation being unhurt aloft, was able not only to steer clear of the crippled Frenchman, but to pass across his bows and rake him. Then the Constellation dropped down on the starboard side and gave the Frenchman other broadsides, and following up the advantage of THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 321 superior sailing power, she once more crossed his bows and raked again. Again she passed alongside, firing as she went, and this was so effective that every eighteen-pounder in the main-deck battery of the Frenchman was dismounted, leaving him nothing but twelvepounders for continuing the fight. Nevertheless, the Frenchman held fast his colors until 3.1S 3.18 3.20 3.21 4.2 4.25 4.30; ' Constellation FS — t —S --- ^ Ir1surgent N 'W - JlPAGlIAM OF 'VIE INSURGENT- CONSTELLATION BATTLE. s Constellation - Insurgent - THE M-N. Oo. the Constellatzon once more drew ahead in a position to rake. The fight was then absolutely hopeless and the Frenchman struck. It was then learned that she was the Insurgent, Captain Barreaut. The Constellation carried forty-eight guns, throwing 848 pounds of metal at one discharge, while the Insurgent carried forty guns, throwing 791 pounds of metal, The Constellation's crew.21 I A I I. A iljatic A UP Aa P. I A. L l ill 1111 1 AI SW i pi i iI i II 11111 1i iht ii Mil II~i 1 i INM fiiVI AUMAIfiliiOCMr s po ~ Ill I m r ii.iitS2t SII 1 f~e Mil if Ik ME som-AhU if i ii i iM C 120 f Ai i i. Ch iILk 55Al ii Ridci i ii 201 im ipitdi I). teI 111111 W1ith ai>f SEIM WM iii 6i dI AU THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 323 take charge, and supervise the transfer of prisoners.' While yet i73 of the French crew remained in her the two ships were separated by a West India hurricane. These thirteen Americans were left to face the gale and 173 of the enemy. Worse yet, all the hatch gratings, handcuffs, and shackles had been thrown overboard after striking colors. But Rodgers and Porter were the men for the occasion. They drove the prisoners below the hatches and placed one resolute, well-armed man at each hatchway with orders to kill any one who strove to get out. With the others they worked the ship for three days and two nights. They did not sleep or rest during that time, but they brought the ship into St. Kitts, where the Constellation, with an anxious crew, awaited them. Still more to the honor of the flag was the fight between the Constellazion and the Vengeance on Sunday night, February 2, i8oo, for the Frenchman was in every way superior, and Captain Truxton compelled him to fight. It was after a long chase that the Constellalion drew up on the weather quarter of the enemy at a distance of fifty or sixty yards. The ship had already been cleared for action, and now the battle lanterns were lighted, the crew were ordered to preserve perfect silence, and Captain Truxton stepped to the lee rail and hailed. For a reply the enemy opened fire 324 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY with such guns as he could bring to bear, and some of the shot struck home. But Truxton was not yet in a position to suit him, and the Consle/lalion forged ahead, with her crew standing in perfect silence at their stations, peering out at the red flash of the enemy's guns in the night, and shrinking back as the shot came in and here and there knocked a man dead or struggling across the deck. The wounded were instantly borne below, while the quartermasters sanded the blood, but no man spoke a word. As the time passed, the strain upon them became greater. The Captain noticed that the men were flinching more and more, and sternly ordered them to stand to their posts until they got the word, and then to aim at the hull and fire deliberately, but to load swiftly. And the men obeyed that order. Reaching the vantage point where every gun would bear, the order to fire was given, and echoing from the crash of the balls in the enemy's hull came such shrieks and cries as told of the havoc wrought there. Thereafter until 12.30 o'clock that night the crew of the Cons/ella/ion loaded as quickly as possible and fired as deliberately as if but practising with the battery at a target. So swift was their work that the guns got heated, and men crawled out the ports and dipped up water THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 325 with buckets to cool them off. But at midnight the fire of the enemy, that had been slacking away, died out entirely. The victory seemed won-it was, in fact, won over and again, for the French flag had been lowered twice during the fight (some historians say three times), but the Constellationz people did not see it because of the smoke, and, under the circumstances, the Frenchmen felt compelled Medal Awarded to Thomas Truxton. to fight on. But when they could fight no more and victory was assured for the American flag, the captain of the Constellation found that her main standing rigging had been wholly shot away. He called all hands to send up preventers, but before the work could be done the mast fell, carrying Midshipman James Jarvis and several men overboard, all but one of whom were lost. Jarvis might have escaped before the mast went, but chose to remain at his post. and face death. iEilii :,~;ii~???, iB ~.:rs, lill ~'":PB iilllr ~iaxi ~~i~si~r; ~i~lhnisn, :Bi~:iii ~~-nrr P..15_iX... iiExi ~"'~"""'"'"""""'"X""""' XXII ixr li;jli;'~~"';;d"P~~~.,,,, i~,aIIiliiiiii8;:P jlilijiiilgii8ilil li ~:Bi _r: ~na,;-~ ~IBI "-i'"iiIi - -niii " I bz;l,,,, 331 ""r", I:li """ -x~~~~~~xi~~ P l""ii ~"':il:6:8,,,,.,s,,,,,,i ~x;~,r rxil;li'A"rrt(i'~'sXi"'~'I;~~~r~i:IIil:~:i: :"""""""""""Siil;;~iiBBRB; srrras,;~;~l;;;;;~~ilil ~srr.r. ~""""":""" '"""~ inr,~ri, ~"E1~"~"1,01.1 ~.:""lsl:rt,,,,,,,,,, Ii;8iii:iitisRix,,xi ~./.XIXB,~E., P.iiO ~r.n.n,~;i~i~rirl.r, ~rnrnlrtril;~~*~i*~;**~~~~~ i~,n~r~rnBiniaarn;~i~,is~i-,~i, ~;IIii:"~r ''"" i;"'"'""""~""X' -xi"'i'x""i""i sn;R: i"siaaaaaalr..i, ~ol~al~lnilrja,~~~ul~;:.,i~~~i~~ rnoaalo~ilRsilaia, ~tiiilrxxiirrrri ~xar-j~i~,n, i~~~~~~i~~~~~~ix~ lai'""""""' i,,, ~i~:raii~,ir i,~~,:sliiis6" n,~nx,?sriii;iill ~""""'""'"" 5","','"'""5'"'"'"'"Itlllliii, i"""""""""""''X'"'"' ~"'X"'"'"'''"'"'"""'""'""''i"'""'''"X' ai,,, ~I:';:iii~' ~"""'~"""'~" '"""'""""'"i-~rr~,2~,r,~' 2i~i"r""'~~l ~"~~~l:eiB* HIM POPPEN EEEEHEE' MEN IN VgMME NEE MI WMEW gm H Em Rull ME NINE gm El M miiii um H. EM El! x E E. E. Mill IN MEN WOMARN RHE HEM MIR Egg MI NM mommA.mm mm McCaw H HER HN Ell 0. H Mpg -NNE= IN HE........ MEN MEN EHHH........... 328 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY Having lost her mainmast, the Cons/ella/ion was so badly crippled that the enemy slipped away in the night to Curagao. She was the Vengeance, Capt. A. M. Pitot. She carried fifty-two guns, throwing I,i 15 pounds of shot, while the Constella/ion at this time carried fifty guns, throwing 826 pounds of shot. The crew of the Vengeance numbered 330 to 3o10 on the Constellation. She lost fifty killed and io wounded, while the Cons/ella/ion lost fourteen killed and twenty-five wounded. Her ability to escape was hard luck for the Yankees, for she was carrying a very valuable cargo, including a lot of specie. If there is any one feature of this battle better worth remembering than any other it is the escape of the Vengeance after she was twice whipped-her escape through continuing the fight. For it proves, as John Paul Jones proved in the Bonhomme Richard, that a ship is never hopelessly defeated until she is sunk or wholly disabled. Another interesting battle was that between the Boston, Capt. John Little, and the Berceau, Capt. Andre Senez, who was, during the American Revolution, a midshipman under Count D'Estaing in the operations that enabled Washington to complete the capture of Cornwallis. The Boston was a larger ship, with more men and more and heavier guns than the THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 329 enemy, but when she ranged up within ten yards of the Bercean and Captain Little demanded that she surrender, the valiant Senez replied " Never! " This was at about 4 o'clock in the afternoon of October I 2, i Soo. The Boston opened fire, and with cries of " Vive la Republique!" the Frenchmen replied, and so effective was their fire and so determined was their commander that the battle raged for twenty-two hours, save for the intermissions during which the Boston had to haul off and repair rigging. But at 2 P.Mi. of the i3th the Bercean was practically shot to pieces and she had to surrender. The dash of Lieut. Isaac Hull, when he cut the valuable privateer Sandwzch out of Puerto Plato, was characteristic of the man who distinguished himself in later years. The privateer was lying in position to rake anything entering port, and she was protected by a good shore battery. But filling the Yankee sloop Sally with seamen and marines from the Constltu/ion (Hull wuras then her first lieutenant), he entered the harbor at night, sent the marines ashore, where they spiked the fort guns, while he with his sailors boarded and carried the privateer and sailed her out of port and sent her home. But though a brave, it proved to have been an illegal capture, and full restitution was made to the owners. 