SAFE RETURN TO NEW YORK.--OFFER OF A NEW SHIP.--MY FRIENDS THE
GRAHAMS.--OFF AGAIN.--THE CONSTITUTION'S ESCAPE AND MINE.
Well, we are out of danger now, and safe inside the sheltering arms
of the harbor. As we turn the Hook, a pilot boards us. He is an old
acquaintance and friend, and gives me the warmest sort of a greeting.
"What's the news?" I ask with eagerness, as soon as the greetings and
congratulations are over.
"Dead loads of news!" he answers. "Two prizes from you are safe in
port, but the owners didn't look for you and the Marguerite as soon as
this. You've got another prize or two, I suppose, and find yourself
short-handed."
"That's it exactly," I replied; and then I told him about the cartel
and the last prize, and how I sent her to the Sound to avoid the risk
of falling into British hands again. "By the way, what is that British
ship which gave me such a run last night?" I asked.
"That is the Shannon, thirty-eight guns," he answered; "she's been
cruising off New York for the past week, and has already made several
prizes. One of them was the Nautilus, fourteen guns, which went out
with the intention of getting in the track of the East Indiamen, and
making some rich captures. But she ran into the Shannon, and so we lost
her."
I was sorry to hear this, partly because of the reduction of our naval
strength to that extent, and partly because of the connection of the
Nautilus with the fleet before Tripoli, when she did some excellent
work. I may remark, parenthetically, that the Nautilus was the first
vessel of war taken on either side, and her capture elated the British
in the same proportion that it depressed us.
"There was a fleet here almost ready to sail when I left," said I. "How
soon did they get to sea, and what have they done?"
"They got away within an hour after receiving the official proclamation
of war. There were the President, forty-four guns, Essex, thirty-two,
and Hornet, eighteen guns, under Commodore Rodgers; and they were
joined in the lower bay by the United States, forty-four, Congress,
thirty-eight, and Argus, sixteen, under Commodore Decatur. They went to
pick up some prizes out of the fleet of Jamaica-men that sailed under
convoy about that time, and ought to give some rich plunder."
The tide was unfavorable, and the wind became light; so I anchored
in the lower bay, or rather the pilot did, as he was now the man of
authority, and I was only a passenger. Towards noon the tide served,
and the wind became more kindly; so that we went up the bay in fine
style, and came to anchor off the Battery. My vanity was humbled a
little by the absence of the prize which I had sent round through the
Sound for safety; it would have added to my pride had I been able to
bring her in with me, with the Stars and Stripes floating above the
British ensign to tell exactly what she was. But I consoled myself with
the reflection that she was probably safe from recapture, while she
would have run great risk, and probably would have been lost, had I
kept her with me.
Soon as the anchor was down and the sails furled, I sent a messenger to
tell the owners of my arrival, and of the prize that had gone into the
Sound. I explained that I did not consider it judicious to go to the
office in person, as all my officers were absent in prizes, and I had
no one I could safely leave in charge of the Marguerite.
But my messenger had not reached the landing-place before one of the
owners arrived alongside, and immediately came on board. They had
already learned of our arrival by means of the semaphore, which
had been established quite recently for sending communications from
the lower bay to the city. It is a wonderful invention, and as simple
as it is wonderful. On the tops of towers four or five miles apart,
there are frames containing shutters, and the shutters are so arranged
that the combinations of their positions represent the letters of the
alphabet. In this way the name of a ship, or a message of any kind, can
be spelled out, and it is repeated from one tower to another along the
line. Of course, it can only work when the weather is clear, so that
the signals can be seen. A fog cuts it off completely; and it sometimes
happens that a fog comes up just in the middle of a very interesting
message.
[Illustration: THE CREW HAULED AWAY ON THE ROPE. Page 249.]
"You've done splendidly," said the gentleman, as soon as he had reached
the deck and grasped my hand. "Here you've been gone only fifteen days
and have sent in two first-rate prizes, besides the one that is coming
by the Sound. It is probably all safe, as there are no British vessels
there to trouble it when once it turns the eastern end of Long Island."
Before the day was over I heard that the prize was safe, word to that
effect having been brought down by a fishing-boat. The next day she
came through the dangerous channel of Hell Gate, and anchored in the
East River, where I visited her.
Of course, the crew of the Marguerite wanted to go on shore as soon as
they could get away. I called them together and asked how many wanted
to re-ship for the next cruise, which would begin just as soon as I
could refit and get away. Every man responded; and the owner told me
that those who had come in on the two prizes had already been secured.
It was arranged that they should be under pay while we remained in
port, one-half having liberty on shore, while the rest stayed on-board
and helped with the work that was to be done.
As soon as they learned of our arrival, my second and third mates
reported for duty, their prizes having been turned over to the owners
for condemnation and sale. In the afternoon I went ashore; and after
visiting the office and transacting some business there, I hastened to
the fashionable boarding-house on Broadway, just below Trinity Church,
where I understood the Graham family was staying.
