THE "GENERAL ARMSTRONG"
One of the most formidable American privateers during this war was the
_General Armstrong_, a large brig, armed with a heavy long gun
amidships, and eight long 9-pounders.
The last action in which she was engaged was of a most desperate nature,
against the boats of a British squadron. The privateer was lying, on
September 26th, 1814, at Fayal, in the Azores, and her commander, Samuel
Chester Reid, having been on shore to see his Consul and arrange about a
supply of water, returned on board about 5 p.m., accompanied by the
Consul and some friends.
They were chatting on deck, and the captain was informed that no British
cruisers had been seen in the vicinity for several weeks, when their
conversation was most unexpectedly broken in upon by the appearance of a
large British brig-of-war rounding the northern point of the anchorage,
within gunshot of the privateer.
Reid at first contemplated cutting his cable and making a bolt for it,
confident in the sailing powers of his fine craft. The wind, however,
was light and uncertain, and the British brig had most of what there
was at the moment, so he abandoned the idea, being informed by the
Consul that he would not be molested as long as he remained at
anchor--which was, of course, a very correct and proper assumption,
Fayal being a Portuguese possession, and therefore a neutral port. So
Captain Reid and his friends watched the brig, which was the
_Carnation_--of 18 guns, commander, George Bentham--standing in through
the gathering dusk. After the pilot had boarded her, she came on and
anchored within pistol-shot of the _General Armstrong_.
The American did not feel at all easy as to the efficacy of neutral
protection; and, while he discussed it, an English 74-gun ship and a
38-gun frigate appeared round the point--to wit, the _Plantagenet_,
Captain Robert Lloyd; and the _Rota_, Captain Philip Somerville--and the
brig immediately commenced signalling furiously to them.
This was getting a little too hot; and, seeing the brig presently send
her boats to the line-of-battle ship. Captain Reid resolved, escape
seaward being impossible, to be prepared for the worst. So, the wind
having dropped, he got out his sweeps and slowly pulled his vessel
further inshore.
The _Carnation_ immediately got under way and followed; but the wind was
too light, and she was unable to close the privateer.
About 8 p.m. the Americans--to give their version first--perceived four
boats, armed and full of men, approaching. Captain Reid thereupon
dropped his anchor with a spring on the cable, and swung his broadside
upon the boats. When they came within hail he warned them not to
approach nearer, on pain of being fired upon; they came on, however, and
the privateer opened on them with cannon and small arms. "The boats
promptly returned the fire, but so unexpectedly warm was the reception
they got from the privateer that they cried for quarter and hauled off
in a badly crippled condition."
Captain Reid says he had one man killed and his first officer wounded.
Being convinced that he had not seen the last of the British boats, he
hauled so close in that the vessel was almost touching the rocks, right
under the castle, and anchored head and stern.
The _Carnation_ was observed, about nine o'clock, towing in a number of
boats; she could not, however, get close enough in to co-operate with
them, as the wind was baffling and the tide was adverse; so the boats
cast off and remained for some time under cover of a low reef of rocks.
There were eleven of them, according to the British official
report--twelve, the Americans say--and they must have contained at least
two hundred men; probably more, as some would be very large boats,
pulling fourteen or sixteen oars. Such a force would have been
considered far more than adequate for the cutting out of a French
vessel; indeed, much larger vessels than the _General Armstrong_ have
often been captured by British boats with considerably less force than
was despatched upon this occasion. We rather "fancied" ourselves in
this matter of cutting out vessels from a harbour, and some splendid
feats have undoubtedly been performed in this way. It was a sort of
adventure which was considered essentially British in character; and
justly so, as our enemies certainly never ventured much in the way of
attempting to cut out our vessels.
Captain Lloyd and his merry men were now to learn the difference between
French or Spanish seamen and Americans.
Meanwhile, the Governor had sent a letter to the British captain begging
him to respect the neutrality of the port and abstain from further
attack upon the privateer. Captain Lloyd replied by pointing out that
the Americans had broken the neutrality of the port by firing into his
boat without the least provocation. That he had intended to respect it,
but was now determined to seize the privateer, and hoped the Governor
would direct the fort to assist him.
About midnight the flotilla of boats advanced to the attack. They were
allowed to approach within what used to be termed "point blank" range--a
vague term, but equivalent, probably, to longish pistol-shot, and then
came the round and grape from the privateer, doing considerable
execution. The British responded with the guns mounted in their boats;
then, with loud cheers, they raced for the _General Armstrong_, boarding
her in several different places.
A most bloodthirsty and terrible conflict now took place. The British
seamen, with characteristic dash and courage, climbed up the vessel's
side on all hands, nothing daunted by the fierce resistance of her crew.
The Americans, armed with every kind of weapon which would serve at
close quarters, met them at arm's length with such ferocity that the
boats were soon cumbered up with wounded and dying men, hurled back with
pistol, pike, or cutlass. Wherever an English head cropped up above the
bulwarks it was a target. And still they continued the attack, and with
so much success in the bow that a number gained a footing on the
forecastle, and the two American officers in charge forward were killed
or disabled. Learning the state of affairs forward, Captain Reid, who,
with the after-hands, had pretty well disposed of the attack at the
stern, rallied his men, and, leading them forward on the run, drove the
British over the bows into their boats--and that was the end of it. The
fight lasted forty minutes--a tremendous time for such a desperate
affair, proving the stubborn courage on both sides.