330 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY The adventures of the twelve-gun schooner Enterprise, Lieutenant Shaw-notably that when she fought the letter of marque Seine that would not surrender until twenty-four had been killed and disabled out of a crew of fiftyfour-were of the most stirring character. In six months she captured eight Frenchmen and recaptured four American ships the French had taken. The Experiment, Lieut. William Maley, was handled in like fashion. Both vessels often met and whipped superior forces, but space is lacking to give the story of their deeds. This high-seas war with France began on May 28, 1798. It came to an end when, on February 3, I801, a treaty of peace was ratified by the American Senate. Nearly three years had passed away. By it peace was assured for the future, and as for the past, all government vessels captured on either side were to be restored. By this provision the Americans returned the Berceau, the Veng-eance, and a smaller cruiser. The Insusrgent was lost at sea. Seventy-six French ships, in addition, such as privateers and armed merchantmen, carrying together 500 guns, had been captured, and these were retained. No American warship was captured by the French except the Relaliation, which was originally taken from them. The patriotic American does not care to dwell on this trouble with a people that had i all L A S ifid NOW A MO ffwiA i~fif id. 6 i iE I Id dI Ai IA iEC dlU icii fCi Iljcm I All fi., /A: 1, A7a I IAAi A ilkII ivdumei 6f cIA I Ilc j rib l~ccI c I I ~I Icifi kfcr CHAPTER XIII WAR WITH BARBARY PIRATES A SQUADRON UNDER RICHARD DALE SENT TO THE MEDITERRANEAN -THE DEY OF ALGIERS BECAME FRIENDLY, BUT THE BASHAW OF TRIPOLI SHOWED FIGHT-FIERCE BATTLE BETWEEN THE SCHOONER E7NTERPRISE AND THE TREACHEROUS CREW OF THE POLACRE TRIPOLI- SLAUGHTER OF THE PIRATES - TRIPOLI BLOCKADED-GROUNDING AND LOSS OF THE PHILADELPHIA. THE story of the first conflict with the pirates of the Mediterranean Sea follows that of the small war with France. It was a conflict made necessary, as already explained, because, in the supposed interests of her trade, a civilized nation sicked on the Barbary whelps to tear the peaceful passer-by. Not only did the British agent negotiate a treaty by which the pirates would be turned loose into the Atlantic, especially to prey on American commerce; a British subject named Lisle was admiral of the Tripolitan fleet when the Bashaw of Tripoli, seeing the success of the Dey of Algiers in levying blackmail on the United States, declared war against us. On May 20, 1 801, the Secretary of the Navy OM~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 335 President, Capt. James Barron; the Philadelphza, Capt. Samuel Barron; the Essex, Capt. William Bainbridge; and the twelve - gun schooner Enterprise, that had done such effective work against the French in the West Indies. She was now under Lieut. Andrew Sterrett, the officer who shot a sailor on the Constellationz for leaving a gun in time of battle. Under Sterrett was David Porter, who had shown his metal on the captured Insurgent and elsewhere. When this fleet appeared off Algiers the Dey found his wrath, which presents had not appeased, suddenly changed to effusive friendship for the Americans, but the Bashaw of Tripoli was not so easily awed. However, it was not until August ist that a fight occurred. On that day, while cruising off Malta, the Enterpr/se fell in with the war polacre Trzi5ol, carrying fourteen guns and eighty men. By no means a cheap enemy at any time, she even-. tually proved a most treacherous one. After the battle had raged for two hours at pointblank range, the Trziol/'s flag was lowered. Lieutenant Porter put off in a boat to take possession, while the crew of the Enterprise in great part turned to repairing damages to their rigging. Thereat the corsairs opened a murderous fire and hoisted the red flag again. The men of the Enterprise quickly returned to their 336 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY guns, and after a fierce conflict the corsairs, seeing that in fair fight they were worsted, once more hauled down their flag in order to catch the Yankees somewhat off guard. The ruse succeeded again, and Porter was on his way to take possession, when the corsairs renewed battle more vigorously than ever. " Sink the damned treacherous creatures to the bottom!' said Sterrett. Exasperated by the treachery they had seen, the crew started in to obey the order with a will, and the corsair captain saw his fate before him. Not only did he then haul down his flag, but he brought it to the gangway, and throwing it into the sea, he bowed his head to the deck and begged for quarter. Out of eighty men the corsair had lost twenty killed and twenty-eight wounded. The Enlerprise did not lose a man. Congress gave Sterrett a sword and every other member of the crew a month's pay because of " the aforesaid heroic action." When the commander of the corsair reached Tripoli he was paraded through the streets on a donkey and bastinadoed for surrendering. Following-though, of course, not because of -this action a good many changes were made in the American squadron-changes such as increasing its force and putting in new commanders two or three times; but eventually it appeared that, although here was a good squad V I!1t\ AI-' -/.Aff. V- A,-Z — I-f-* "Captain Sterrett in the Enterprise, Paying Tribute to Tripoli." Fa;omz an old wood-czt. ;i~~~~J - /111 I 111 1K if I: If". I~\ A Schooner-of-war, Like the Enterprise. From a wood-cut in the " Kedge Anchor." 340 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY ron for open-sea fighting, the Americans were not armed for battering down a city so well fortified as Tripoli, and the Bashaw refused to make a treaty. A weary blockade of the port followed. There were conflicts of small moment with gunboats that tried to steal away to sea, and even the land forces were bombarded at times. A party under Porter once landed and fired some gunboats that had been hauled Ic ~ ' ---TooILACK- SE Tang era / SEA. Scene of N val Operations Tiol. Dem ' _ MEDITERR.NEAN SEA. A,-'an. r, 0 100 200 400 COO 0 0 Scaele of Miles. out on the beach, and on this occasion the Arabs fought by throwing handfuls of sand in the faces of the Americans, hoping to blind them. Finally, the 3ist of October, 1803, came on, and it was a memorable day in the history of the American navy. The frigate Philade5phzia, Capt. William Bainbridge, that had been maintaining the blockade off Tripoli, had been blown away from her station by a furious gale, and, while returning during the morning of the TH lI I1 C! I Q13 1 ftNA E) 4 5 l viIi II 11 IL iiii WW E/f/id MjiIIRMU I Uj lviflv UN 91 ii dii 511di wasv a Ilil 342 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY Captain Bainbridge found he was getting into shoal water. Had he been provided with accurate charts he would have seen he was in worse than shoaling waters, for he was running among reefs, the channels of which were well known to the corsairs. By i i o'clock, with only her topsails and courses set, the Philadel5zia was bowling along at eight knots an hour. The bow guns were already throwing shot at the flying corsair and almost reaching him, while the walls of the city rose scarcely three miles away. The three men who were in the chains heaving the lead had called eight fathoms of water with drawling regularity for some time, when one man suddenly cried out seven fathoms, and fifteen seconds later another but six and a half. Instantly the helm was thrown hard over and the ship came up to the wind, headed for the open sea, and then with a shock that threw many of her crew to the deck, she struck the reef. The bow rose six feet out of the water, while the cordage and masts creaked and groaned under the tremendous strain. For a moment the crew looked about in silence, and then the voice of the captain was heard calling for lead-lines over the bow and stern. It was found that there was but twelve feet of water forward and seventeen aft. A boat was lowered and a party sent to sound THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 343 around the ship. They found that she had left the channel when the helm was put down. Thereat every sail was set aback; anchors and guns were thrown overboard forward or run aft to reduce the load at the bow. Even the foremast was cut away, but all to no purpose. She was hard and fast ashore. Meantime the enemy's gunboats had come out and opened fire on the grounded frigate. The Americans replied with such few guns as could be brought to bear, but eventually the tide ebbed, and the Phzladelphza keeled over until nothing could be done in her defence. So the magazine was flooded the pumps were disabled, holes were bored through her bottom, and at 5 o'clock her flag was hauled down. For some time the Tripolitans held aloof, fearing the sort of treachery they were accustomed to among themselves, but as night fell they boarded and plundered everything and everybody in sight. Even the clothing was stripped from many of the crew. In all, 315 men surrendered. Among the officers was Lieutenant Porter, already mentioned; Jacob Jones, James Biddle, and James Renshaw, who, though now prisoners, were to help make history in notable fashion in another war to come. * Two days later a strong xvind from the north piled the water of the Mediterranean high on 344 THE HISTORY OF OuR NAVY the reef. The stern of the Phziladelphia floated, anchors and cables were put out astern, and having stopped up the holes the Americans had bored, and having brought a strain on the cables, the corsairs hauled her off, and she was towed to an anchorage under the Bashaw's castle. And more than that, the Tripolitans succeeded in getting up and replacing the guns, anchors, and most of the shot that had been thrown overboard to lighten her. That Bainbridge was eventually honorably acquitted when tried by court-martial for losing his ship, scarcely need be said. CHAPTER XIV DECATUR AND THE PH1ILADELPHIA STORY OF TIIE BRAVE MEN WHO DISGUISED A KETC-H AS A MERCHANTMAN AND SAILED INTO THE HARBOR OF TRIPOLI BY NIGHT, DREW UP ALONGSIDE THE CAPTURED PHILADELPHIA, AND THEN, TO THE ORDER " BOARDERS AWAY!" CLIMBED OVER THE RAIL AND THROUGH THE PORTS, AND WITH CUTLASS AND PIKE DROVE THE PIRATES INTO THE SEA OR TO A WVORSE FATE-" THE MOST BOLD AND DARING ACT OF TIHE AGE." WITH 315 American prisoners, including twenty-two officers, to hold for ransom, and with a swift and most substantial thirty-six-gun frigate added to his fleet, the Bashaw of Tripoli had gained a decided advantage over the Americans. He was so pleased over it that on a festival day that followed the accident, he brought the officers before him where his court was assembled in gala attire and, after a proper greeting, the Americans were liberally sprinkled with ottar of roses and other perfumes and were served with coffee and sherbet. Later, however, they were confined in filthy dungeons and otherwise ill treated. But, in spite of dungeons, through the aid of Mr. N. C. Nissen, 346 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY the Danish consul at Tripoli, who was uniremitting in kind attentions to the Americans, Bainbridge was able to communicate with the American fleet, and on December 5, 1803, he sent a letter, written with lime juice (which becomes legible when heated), in which he proposed that the Phziladelphiaz be destroyed as she lay at anchor by the Americans, who might come into the harbor at night in a schooner, and, after firing her, get away again. The suggestion was adopted, and it was carried out in a fashion that made the name of Decatur famous in the annals of the American navy. At this time Stephen Decatur, Jr., was a lieutenant of the navy and in command of the famous schooner En/erprise. On December 23, 1803, he -fell in with a Tripolitan ketch named the Mas/ico, that was carrying a lot of female slaves to the Sultan of Turkey, and very quickly captured her. This prize he carried to Syracuse, where the American fleet, under Capt. Edward Preble, was at anchor. It is worth recalling here that Capt. Edward Preble, who was now in command of the Consti/u/ion, had, as a boy of fourteen years, been driven from his home at Portland (Falmouth), Maine, when that town was destroyed by the infamous Mowat at the beginning of the war of the Revolution. At