I was most heartily welcomed by them; and when I told my story of what
had happened since they left me, Captain Graham said he congratulated
me as much as it was possible for a loyal Englishman to congratulate
his country's enemy. "Everybody has been very kind to us," he said,
"from the officers and crew that had us in charge, to the owners of
the Marguerite, to whom we gave your letter on our arrival. I am under
parole, and hope to be exchanged before long; but I find New York so
agreeable that I shall be sorry to leave it when the time comes to go
away."
"I like it very much too," said Mrs. Graham, as her husband paused. "We
go out walking every pleasant day, and find the Battery a delightful
place to loiter in. I never get tired of looking at the ships and boats
in the bay, and I don't wonder that the people who live here are so
fond of their city."
I accepted an invitation to remain, or rather to return for tea; and it
is needless to say that I had a very pleasant evening. By tacit consent
all allusion to the war was omitted, and we chatted upon various
topics, in which our recollections of the Washington had a prominent
place.
It was rather late in the evening when I returned to the Marguerite and
went to bed. While I was at breakfast the next morning a messenger came
with the request that I would go to the office of the owners as soon as
possible.
"We have a proposal to make to you for a new command," said the senior
member of the firm of owners, as soon as I entered the office.
I signified my readiness to listen to any offer they had to make, as I
felt sure it would be a good one.
"We were thinking of converting the Camperdown into a privateer," said
he, "by reducing her free-board so that she will sit low in the water.
She can easily carry twelve or fourteen guns, and a proportionately
larger crew than the Marguerite. We think that she will be a good
sailer with the alterations we propose; but there is the possible
chance that she will be injured rather than improved. What do you think
of the plan? We shall give the command of the new privateer to you in
case the change is made."
"At first thought it does not strike me favorably," I answered, "in
spite of the temptation it offers in giving me command of a larger
vessel than the Marguerite. The schooner is very fast and easily
handled; she is faster than the Camperdown, and can be brought about
more readily, which is often a very important thing at sea, especially
in time of war. For capturing merchant-ships, which is the object of
privateering, seven guns are as good as fourteen; now and then an armed
merchantman might surrender to the larger vessel when she would not to
the smaller one, but such cases are not numerous.
"Besides, sir," I continued, "you will excuse the suggestion, but I
know my crew regards the Marguerite as a lucky craft, and that goes a
long way in keeping up the spirits of the men during a cruise. They
believe she will win every time; and with this belief they will always
be ready to take any risk that I put upon them. Of course I have no
superstitions of the sort myself; but, all things being equal, I
prefer a lucky ship every time."
"Spoken like a man," said my employer; and then he asked what I would
advise under the circumstances.
"I would advise that the Camperdown be sold; probably the government
would pay a good price for her, and convert her into a cruiser. The
proceeds of the sale would buy and equip a privateer of the same grade
as the Marguerite, and probably less time would be lost in making
the sale and purchase than in altering the Camperdown in the manner
proposed."
He said they would think the matter over, and decide upon it as soon as
possible. Then came up the question of prize-money for the captures we
had made; and on this subject I received some important information.
The cargoes of the prizes had been sold in great part, but all the
goods could not find a ready market, except at a sacrifice, which was
not considered judicious. Congress had enacted a law regulating the
distribution of prize-money arising from captures by national vessels,
and my employer said the same rule, as far as practicable, would be
adopted by the owners of privateers. Here is the law as it relates to
captures by national vessels:--
"One-half of the prize-money goes to the National Government;
the other half is divided into twenty equal parts, and shall be
distributed in the following manner: to captains, three parts;
to lieutenants and sailing-masters, two parts; to the marine
officers, surgeons, pursers, gunners, carpenters, master's
mates, and chaplains, two parts; to midshipmen, surgeon's mates,
captain's clerks, schoolmasters, boatswain's mates, gunner's
mates, carpenter's mates, stewards, sailmakers, masters-at-arms,
cockswains, and armorers, three parts; to gunner's yeomen,
boatswain's yeomen, quartermasters, quarter-gunners, coopers,
sailmaker's mates, sergeants, and corporals of marine, drummers and
fifers, and extra petty officers, three parts; to seamen, ordinary
seamen, and boys, seven parts."
As he finished reading the new law he paused, and said, with a laugh,
that he thought it doubtful if I would have as many classes of men
for whom to make a distribution of prize money. I replied that it
was probably in order to give me a chance to have them that they had
proposed to convert the Camperdown into a privateer, and put her under
my command.
"That hardly corresponds to the account which a sailor once gave of the
way prize money is distributed," I remarked, at the first pause in the
conversation.
"How was that?"
"He said that when prize money is distributed, it is sifted through
a ladder; all that goes through is for the officers, while all that
sticks is for the men."