Two of the frigate _Rota's_ boats, the American account states, were
taken possession of, loaded with dead and dying men. "Of the forty or
fifty men in these boats only seventeen escaped death, and they by
swimming ashore. Another boat was found under the privateer's stern,
commanded by one of the _Plantagenet's_ lieutenants. All the men in it
were killed but four, the lieutenant himself jumping overboard to save
his life."
These details appear to corroborate the description of an eye-witness,
given by Mr. Maclay; he says: "The Americans fought with great firmness,
but more like bloodthirsty savages than anything else. They rushed into
the boats sword in hand, and put every soul to death as far as came
within their power."
The estimate of killed and wounded, as given by Mr. Maclay, respectively
120 and 130, is greatly exaggerated; the official account, with names of
officers, seamen, and marines, gives it as 36 killed and 84 wounded--and
quite enough, too!
The affair was disastrous for the British; but Captain Reid had, of
course, to lose his ship. He received a communication at 3 a.m. from his
Consul that Captain Lloyd was determined to have him, and at daybreak
the _Carnation_ stood in and engaged him. But, being unable at the
moment to pick up the best berth for operations, the British vessel
hauled off again, with some small damage from the American long gun. A
second time she was more successful, and, bringing her heavy short guns
to bear at close range, sealed the fate of the _General Armstrong_. Reid
and his men, prepared for this ending, scuttled their ship and went on
shore, upon which the English set her on fire, completing her
destruction.
Captain Lloyd, in his report, declares that the _General Armstrong_ was
so close inshore that the attacking boats had not room to board on the
inside; and that "every American in Fayal, exclusive of part of the
crew, being armed and concealed in these rocks, which were immediately
over the privateer, it unfortunately happened when these brave men
gained the deck they were under the painful necessity of returning to
their boats, from the very destructive fire kept up by those above them
from the shore, who were in complete security."
This is rather a wild story, to which the thoughtful reader will not be
disposed to yield full credence. With regard to the breach of
neutrality, there is an affidavit, sworn before the British Consul, by
Lieutenant Robert Faussett, of the _Plantagenet_, to the effect that he
approached, unarmed, in the pinnace, for the purpose of ascertaining
what vessel it was; and that the Americans warned them off when they
were so close that the boat was shoved off with a boathook, and then
opened fire; that Faussett called for quarter, shouting, "Don't murder
us!" and they continued their attack; that he had no means of returning
a shot, and could only retire, with two killed and seven wounded. He
says nothing about the proximity of other boats, armed or otherwise; and
so the Americans would appear to have been technically guilty of the
initial breach of neutrality. Captain Lloyd, by way of showing that
American privateers were addicted to this kind of thing, encloses a copy
of the affidavit of William Wilson, late master of the transport brig
_Doris_, which was captured, in defiance of the law of neutrality, on
June 25th preceding, in the anchorage of Flores, another island of the
Azores.
Captain Lloyd, however, got no credit out of this affair. The Lords of
the Admiralty expressed very strong disapproval of the whole business;
told him he ought to have known that the sending of a boat after dark
was sure to lead to some such incident; that, if the Americans broke the
neutrality of the port, his first business was to make representation
to the Governor, and not take the law into his own hands; that the
honour of the flag and the prestige of the British Navy, represented by
a 74-gun ship, a frigate, and several sloops, was not likely to be
endangered by the presence of one privateer--with other home truths and
doses of common sense. And really, one cannot help agreeing cordially
with their lordships, and heartily deploring the loss of so many brave
men in a fiasco due to thorough bad management.
A fortnight later the boats of the British frigate _Endymion_, Captain
Henry Hope, made an attempt to carry the _Prince de Neufchatel_--a very
successful privateer, but why such a clumsy name?--off Nantucket, with
very similar results. The fight was even more desperate than in the case
of the _General Armstrong_, the privateer having only nine of her crew
untouched, while the British casualties amounted to fully half of the
men engaged. The privateer escaped.
* * * * *
Such are some of the incidents of the two American wars; of this type
were the men--or many of them--who commanded the privateers. The British
records of the period, during the war of 1812, bear full testimony to
their success, and the officers of the Royal Navy come in for some rough
handling by the Press--as in _The Times_ of February 11th, 1815: "The
American cruisers daily enter in among our convoys, seize prizes in
sight of those that should afford protection, and, if pursued, 'put on
their sea-wings' and laugh at the clumsy English pursuers. To what is
this owing? Cannot we build ships? It must indeed be encouraging to Mr.
Madison to read the logs of his cruisers. If they fight, they are sure
to conquer; if they fly, they are sure to escape."
That the Americans have the knack of building faster sailing-vessels
than ours is a fact which we have been compelled to accept. Not that our
smartest clippers would be beaten, as a matter of course, by any of
theirs; but, taking it all round, an American who wants to turn out a
specially swift sailing vessel will almost always eclipse our efforts in
the same direction. Are we not still trying in vain to win back the
"America" Cup? The long, rakish craft, of comparatively small beam and
tapering lines, was no doubt originally an American production.
These swift vessels, sailed by such men as Boyle, Haraden, Barney,
Coggleshall, and others, were both hard to catch and bad to beat. The
sentence quoted above from _The Times_ sums up the situation pretty
accurately; and, this being the case, it is all the more to be regretted
that the accounts of their exploits should so constantly be tainted with
obvious exaggerations, or embellished with incredible little
anecdotes.
SOME MORE ODD YARNS