Syracuse the project of destroying the - - ----------- 34~ tHE HISTORY OF OUR NAVV and that the captured ketch Mastico should be employed because she was of a rig that could more easily enter the harbor of Tripoli without attracting attention. Accordingly, the ketch was taken into the service as a tender and a picked crew of sixtytwo volunteers put on board, with a faithful Malta man for pilot. In addition to these, there were a dozen young officers from the Enterprise and from the flagship Constitztion, among whom were two midshipmen of whom the world was to hear later on-J ames Lawrence and Thomas Macdonough. Macdonough was then but twenty years old, while Lawrence was but sixteen. Decatur himself was only twentyfour. Having everything in readiness, the Mastico sailed on February 9, I804, for Tripoli, with the brig Siren in company to lie in wait off the harbor and pick up the crew of the Maslico should they be obliged to take to the small boats at any time. Running across to Tripoli, the expedition arrived by night, but a furious gale defeated the hope of success and all but swamped the Mastico. For six days she rolled to the waves, her crew in distress for lack of food and of any sleeping accommodations whatever, and because of the vermin the slaves had left behind. But on the i6th of February the THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 349 weather moderated to a breeze that would just serve their purpose, and they stood in for the harbor, overhauling their combustibles on the way and finding everything dry and fit. When night drew on, the men were divided into five crews, of which three were to fire as many different parts of the ship, one was to hold her upper deck, and one to remain in and guard the ketch. Meantime seven more volunteers had been taken from the Siren. When night had fully come the little ketch parted from the brig, and at 9 o'clock was sailing into the harbor by the channel in which the Philadeplzia had been lost. All the crew but six well-disguised men were hidden below or stretched out on deck in the shadow of the bulwarks, as soon as the city's lights came well in view, and with a failing wind the ketch thereafter drifted toward the great hulk of the Philadelphia, which was soon brought plainly in view in the moonlight. Her ports were aglow with lights, and her crew were seen to be at least awake if not alert. Drawing near at about io o'clock, the pilot, at Decatur's order, steered the ketch so as to foul the Philadelphia's rigging at the bowsprit. Then a sentinel hailed the ketch. The Malta pilot replied that the ketch had lost all her anchors during the gale and wished to make fast to the cables of the Philadelphia until others 350 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY could be procured on shore. Then an officer asked what brig was off shore, for he had seen the Siren in spite of precautions. The pilot replied that it was the English war-brig Transfer, which had been purchased at Malta for the Tripolitans and, fortunately, was due to arrive. As the pilot talked, many of the Tripolitans gathered at the Philadelphia's rail and ports to peer over at the ketch. So when, at last, the chains at the Philadelphia's bow were almost within grasp the wind failed, and the next instant a cat's-paw caught the ketch aback; she began to drift toward the broadside of the big ship, where all these Tripolitans would have a fair view of her deck. It was a moment of great peril, but without the least flurry two of the disguised sailors got into a small boat and carried a line to a ring-bolt on the man-o'-war's bow. Then the disguised men on board the ketch began hauling in, while those lying in the shadow of the bulwarks, trusting to the depth of the shadow, lent their aid by hauling hand over fist as they lay there. Meantime the Tripolitans had sent a small boat with a line by which they intended to swing the ketch astern of the Philadelphia, but the Yankees in the small boat, with great presence of mind, took it from them and carried THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 351 it to the ketch, "to save the gentlemen the trouble," as they explained in broken Maltese. During all this time the pilot had been entertaining the Tripolitan officer with a highcolored description of the ketch's cargo-had really entertained him until the men hauling on the bow line had brought the ketch within ten yards of the big ship, when unhappily the tension on the line from the stern drew the ketch broadside on to the Philadelplhia, where the eyes of the idle spectators could fall on the men who were lying on the ketch's deck eagerly hauling in on the bow line. One fair look was enough, and in an instant the ship was resounding with the cry, " Americano! Americano!" The moment for action had come. Springing to their feet, the Americans ran away with the line. A Tripolitan climbed over the Philadelfphia's bows and cut the line loose, but the momentum already gained was great enough to land the ketch fair in place, where grapnels were thrown out, and with that Decatur cried, " Boarders away!" and sprang for the rail of the Philadelphia. By the side of Decatur stood Midshipmen Morris and Laws. Laws, to be the first at the enemy, strove to get through a port; but his pistols caught and held him for a moment, while Decatur slipped just enough to give 352 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY Morris the honor of being first, and then came Decatur and all the rest with swinging cutlasses to clear the deck. The Tripolitans had been fairly caught napping and, while never a word was spoken, the quarter-deck was cleaned in a trice. Then the Burning of the Frigate Philadelphia by Decatur. From an old wood-cut. Americans formed instantly in a line athwartship and charged silently forward. Whelmed by the fierce onslaught, the Tripolitans fled for life, and the rapid sound of bodies falling into the water alongside told whither many were fleeing. Others ran below, where some met death from the cutlasses and pikes of sailors who had climbed through the ports, THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 353 and others hid to meet' a worse fate a brief time later. So swift and thorough was the work of the American boarders that in ten minutes the last show of resistance was ended. And then a single rocket drew its line of flame high in air to tell the anxious friends without the bar that the Phii/adeljkia was captured. Even while the rocket mounted, the three crews that had been assigned to fire the ship were passing up the combustibles from the ketch, and never was a work of destruction more completely done than that which followed. Midshipman Morris, he who had first reached the enemy, was in charge of the crew that fired the cockpit, the lowest attainable point in the ship. He did his work effectually, but so swiftly had those worked on the deck above him that when he followed his men up they barely had time to escape. On reaching the upper deck the flames were found pouring from the portholes on both sides and flaring up to lap the tar-soaked shrouds and stays. Decatur was there, waiting for those from the cockpit. When they came he paused but a moment to see that the fire was effectually set, and then over the rail tumbled every man jack of the expedition, Decatur himself being the last to leave the burning ship. Indeed, 23 354 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY the ketch was then drifting clear, and he had to jump to reach her. He had been on board but twenty-five minutes, all told. With poles and oars the Americans now strove to get away, but in some way the ketch swung around under the stern of the big ship with boom afoul, her sail flapping against the ship's sides, and, at the last, with the flames pouring through the ship's cabin windows into the cabin of the ketch, where all the ammunition of the expedition was stored, covered over with sail-cloth only. The peril was imminent, but it was averted when some one discovered that the forgotten line from the stern was still fast. When that was cleared, and with their big oars, eight on a side, the crew began to sweep the ketch away toward the sea, the flames on the Philadelphia reached her tarred rigging at the rail. Running thence to the masthead, they made such giant torches as illuminated the whole bay and exposed the fleeing ketch as if in the light of day. The Tripolitans hastened to their guns. The ketch was still well within range, for the Philadelphia lay but a quarter of a mile from the fort, and in a few moments heavy shot were bounding and splashing over the smooth water on every side. But, whether from anger or mere excitement, the barbarian aim was bad, II ti l I E 0 _ isll A _ 1gt f3 f,:, IF~b.i,;:3; i )S, Ig I _l se;E. M _ 0 X g= I I ox 9 ~sI N M~na I i 4 gxg I I. _ S x Igg IE~ a~aW |~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~K,~ I g SggE __ _ _ _.... X g t gg W m~~-~ — I I THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 357 and only one shot reached the little vessel, and that merely passed through a sail. And then to the roar of the cannon on the beach was added that of the guns of the Phiiladeiplia, which, heated by the fierce flames of deck and frames, began to discharge themselves. But not all of them were fired so. Only a few had been noted when the wondering spectators saw the great hull suddenly burst open, with huge sheets of flame spurting from between the parting timbers. The masts with their flaming rigging shot up a hundred and fifty feet into the air. All eyes were for a moment dazzled with the blazing light, and then came a shock and roar that made the earth and sea shudder. The fire had reached the wellfilled magazine. The waves from the explosion came out to rock the triumphant Americans in their little ketch, now rapidly reaching their shipmates and safety. Not one American lost his life and but one was wounded. Of the Tripolitans more than twenty were certainly killed by the boarders, while many wounded ones jumped overboard, and many cowards sneaked to hiding places below, where the flames ended them. To reward those who had participated in this feat, which Lord Nelson, it is said, called "the most bold and daring act of the age," .................. Rn A M. RN An A n, ntML In M AR "-4 WI CHAPTER XV HAND-TO-HAND WITH THE PIRATES A FIGHT AGAINST ODDS OF THREE GUNBOATS TO ONE-DECATUR AND MACDONOUGH LEADING THE BOARDERS-COLD-BLOODED MURDER AND THE VENGEANCE THAT FOLLOWED-WVHEN REUBEN JAMES WON FAME-ELEVEN AGAINST FORTY-THREE IN A HAND-TO-HAND STRUGGLE, AND THE REMARKABLE RESULTTHE HANDY CONSTITUTION-FIRED THEIR GUN AS THE BOAT SANK UNDER THEM-WHEN SOMERS AND HIS MATES WENT TO THEIR DEATH IN A FIRESHIP-END OF THE WAR WITH THE PIRATES. AFTER the destruction of the Philadelphia the war against the Tripolitans was carried on with increased vigor. A number of gunboats, carrying one long heavy gun each, and two barges, carrying a big thirteen-inch brass mortar each, were " generously loaned us by his Sicilian majesty." With these and the force already in hand a number of attacks were made on the city of Tripoli by Captain Preble, who was still in command of the American forces. The first of these, and the most notable as a battle, took place on the afternoon of August 3, I804. Six gunboats, in two divisions, were sent in to attack the enemy's fleet. Master Commandant Richard Somers, of whom a re i?.9 )...... m _..........W... A-~ ~~ AMM.