"I don't think I ever heard that before," he answered; and then the
conversation turned to the question of converting the Camperdown into
a privateer. In the course of our talk we were joined by the other
partners; and before the conference was over a representative of the
government called to ascertain when the Camperdown would be condemned
and sold. He added a hint that the government would purchase her at a
good price. I was introduced as the captor of the ship, and as soon as
the gentleman knew who I was, he advised me to hurry away and take more
prizes of the same sort.
In four days the Marguerite was ready for sea again; and it is hardly
necessary to say that she got away as soon as possible. As long as we
were in port I was a daily caller at the house where the Grahams were
staying. They always gave me a cordial welcome, and when I announced my
departure, Captain Graham said he was very sorry to have me go away,
partly because of my friendship for the family and my treatment of
them, and partly because he knew that British commerce was about to
suffer more depredations, unless my luck took a turn for the worse.
In the lower bay, when I reached it, there were two English vessels
that had just come in, their flags showing them to be prizes. We were
obliged to anchor, as the wind was unfavorable to our getting to sea
at once; and it so happened that we anchored within hailing distance
of one of them. I hailed her, and ascertained that both of the vessels
were prizes taken by the Hyacinth, Captain Taylor; and so I was able
before sailing to rejoice over the good luck of my old comrade.
Then I thought of my wager with David, and found that I had won it,
as my first prize was taken a day before he captured his. I had left
a letter for him at the office of the owners, and I now took the
opportunity to write a few lines in addition, and congratulate him on
his success.
Near nightfall the wind shifted; and as the British man-of-war that
troubled me somewhat when I arrived had now gone to the southward, I
had no difficulty in getting on the ocean again.
I learned afterwards that I had a narrow escape from running into a
British fleet of five ships, with an aggregate of two hundred guns. It
was a little to the south of the course I followed, and had already
made several prizes; it was looking for the fleet of Commodore Rodgers,
and also watching for the forty-four gun ship Constitution, which had
gone into Chesapeake Bay, and was expected to come out again very soon.
The Constitution came out as expected; and on Friday, July 17th, she
was off the coast, but out of sight of land, when she made out four
sails to the northward, and soon afterwards a fifth sail. One of them
was discovered to be a man-of-war, but the others were supposed to be
merchantmen. The wind was light during the afternoon and evening, and
also during the night. On the morning of the 18th, the Constitution
found herself almost surrounded by a British fleet, consisting of one
ship of the line, sixty-four guns, and four frigates, enough to make
short work if they could once succeed in closing in upon her.
All day the wind was light, or there was a dead calm. The Constitution
took advantage of every puff, and she got out her boats and tried to
tow out of danger. Then, finding she was in about twenty fathom water,
she took all the spare rope that could be found, and bent it to a
kedge, which was carried ahead about half a mile and dropped. As soon
as the kedge took the ground, the crew hauled away on the rope, walking
aft with it as fast as they could; and in this way the ship moved away
as though she had a steam-engine on board. The maneuver was repeated
several times before the British discovered it, and then they tried the
same trick.
Well, to make a long story short, that chase was kept up for three days
in light wind or dead calm, the Constitution managing to keep just out
of range and no more. All the ships had every stitch of canvas out,
and the men were kept in the tops to wet down the sails and make them
draw as much as possible. It's a wonder the Constitution escaped, when
we remember she had five ships closing around her, two of them being
right abeam of her at one time for several hours, one on the starboard
and the other on the larboard.
The sailor who told me about the chase said that all through it
everything on the Constitution was in the best of order, and all the
evolutions were performed as though the ship had been lying at anchor
in port. The chase was brought to an end by a squall. It came suddenly,
and lasted only an hour; and the Constitution used it to such advantage
that, when the clouds blew away, she was far ahead of the nearest of
her pursuers, and they fired two guns to leeward as a signal that they
gave up the struggle.
After escaping from the British fleet, as I have just described, the
Constitution went into Boston to refit, and sailed from there on the
second of August, in the hope of falling in with some one of the
English war-ships that were cruising along the coast between Halifax
and Nantucket. Captain Hull, her commander, was particularly anxious to
fall in with the Guerrière and fight her single-handed; but it was not
his fortune to meet her or any other British war-ship between Boston
and the Bay of Fundy. Then Captain Hull cruised eastward, capturing
a few merchant vessels, and then turned to the south. On the 19th of
August his spirits were cheered by the report of a sail in sight; and
he immediately gave chase in her direction.
She was soon made out to be a frigate, and the chances were largely
in favor of her being British. She showed a willingness to meet the
Constitution, and the captain ordered the decks cleared and everything
made ready for a fight. The stranger hung out British colors, and was
at length made out to be the Guerrière, the very ship that Hull was
looking for.
The ships maneuvered for nearly an hour, the Englishman endeavoring
to get in a position to rake the American, and at the same time avoid
being raked himself. Both ships dodged about for a good while, and it
was six o'clock in the evening before they got fairly together.