^^ '-ce. rm 1emif~-f-,iviWffiy/~,! THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 36I markable story will be told further on, led one division, and young Stephen Decatur, now a captain, the other. Of the six gunboats only three succeeded in weathering the point and getting at the enemy; but one of these carried Stephen Decatur, and another Stephen's brother, Lieut. James Decatur. The Tripolitan fleet numbered nine gunboats, each at least as well manned and armed as any of the American boats, but the Yankees dashed at the head of the fleet with hearty cheers. Stephen Decatur's boat was the first to open the fire. Its long gun had been loaded with a thousand musket-balls in a bag, in lieu of the ordinary projectiles, and it was fired at point-blank range. A moment later the Yankee boat was beside the enemy, and Decatur led the way to her quarter-deck. The Tripolitans retreated forward, where a wide, open hatch protected them, after a fashion, from direct assault; but a narrow gangway was found on each side of the hatch-a gangway where men might advance in single file- and over these narrow paths the Yankees charged. Decatur was first on one side and Midshipman Thomas Macdonough on the other-the Macdonough who was to win still greater fame on Lake Champlain. It was a bloody but a brief fight, and the Tripolitans fled over the rail, save eight who tumbled down the hatch and were made prisoners. 362 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY When an examination was made they found the Tripolitan captain dead, with fourteen bullets from the great gun through him. Meantime Lieut. James Decatur had, with equal ardor, attacked another of the Tripolitans, and her commander, seeing the great power of the Americans, determined to try to do by treachery what he could not hope to do open-handed. He hauled down his flag after the first fire had been received, and then waited the coming of Lieut. James Decatur to take possession -waited with a loaded pistol at hand. As Decatur stood at the rail ready to board and take possession, the Tripolitan shot him dead, the bullet passing through his head. As the Tripolitan had hoped, the Americans were thrown into confusion by the unexpected attack, and he was able to haul off. But he did not escape. In some way Stephen Decatur heard that his brother had been murdered. He was towing his captured gunboat to a place of safety, but he cast her off, and, seconded by his crew, who were thoroughly aroused by the story, he went after the assassin. A round of grapeshot and musketry was poured into the fleeing barbarian, and then Decatur led the boarders, and himself selected the captain for his own victim. A most desperate hand-to-hand fight followed, for the Tripolitan was a more powerful man than the It~ 364 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY American. Decatur lunged at him with a boarding pike. The Mussulman parried the blow, caught the weapon, and wrenching it away, lunged at Decatur. Decatur had drawn his sword, and with this he parried the thrust, but his sword broke short off at the hilt. The Tripolitan lunged again, and Decatur, although he parried the blow, was wounded in the chest and arm, and a moment later the two were clasped in a wrestling struggle for life. At this another Mussulman aimed a blow at Decatur's head from behind. It was apparently all over with the gallant American, for no other American was within reach save one, a seaman, Reuben James, and both of his arms were disabled. But James leaped in, and with his head caught the blow aimed at Decatur. And then the Tripolitan threw Decatur to the deck, and Yankees and Mussulmans thronged in and piled themselves over the two leaders. As it happened, each of the leaders fell, with one arm free and one pinned by the men on top. The Tripolitan with his free arm drew a long knife, Decatur a pocket pistol. For a moment each felt the other's ribs to locate the heart, but Decatur was first by a fraction of a second, and his pistol-ball did faithful work, killing the Mussulman instantly. Then the Americans cleared the enemy from /~~~1~~I I \''lW I)B~ Ril bh jiiii Smh MM6i W dliid Vihrtir Mot i I dflmfiuioifl ig fi di IlAdI il, toll di iikiffiE t did di id fdWii MYw1iifilk g i luill idifibi a i I]Vd t 366 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY serve the nation more than forty years. It was his boast that he was in "ten fights and as many skrimmedges," and it was his custom to celebrate the anniversary of each with enthusiasm. A jolly old tar was Reuben James. Of equal bravery were the men on the third American gunboat. She was commanded by Sailing Master John Trippe and Midshipman John D. Henley. Ranging up beside the enemy, these two officers and nine men got on board of her, and then the two boats separated, leaving these eleven men to face the whole barbarian crew, with no chance of retreat and small hope of timely assistance. But Trippe and Henley were just the men to lead such a forlorn hope. Pikes and swords in hand, the eleven charged the enemy, Trippe and Henley singling out the Tripolitan captain, knowing that victory was assured if they could cut him down. But he was a magnificent specimen of humanity, and it is said that he had sworn on the Koran to win victory or die. Fighting with the energy born of fanaticism, he wounded Trippe no less than eleven times, and at last Trippe went down with one knee on the deck, but while in this position he caught the Tripolitan with breast unguarded and thrust him through with a pike. And that ended one of the most remarkable fights recorded in the annals of the navy. For Trippe had hs f~ fi1i1HI fiJ4C01Ofii lm~ CEIN EUI Afidi Lfi~ IF(iI JM tORMVC filfifi kl I i ffi igh MAll V lEipiN A A i li AA H AfdHi arte E HA LA it I f A. h A lA ififAl Ai A II d jlit1111 hai bLuf 1 1 141d 61f jIA Nail B SIR kl ijt AIti 1i1ia1 Alld~i bada Idid A OI J5IR Ag Vo iiii Al I I i i 6 i Al A Af i 1 11 li i idjI didif 11111i gi. g L I INA I 11l 1111111IRAi d IiAA 368 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY here in hand-to-hand fights that thereafter the Tripolitans would never engage them in that way. And the manner in which the Consliiulion was handled muLst also be mentioned, for she was sailed boldly into the harbor, and there sail was taken in or made as if it were a mere exhibition of skill in a friendly port, while her guns were handled with the precision of peaceful target practice. The admiration of all foreigners was excited, but the time when American naval crews were to compel the respect of all foreign powers had not yet arrived. In the subsequent attacks on the city, there were many incidents of interest to American readers. A heavy shot penetrated the castle one day where the American prisoners were confined. It covered Captain Bainbridge with the d6bris of the wall and snatched the clothes off the bed on which he was lying. While one of the American gunboats was firing on a shore battery, a hot shot penetrated her magazine and she was blown up. At the moment of the explosion Midshipman Robert T. Spence and a gun's crew were loading the big gun on the bow. As it happened, the explosion did not injure either them or their gun, although it opened wide the bottom of the boat. And so it came to pass that, as the smoke cleared away, spectators saw Spence and his men still at work loading the gun. And not .............. I I THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 37I only did they complete their work; as the boat sank under them they gave three cheers for the flag, and fired their last shot at the enemy, with the rising water wetting their feet. Spence was not able to swim, but he got hold of a big oar, and so kept afloat with eleven others until picked up, when he and the others saved turned to and continued the fight. The story of the most stirring and the most unfortunate attack on the city remains to be told. Captain Preble, "desirous of annoying the enemy by all means," decided to send a fireship among their shipping. The ketch Izlrepid, that had served so well in the attack upon the captured P/ziladelpkia, was selected for the sacrifice. A hundred barrels of powder in bulk and i50 fixed shells and a lot of old iron were placed in a bin amidships, and from this' a pipe led to a room well aft, where a huge mass of combustibles was placed. It was intended to handle the' ketch as a blockade runner and so get her into the midst of the enemy's shipping. She was then to be fired in the after-room, and the blaze there, it was supposed, would be fierce enough to prevent the Tripolitans extinguishing it. Meantime a train regulated to burn fifteen minutes would be running through the pipe to the magazine. Two swift rowboats were placed on the ketch, and in these her crew hoped to escape to the Mpap of the HARBOR OF TRIPOLI, Showing where the Philadelphia grounded and where burned and where the Intrepid was blown up. N WT E: "::.:,............ THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 373 smaller vessels that would be in waiting to pick them up. The glory which Decatur and his men had won in their attacks on the P/iladelp/zia had inspired the whole force of the fleet, and volunteers a-plenty were eager to man the ketch. Of those who offered, Master Commandant Richard Somers was chosen to command, while Midshipman Henry Wadsworth was made second, with ten seamen for a crew. In addition to these was a stowaway-Midshipman Joseph Israel. He had pleaded in vain for permission to go, and so hid on board. He was discovered, but was then allowed to go. Every man of the crew knew very well the great danger of the venture, and Somers and his officers declared they would not be taken alive. Somers, before starting, took off a ring he wore and, breaking it into three pieces, gave one to Decatur, another to Master Commandant Charles Stewart, his most intimate friends. He kept the third himself. The two pieces given away were to be preserved as mementoes if he failed to return. The seamen of the crew disposed of their effects as if facing certain death. It was on the night of September 4, I804, that the attempt was made. A fog lay low over the water, and a fair wind filled the sails as the ketch, at 8 o'clock, left the flagship and sailed away silently into the night. 374 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY A little later the Argus, the Vixen, and the Nautilus, all small cruisers, stood over toward the channel in order to cover the retreat of the ketch, for three Tripolitan gunboats had anchored there during the afternoon and were likely to make trouble for the ketch's crew. The Nautilus led the way for the guarding fleet, and she held the ketch in view until so near the channel that there was danger that she (the Nautilus) would be discovered, when she hauled her wind to await the event of the expedition. Her crew soon saw the ketch fade away in the night, but so intense was their interest that many climbed over the rail to get down with their ears to the water that they might hear the sooner any sound coming from her. In the rigging of the Nautilus, not far above deck, Midshipman Ridgeley was able, with the aid of a powerful glass, to follow the ketch into the channel. He saw her glide as a shadow between the gunboats there. At this moment a signal gun was fired from the shore. It was followed by the rapid firing of every cannon on that side of the harbor. Immediately there was a commotion among the three gunboats in the channel, and at that the light of a lantern in the hands of one who ran was seen passing along the deck of the ketch. -S,~ ~ ~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~8 I I ~. SAl I m &ill l~ L. ~; g g g. S ~~i s:; A AN~~~ I I THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 377 This light paused over the midship hatch to drop out of sight an instant later, and then a hell of flame burst up to the sky, where the light had disappeared. A shock followed that made the ships beyond the bar quiver until tiny waves spread away over the smooth water. And with the shock came a roar that deafened. And then, as the echoes of the roar died away among the distant hills, the patter and splash of shells and splintered timbers were heard on every side, while cries as of fear and distress arose from the city-cries that were followed by absolute silence. All night long the Americans cruised to and fro about the channel, firing guns and rockets at intervals, hoping against despair to find a survivor. When morning came to give a fair view of the harbor, one of the enemy's gunboats was missing, and the Tripolitans were hauling three others, badly shattered, out on the beach. The ketch and all who sailed in her-the " men, whose names ought to live in the recollection and affections of a grateful country, and whose conduct ought to be regarded as an example to future generations" -had been blown to pieces. Richard Somers, finding that his venture was discovered, and the crew of a Tripolitan gunboat coming on board, had deliberately fired 378 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY the mine, and, Samson-like, had destroyed himself with the enemy. Fragments of the wreck and a number of bodies of white men were picked up in the harbor. The bodies were viewed by Captain Bainbridge, but none was definitely recognized. Other attacks on the city followed. The Congress gave Preble agold medal, each of his officers and midshipmen a sword, and all others of the crew a month's pay because of their good work there. The force was increased by other ships until there were five frigates, a brig, three schooners, a sloop, and a dozen or so gunboats and bomb barges in the fleet, making the most powerful squadron that had ever assembled under the flag. For that day and place it was an impressive display of the sea power. In the meantime a formidable uprising had taken place in the Bashaw's dominions, and the capital of his chief province was captured by the leader of the revolt with the aid of the Americans. So the Bashaw became alarmed and eventually offered to deliver up all prisoners for a ransom of $60,000 and to agree never again to trouble American commerce. This offer was accepted, and peace followed. The fleet then sailed to Tunis, whose ruler, stimulated by the British consul-general, had expelled the American agent. To him terms of peace were dictated under the muzzles of the I I' I A A I UIAIII r~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Cmpa \I~1iI I 1I~i A. MRSEI i IA 380 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY such a thing been done before. So closes the story of the American navy's work during the period between the Revolution and the War of I81 2. As it appears in the perspective of a hundred years, that was in many ways a most important epoch. It was, first of all, the time in which the ruling policy of the American navy, as regards the construction of ships, was formed-the policy under which it was determined to build only as many ships as might be necessary to defend the nation and its commerce from aggressors, but each ship to be the most powerful possible for its size. Every device and model that seemed likely to add to the efficiency of these vessels was tried, regardless of expense. The eager enterprise of the new nation and the ships this enterprise set afloat excited endless derision from the British officers of that day. The Cons/izu/ion was called "a pine box" by some Englishmen who inspected her. They had to learn by hard experience their error. The foreign commerce of the nation, through the influence of this new fleet, was not only freed from the evils which the Mediterranean pirates had brought upon it, but also from those for which the French anarchists were responsible. Indeed, that commerce grew until the increase of the tariff collected from imports THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 38i amounted to several times the cost of the whole American navy. But valuable as were these gains, they were, perhaps, together of less importance than was the effect of the deeds of the naval heroes upon the people of the new republic. In the war of the Revolution we had, indeed, won liberty, but we still dragged the slave-chains of colonists. Without having known what it was to be freemen we had established a government of and by the people and we found ourselves in unfamiliar quarters. We had placed ourselves, so to speak, on the quarterdeck without having mastered the art of navigation, and while quartered in the cabin, we had the manners of the forecastle and smelled of bilgewater. Our new uniforms did not fit us well, but there was no form of training that could so quickly swell the muscles until they would fill the garments of liberty as a righteous foreign war. The war with the Barbary pirates was of all wars most righteous. It stirred the indignation of the most sluggish patriot to read of the deeds of these black hounds of the sea, while the signal valor of those who fought under the American flag leavened the spirit of the whole nation. As the stories of the deeds of those who fought afloat for liberty had prepared the way for manning the new fleet which aggression 382 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY compelled us to build, so the stories of the deeds of the heroes of the new navy nerved the nation for the conflict that was already at hand. Small as were the numbers of the crews who carried the flag overseas in this epoch, it is safe to say that they, and they alone, strengthened the heart of the people until it was possible to resist the shock of 181 2. CHAPTER XVI WHY WE FOUGHT IN I812 A STIRRING TALE OF THE OUTRAGES PERPETRATED ON AMERICAN CITIZENS BY THE PRESS-GANGS OF THE BRITISH NAVY-HORRORS OF LIFE ON SHIPS WHERE THE OFFICERS FOUND PLEASURE IN THE USE OF THE CAT-DOOMED TO SLAVERY FOR LIFE-IMPRESSED FROM THE BALTIMORE-A BRITISH SEAMAN'S JOKE AND ITS GHASTLY RESULT-THE BRITISH ADMIRALTY'S WAY OF DEALING WITH DELIBERATE MURDER IN AMERICAN WATERS-ASSAULT OF THE LEOPARD ON THE CHESAPEAKE TO COMPEL AMERICAN SEAMEN TO RETURN TO THE SLAVERY THEY HAD ESCAPED — BUILDING HARBOR-DEFENCE BOATS TO PROTECT AMERICAN SEAMEN FROM OUTRAGE ON THE HIGH SEAS-OTHER GOOD REASONS FOR GOING TO WAR. THERE were many causes operating through weary years to force the American nation to declare war against the British in I812, which the reader will recall readily, of course. Great Britain retained the frontier posts which she had agreed to surrender when the war of the Revolution came to an end. She used these posts as headquarters for Indian tribes, whose friendship she cultivated that she might use them to the injury of the United States. She even incited them to attack the American pioneers, and furnished them with guns and 384 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY scalping knives when night assaults on peaceful settlers were to be made. Although all Europe was submerged in a turmoil of blood, she turned aside from the great interests there to foment discord between the States of the American Union, seeking thereby to disrupt the nation in the hope that a part-the New England part, at that-would return to the colonial relationship. Remembering the prodigious growth of American shipping and the consequent complaints of her own shipowners, she used every means to harass American commerce. To detail all of the evils she heaped upon the decks of American ships is unnecessary, but the reader will remember that a time came when she ordered that every American ship carrying cargo to any part of Europe must call first at a port in England, land the cargo, pay duty on it, and then carry it away again, subject to such regulations as seemed most beneficial to her. As the Edinburgh Review for November, 1812, said, " the spirit of animosity and unconciliating contempt pervaded the whole proceedings of the government" toward the Americans. And although " they are descended from our loins-they speak our languagethey have adopted our laws-they retain our usages and manners-they read our booksthey have copied our freedom-they rival our THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 385 courage; yet they are less popular and less esleemed among us th/an the base and bigoted Porluguese, or the ferocious and ignorant Russians." That the retention of the frontier posts, the inciting of the Indians to night attacks on the frontiersmen, and the interferences with American oversea trade were separately sufficient causes of war and, combined, more than sufficient, will not now be seriously disputed, if the advocate of peace will stop to consider what ought to be done were any one of these uncalled-for aggressions attempted now. And yet so great was the American antipathy to another war, so great was the American desire to hold a neutral position as to the wars of Europe, that neither the one nor the other nor all together were sufficient to nerve them to strike the blow. Still another and a stronger incentive was needed, if war was to be declared -a grievance that would appeal to the heart of the whole people. And not only was this incentive found; it was continually present and crying aloud for vengeance. To fully appreciate this, the chief cause of the War of 1812 between the United States and England, one must first know well how the crews of the British naval ships of that day were recruited and what manner of life these crews led when in actual service. As to the manner of recruiting, the facts are, no doubt, 25 quay) jiffd Old fi ) a f fiIdil I Midifi Effi d111im-I ldifiu.I pfatfl U)t talcrunp 11 1II II llt CjIlR hi1 ofal IEM41l Ml, Wi a a I I g1II. IIo d.a~lgji 1111ickiir Mi llii Mid Ikki jId IfIf fiU 1.111 1a Iffl StU..11111 FEW a11idlih1. b..idili ll I 111 lid THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 387 enough men in this fashion-as, for instance, when the ship was in a foreign port or on the high seas-it was the custom, the every-day custom, to send the press-gang on board any ship where it was supposed that Englishspeaking sailors might be found, and there take and carry off all such sailors. The life that the crews so recruited led cannot, of course, be described here in full detail. The reader will readily imagine that the officers who snatched a man away from his home without even the poor privilege of telling his wife and children of his fate would not show any great care for the feelings or comfort of the man when on board the ship. But any picture of the life there which an American, at the end of the nineteenth century, might base on the mere fact that sailors were kidnapped, would be wholly inadequate, for the reason that no American of these days, unacquainted with the facts, could imagine such a degraded state of slavery. That the crews were ill-fed; that they were worked to the limit of their endurance; that the pay was as nothing (it is on record that one kidnapped man received /14 2s. 6d. for serving two and a half years); that the kidnapped men were not allowed to go ashore and were not. allowed to write letters to their families where any effort was likely to be made for their release-all these conditions j88 TH{ HISTORY Olllp l F OUR NA@VY 3 r - i~i~~l~ lI I '' II............i...t..I.. EII _1~11111111111111 ttctl t I tti RlA It thfflty 6R th XAlg fiti i IIIo; t A It.iidi IN li), Xt ceritti tA f i t i XXXXX i XX IXX cXii ~Ilx. -~ |~~~~~ | ~i 1r~~,,~~i~gl ~~"~ll~ x~~jjjjRjjj..:X~: ~sr g 555~ I~~"l~~:. Xir~i ~ _ M i s~~'~~ sIt l~~ X Xg~~zlc: ~~~:11. 8~~~1 Xi~~' ~l'....l I~"1~1:l, _%I~X~:l~"~~1~'1 1~:~;~~lIlc~~l 3~l~~gta,~~12x 18~~~~x 1 x~11~ x~~~~' *Ir~l;~~~ g.~ xx5.P _m _~aFr:~l~ ~~1~~~1,xl~~'~~~;a~~~:~l*rrr~::;:, = = S~~ =Y"I~ 4:::~i.i: a~ r~~~~l ~l~i ~,:: ~~I?: ~~;:e~:,;:.'i: THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 389 recruit their crews, made no appeal to them save through their fears-used nothing to enforce an order but the cat-o'-ninetails. One undenied description of the flogging of a man on a British man-o'-war-a man-o'-war well known later on in the annals of the American navy-shall serve as an illustration of the ordinary punishments inflicted there. In the year I8IJ the British frigate Macedonian was commanded by Capt. John S. Carden, and his executive officer was one David Hope. " It was a peculiar feature of the brutal punishment of flogging that officers and men who at first sickened and fainted at the sight of it gradually grew indifferent and in some instances acquired a craving for the bloody ordeal and took a fiendish delight in superintending it. David Hope was one of these. He took the exquisite delight of' a connoisseur in the art of flogging, being especially fond of seeing the tender flesh of boys lacerated and torn." One day a midshipman on the Macedonian named Gale, "a rascally, unprincipled fellow," lost a handkerchief. A sailor found it on the deck, and as it was unmarked, kept it. Gale saw it in the sailor's possession, and the sailor was court-martialled, convicted of theft, and sentenced to be flogged through the fleet-to receive 300 lashes from the cat-and to serve one year in prison. 390 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY On the day appointed the Macedonian's launch was put into the water and rigged, under the supervision of this David Hope, with a frame on which the bare-backed sailor was lashed. A surgeon, to keep watch that the man was kept alive, boarded the launch with the boatswain and the boat's crew, and then all hands were called to man the rail and rigging, where all could view the torture. This done, the lash was applied to the man's back until " the flesh resembled roasted meat burned nearly black before a scorching fire." Then the launch was sent to another ship and to another and another, where fresh boatswains applied the lash anew to the raw back of the man, the doctor standing by and seeing that the man remained conscious to suffer the torment. When 220 blows had been given the doctor ordered the whipping stopped. The sailor begged to have the other eighty blows given that he might be done with it, but this was refused. He was carried back to the Macedonian and cared for until he had recovered his strength, when the remaining eighty were given to him, and then he was flung into prison. Just before the War of x 812 a deserter from a British ship slipped on board the United States frigate Essex. When an officer with a gang came for him he was, of course, surren A iiiiSid l- sP 4 fb E W 7 T 6 dF i d A dgcifiilii afi~a 0 THE111TC)LYOF 3931 NA B sH g w R z he be toW i O Mf he i d dhlkl toI of hiis li. i I C.t n iLt.t of rL te; OfI Ii~i~lL ~ Ifi 6flinjprisso w L rqm LIt6 if ild t I. It e IL ditiidw I. of tio itliA I In Id o L ilgiLL) WIII II;II- I i d Mi. as M T a S n m I l LE I I I = Itr 11 Ll \. I ff It Lu i l Nic Elki [WIK hs~lll ARIC 9dry 30-11 ig-111i Millelu N VI s y EL y) Y Elfili Mo S INA Id i Id i 5 i El b i LIS do iS S ESSl '0 XEL 9 S i S SS ] S f.S.S lif S, ( SS SS St SSS. 394 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY Lest these stories seem to the humane reader to exaggerate the horrors of life on a British naval ship, the following facts from the London "Annual Register" for I 78I (page 4I of "Principal Occurrences") will be found conclusive: The total number of men "raised" for the navy, I 776 to I 78o, was 170,928. Of these, 1,243 only were killed by the enemy, while I8,545 "died," and 42,069 deserted. More than ten per cent. of all who were "raised died," while almost one-fourth of them all succeeded in deserting, in spite of the rigors of the imprisonment into which they were carried. It is necessary to give figures relating to the Revolutionary period instead of the era of the War of I 8I 2, because British officials have absolutely refused to publish any such statistics since i800. What bearing all these facts have on the War of i81 2 between the United States and Great Britain, if not plain already, will very soon appear. Animated by the belief that "our maritime supremacy is in fact a part of the law of nations," and by the further belief that "America certainly cannot pretend to wage war with us; she has no navy to do it with," the British naval officers kidnapped Englishspeaking sailors wherever they were found, even when these sailors were confessedly born citizens of the United States. The British THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 395 government did, indeed, rule that where an American (natural-born) had a certificate from the American government attesting his nativity -where he could, by documentary evidence, prove his nativity-he might be excused by the British "recruiting" gangs, but the rule was, in fact, a mere diplomatic subterfuge for use should policy at any time require a "disavowal." In actual practice the only judge of a man's citizenship was the recruiting officer of the short-handed ship, and the lithe-limbed Yankee sailor was just the kind of a man the British press-gang was looking for. In fact, the British periodicals of that day continuously scoffed at these citizenship papers, and it was asserted in Parliament, as well as by the press, that the American naval officers, as well as naval officials stationed on shore, deliberately issued false papers at every opportunity-in short, that the Americans, as a nation, were liars, perjurers, and forgers. As early as I747, when Massachusetts was a colony in most peaceful relations with the home government, a press-gang caused a bloody riot on the streets of Boston, where press-gangs were " already stigmatized as barbarous by public opinion." Indeed, one of the irritations leading to the hostilities begun in I775 was the work of the press-gang. The war of the Revolution forever settled the question of 396 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY the rzgAf of the British government to impress an American, but instead of stopping such violations of the rights of a free-minded people it rather increased them. For the hatred and contempt which the British felt toward the Americans as a people during that war was intensified by the result of it. It was the personal pleasure of the British officer to get these Yankees where he could make them feel his power. It is on record (see " Life of Elder Joseph Bates ") that the British officers were particular to see that these Americans took off their hats when the band played "God Save the King," and that a common form of address was " Here, you damned Yankee scoundrel," do this or that. That the "damned Yankee scoundrel" was triced up and flogged on the slightest provocation by these officers, who confessedly enjoyed seeing flesh creep under the lash, scarcely need be said. No sooner was the war of the Revolution over and American merchant ships free to sail to British ports than the outrages began on the American seamen. It was literally true that the United States had no navy and could not wage war with England. We did not have even one ship-of-war left to carry the flag, and the party that ruled the nation then was utterly opposed to building one. It called itself the party of the people-it was fearful lest some THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 397 thing or somebody enslave the people-but when the friends of American seamen, shanghaied into the barbarous slavery of a British warship, protested, this "liberty-loving" party pigeon-holed the documents. But let us be just in this matter. It was the liberty-loving party that did at last declare war. The opposition preferred to trust in "the humanity" and "sense of justice" which the offending nation was supposed to possess. So the press-gangs worked on merrily. Not only was the American walking in the street of a foreign city in immediate danger; the American ships on the high seas were stopped and stripped of their crews. The British ships even lay to off- New York, Boston, and other American ports to intercept American merchantmen, from which seamen were taken until they were so short-handed that they were lost. The American seamen were left to face death by shipwreck, as they were disciplined to death on the decks of British naval warships. And because they were lithe and quick-witted -because' they more readily devised means for escape from this slavery than others-they were transferred to the ships doing duty on the coasts of Africa and in the East Indies, just as American prisoners captured during the war of the Revolution were sent to and. compelled to serve on those stations. 398 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY As the Edinburgh Review for November, 1812, admitted, "they were dispersed in the remotest quarter' of the globe, and not only exposed to the perils of service, but shut out, by their situation, from all hope of ever being reclaimed." They were doomed to slavery for life. How the indignation was of slow growthso slow, indeed, that it needed the outrages of the Barbary pirates to stir it even to the feeblest blaze-has already been told in the story of the origin of the new navy. But at last a majority of two was found for a resolution of the Congress declaring that a seaside nation ought to have a navy, and so a navy was built-a navy so small in numbers as to be absolutely insignificant when compared with that whose "supremacy is in fact a part of the law of nations.". It was built of American oak, manned by American seamen, and sent afloat with the American flag flying from every mast. It did good-it did the best kind of work-but when the Barbary pirates were cowed it was reduced "to a peace footing." There was never an effort made with it to resent the enslaving of American seamen. So the aggressions increased continually. And the politicians talked. They talked about the illegal confiscation of American ships under the decrees and orders of the French and THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 399 English governments-they were more concerned about the dollars than the liberties of the people-and finally when war seemed inevitable, they seriously discussed the advisability of abandoning the seacoast to the expected invaders! The chatter about no European enemy being able to find a permanent footing on the broad American soil, where so many millions of freemen were to be ready with squirrel rifles and shotguns to repel him, was quite as common at the beginning of the nineteenth century as it is at the end of it. The word "jingo" was not in use in those days. But the men who asserted that government existed solely in order that the. power of the whole people should be exerted to protect every individual in all his rights wherever in the wide world he might find himself, heard plenty of equally opprobrious epithets applied to them. And the utmost that was done for the sake of national honor was the building of a lot of boats for " harbor-defence." And then came a day when, to the injury that had been done unceasingly, was added insult, the memory of which to this day brings the hot blush of shame as well as the floodtide of indignation to the brow of every American patriot. It was on the i6th of November, I798. As the reader will remember, this nation was then 400 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY actually at war with France, although no formal declaration of war had been made. The French ship Croyable, of fourteen guns, had been captured, taken into the American service under the name of Retaliation, and recaptured by the French ship Insurgent. Because of these troubles a fleet of sixty American merchant ships had gathered at Havana to await a convoy, and the Constellation, Capt. Thomas Truxton, and the Baltimore, Capt. Isaac Phillips, were sent to bring them home. This service having been performed in satisfactory manner, the Baltimore was sent alone to convoy a smaller fleet from Charleston back to Havana. On November I6, 1798, while en route on this passage, the convoy fell in with a British squadron consisting of two seventy-four-gun ships-of-the-line, one ninety-eight-gun ship-ofthe-line, and two thirty-two-gun frigates. Because both Great Britain and the United States were then at war with France, the two nations were, of course, allies at this time. Nevertheless, knowing that the British ships were sure to be anxious for more sailors, Captain Phillips signalled his fleet to square away before the wind, and so get out of reach, while he bore up to have a talk with the Englishmen. On arriving near the flagship-the Carnatic, Captain Loring-Captain Phillips pulled over THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 401 to her in his gig. He was received with the usual civilities, and then was coolly informed that every man on board the Baltimore who did not carry the government certificate that he was an American citizen would be impressed into the British service. A ship of the American navy was to be treated as merchant ships had been treated. Captain Phillips protested, and said he would surrender his ship first. Then he returned to the Baltimore, where he found a British lieutenant already on deck and mustering the crew. No form of protest was of any avail. Everything said or done excited only the contemptuous smile of the lieutenant, and in the end, being overpowered by the great ship-of-the-line squadron, Captain Phillips had the humiliation of seeing five of his men impressed in the British service. Meantime Captain Loring had taunted Captain Phillips with the statement that there were already a number of impressed American citizens in the Carnatic's crew. And all that the American government did in the matter was to dismiss the unfortunate Phillips from the service-dismiss him as a scapegoat for the scurvy sins of those really responsible for the disgrace that had fallen upon the navy. For Phillips very well knew 26 402 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY how the administration had pigeon-holed the complaints of the friends of kidnapped seamen -knew,very well that the Navy Department could not be depended on to support him in resenting such aggression. In one respect Phillips deserved his punishment-he had sworn to defend the flag, and he did not fire a gun. Not only should he have cleared his ship for action; it was his duty to fight, Nicholas-Biddle fashion, until the last plank was shot from under his feet. Humiliated as every patriot was when the story of this outrage was spread over the nation, greater and lingering shame was in store. Not only did the outrages on American commerce increase as the years passed on; a still heavier blow was to fall on the face of American manhood. A British ship was to shoot an American ship to pieces in order to recapture four impressed Americans who had succeeded in escaping from the slavery they had endured-the British frigate Leopard was to assault the Chesapeake on the high seas in time of peace. But before that attack another was made that was less aggravating than the one on the Baltimore, only because it was the second of its kind-because, being the second, the American people may be supposed to have been somewhat accustomed to their humiliation. This THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 403 was on June I2, I805. Lieut. James Lawrence -he had his revenge afterward in the HornetPeacock fight-was carrying a small gunboat to the Mediterranean to help in the war with the pirates. Off Cadiz he had the misfortune to fall in with the British fleet under Admiral Collingwood, when three of his men were taken from him. That the administration at Washington (it was during Mr. Jefferson's second term) rested easily under the outrage is plain from the fact that only the briefest mention of it is made in any history. The impressment of Americans was such a common, such an every-day, occurrence that the fact of three taken from a national ship was, to use a newspaper reporter's expression, worth only a three-line jotting. And another three-line jotting is devoted to what is called the Leander affair. A British squadron was cruising off Sandy Hook on what is, in these years, the favorite American ground for yacht races. They were lying in wait, as was their custom, for American ships, from which they could gather in seamen. When a little American sloop came along on April 25, i8o6, "a shot was recklessly fired from one of them, the Leander." It is fair to suppose that this shot was fired as a joke on the sloop's crew. If one recalls the undisputed character of such men as Lieutenant Hope of the Macedonian, 404 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY already described, one may readily believe that the average British officer of that day would have thought it a good joke to scare a sloop's crew by firing a cannon-ball across her deck. The gunner on the Leander, to make the joke as laughable as possible, aimed carefully. His shot killed the man at the tiller. When the people of New York learned the facts through the return of the sloop, the local excitement was very great. All the vessels in the harbor hoisted their flags at half-mast on the day the body was buried, while the Tammany Society attended the funeral in a body. So Mr. Jefferson's government felt constrained to protest. At that, Captain Whitby, who commanded the Leander, was taken through the form of a court-martial, unanimously acquitted of wrong-doing and Promotfed. The crowning outrage, however, came in the year I807. Early in that year a squadron of British warships had congregated in the mouth of Chesapeake Bay to blockade some Frenchmen lying at Annapolis. The American Congress had granted an appropriation meantime (though with stingy hand) for enough seamen to man the frigate Chesapeake, that was to be sent out under Capt. Charles Gordon to the Mediterranean, where she was to take the place of the Constittion. She was to carry Com CAM HIENRY WilgITBERM/ 406 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY modore James Barron with her (his real title was captain), and he was to command at the Mediterranean station. The Chesapeake was partly fitted out at Washington, and then she dropped down to Norfolk to complete her preparations for sea, and ship enough men to fill her crew. While she was still lying at Washington seven men applied at the recruiting station in Norfolk, who said they were American citizenswho made oath to that statement, in fact, and were permitted to sign as members of the crew of the Chesapeake, and they were sent on to join the ship then at Washington. Soon after this it appeared that three of the men had deserted from the British warship. Zelampus and four from the Halifax. Just how the fact that they were deserters became known is not definitely stated, but from the details given and from the manifest ill-temper of the British officers in the doings that followed, it is reasonable to suppose that at least one of these seven men met some of the British officers on shore, and feeling safe under the American flag, ventured to reply, in disrespectful manner, to remarks made by the officers. There is, indeed, no doubt the officers were defied and, so, deeply offended. I In those days one Erskine represented the British government at Washington. He tried THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 4o7 to have the seven deserters returned to the ships from which they came. Now, in spite 9f the fact that the British officers were in those days diligently engaged in kidnapping American-born sailors from American ships, the American Navy Department had issued strict orders to the recruiting officers "to enlist no British subjects known to be such." And, further, it must be said that there was no law authorizing an American commander to deliver up deserters from foreign navies when found in American ships.. Nevertheless, an investigation was made as. to the antecedents of the seven men, and then it, was discovered that the British officials were wholly unable to prove that any one of them was a British subject. More important still, it was proved that instead of having voluntarily shipped in the British navy, the three men who had deserted from the Melampus had been kidnapped from an American merchant ship in the. Bay of Biscay, Two of them were natives of Maryland, and one, although born in South America, had come to Massachusetts when a child and had there become a lawful citizen of the United States. The names of the three were William Ware, Daniel Martin, and John Strachan, and all were colored. As to the four from the Halifax, it was not proved where they were born except as they swore they were of Ameri 408 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY can birth, but very likely three of them were of English birth, for they deserted the Chesapeake and disappeared. The fourth appears in history both as Jenkin Ratford and as John Wilson. He was a white man and, unfortunately for himself, he remained on the ship. Because the three men were definitely proved to be American citizens, and because there was nothing to disprove Ratford's oath that he too was one, the Navy Department refused to surrender the men, and the diplomatic correspondence was closed. The American authorities having received no protest after the decision was rendered, supposed that the matter was dropped altogether. And that was a very grave error on the part of the American authorities. For so great was the arrogance of the British naval officers, and so strong was their contempt for the American government and people, that they determined to take the men by force from the deck of the Chesapeake as soon as she had passed out to sea, and an order was issued by Admiral Berkeley commanding any British captain who found the Chesapeake at sea to board her, whether she would permit it or not, and take the men. Naturally that order was kept secret, and Captains Barron and Gordon (Barron, by the fact of his rank, was the responsible official) THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY 469 had no idea that any real ill feeling existed, let alone that any intention to assault the ship was meditated. There was, indeed, some grumbling by British officers at Norfolk, and the officers of the Chesapeake heard of it, but there was not enough in it to excite their suspicions. And so the 22d day of June, 1807, arrived, and the Chesapeake was, after a most remarkable fashion, ready for sea. She set her pennant, got up her anchor, and with her decks littered with baggage, chicken coops-what not-and her rammers, wads, matches, and powder-horns stowed no one knew where, she sailed away. Meantime, while yet the Chesapeake's anchor had not been gotten, the crew of the big British fifty-gun ship Leopard had made sail and gone to sea slowly-so slowly that she kept the Chesapeake constantly in sight. At 3 o'clock in the afternoon the Leopard brought to near the Chesapeake and hailed her, saying that the officers and crew wished to send letters by her to friends in Europe. It was a common practice for warships as well as merchantmen to carry letters in that fashion, and the Chesapeake backed her mainyards and waited for the boat from the Leopard. When the boat came, a British lieutenant climbed to the deck of the Chesapeake, and then, instead of 410 THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY producing a package of letters, he drew forth a written demand from his captain for the return of the sailors alleged to be British subjects. With this demand he also presented a copy of the circular issued by his admiral which ordered, any British 'ship falling in with the Chesapeake to take the so-called deserters from her by force if necessary.. Captain Barron was very much surprised, but he refused to deliver up the men. -Meantime the Leopard had worked into the most advantageous position for attacking the Chesapeake, and with her ports open, cannon out, and matches lighted, she awaited the issue of the demand. The lieutenant returned to his ship. Captain Humphreys of the Leopard mounted the rail and shouted: "Commodore Barron must be aware that the orders of the admiral must be obeyed." No reply was' made to this, and the words were repeated. A shot was fired across the bows of the Chesapeake. Another one was fired in like manner, and then a whole broadside was discharged directly at the American ship. Being wholly unprepared for action, the Chesapeake'could make no reply, and for twelve minutes (some accounts say fifteen) she lay there helpless while the British seamen worked their guns. Her masts, rigging, and sails were or I _ i~ w~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~llliillll_ l iili1 1 0'";"" 11l,, __ w..w l.lllii 11 1:, 1~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CA| SA~SVW WWrC HW IWPR S W WW W WW 3 1fi fff f ii iflf f iliS........................... fi i iif xI i.x ifX | ii fj f Xxjrifi i ij jrfjf lfl j j r l i;Ew i f f 3 If iif 1l ili fil1.11ii~l Si~llilgilllril~gilgixxili mM.~rl~l. M r000l~0000 if E gj 3.1.............................. 13i f ~ a lij 3ix lfifl j3 1Hf11 0flff3f jff xif fi33lf iffis0igf1lgX 3 _ _ 2 f i n~~~~~~~~~~l 33...M..x~~~~~~~~~~~~~~xi g~~ itil 1a1X3EB=CE ggmmBW~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~i~lil~8lliX 412 THE HISTORY Or OUR NAVY shot to pieces. Three men were killed and eighteen wounded, Captain Barron being among the wounded. It was deliberate, cold-blooded murder, done to compel three American citizens to return to the slavery on a British ship into which they had been, kidnapped. And it succeeded in its object. Being, as said, wholly unprepared, no defence was made, and when Captain Barron saw that his crew were being killed uselessly, he hauled down his flag. Lieut. William H. Allen, on the Chzesapeake, did manage to fire one gun by means of a coal carried in his bare hands from the galley fire, and the ball hulled the Leopard, but the flag was already down to the rail, and it was done only as a matter of honor. So the crew of the Chzesapeake were mustered on deck, the triumphant lieutenant returned, the four "deserters" were bundled over the rail into the British boat and the Chesapeake was left, with her dead and wounded, to work her riddled sails in the course back to Norfolk. The Leopard sailed on. The unfortunate Jenkin Ratford was hanged at the fore yardarm, and the three who were acknowledged to be kidnapped American citizens were sentenced to receive 500 lashes from the cat. And what does the uninformed reader sup r. HSTORY OF 0 NV 4*3 md j-~~n ~I-~s: -nit~l~fl fidXa g I. Ks 17 1 idaddrs 6 rd f fn rn'.i.. Af.xEKA S X.fg fE ffi it th Ie the 0o0 m 'th 0 188MM ILl LI C 1 n hI A I I IL I A i L. WHIM coIve 1 1 N Mid \lLfl r d I bA i i IL MIre II _ I I Iffi IL Af I IfdI lll.i IllXl i iillliliil ii3 1 i iill iiiX i l iil ii I ll I I I I APPENDIX TO VOLUME I PAY OF NAVAL SEAMEN IN THE FIRST YEAR OF THE NAVY AS A NATIONAL ORGANIZATION. COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF, $125 a month. Officers of a ship of twenty guns and upward: captain, $60; lieutenant, $30; master, $30; surgeon, $25; chaplain, $20; midshipman, $12; gunner, $15; seaman, $8. Officers of a ship of ten to twenty guns: captain, $48; lieutenant, $24; master, $24; surgeon, $21.66; midshipman, $2; gunner, $r3; seaman, $8. The pay of the following was the same in any class of cruisers: armorer, $15; sailmaker, $2z; yeoman, $9; quartermaster, $9; quarter-gunner, $8; coxswain, $9; cook, $12. Commanders were allowed $4 and $5 a week for rations, and lieutenants, captains of marines, surgeons, and chaplains, $4. Prize money coming to the officers and seamen of the Continental navy was divided in shares: captains, 6; first lieutenant, 5; second lieutenant, 4; surgeon, 4; master, 3; steward, 2; mate, IA; gunner, I4; boatswain, i-; gunner's mate, i-; sergeant, I4; privates, I. Maclay notes that the first system of uniforms was adopted for the Continental navy on the 5th of September, 1776, when the Marine Committee decided that the uniform for the officers of the navy should be as follows: 41X6 APPENDIX Captains, a coat of blue cloth with red lapels, slashed cuffs, a stand-up collar, flat yellow buttons, blue breeches, and a red waistcoat with yellow lace. The uniform for lieutenants consisted of a blue coat with red lapels, a round cuff faced, a stand-up collar, yellow buttons, blue breeches, and a plain red waistcoat. Masters were to have a blue coat with lapels, round cuffs, blue breeches, and a red waistcoat; while midshipmen had a blue coat with lapels, a round cuff faced with red, a stand-up collar, with red at the buttons and buttonholes, blue breeches, and a red waistcoat. The marines were to have a green coat faced with white, round cuffs, slashed sleeves and pockets, with buttons around the cuff, a silver epaulet on the right shoulder, skirts turned back, buttons to suit the facings, white waistcoat and breeches edged with green, black gaiters and garters. The men were to have green shirts "if they can be procured." I + AI- + THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN DATE DUE + +' APR 07 1994 ' + + MA 3 996 APR-1^I 1a99 + + NI M #r $ If U VERSITY OF NMCHIGAN 3 9015 00830 3086 AJ -(^ '"4r ' A DO NOT REMOVE OR MUTILATE CARD I:I 7777 S""T I I7! _ K "'V1 D" Yo -V ZWO, 1';, i7 I S! 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