{194}
_The Hornet and the Peacock--The Chesapeake and the Shannon--The Argus
and the Pelican--The Enterprise and the Boxer--Decatur blockaded at New
London--A New Embargo._
|The brilliant victories achieved on the ocean in 1812 reversed the
opinion the Government had entertained as to the value of the navy,
and early in 1813 Congress authorized the building of four
ships-of-the-line, six frigates, six sloops-of-war, and as many vessels
on the lakes as the service might require.
But in the second year of the war the American sailor did not meet
with that uniform success which in the first year had surprised and
confounded the self-styled Mistress of the Seas. One battle, in which a
noble ship was lost and many lives were sacrificed, through drunkenness,
was a grievous mortification to the whole American people. The commander
of the defeated vessel was fortunate in not surviving the action, as he
would probably have been court-martialled and disgraced.
The first naval engagement of the year took place in West Indian waters.
Lieutenant James Law{195}rence, in the _Hornet_, of twenty guns, was
cruising up and down the coast of Guiana, and had taken few prizes,
when on the 24th of February sighted the English brig _Peacock_, Captain
Peake, which carried twenty guns. Both drew down upon each other. They
passed within half pistol-shot; and as they passed, each delivered the
full broadside of the larboard battery. The _Peacock_ then put her helm
hard up, intending to wear round and rake the _Hornet_. But Lawrence
quickly imitated the movement, got the better of his antagonist, and
with all his guns blazing bore down upon her quarter. He then closed,
and kept up so terrific a fire that in fifteen minutes from the
beginning of the action the Englishman not only struck his colors, but
hoisted them in the fore-rigging with the union down--which is a signal
of distress. A few minutes later, the Peacock's main-mast tumbled.
An officer sent on board to take possession found that she had six feet
of water in the hold, and was settling rapidly. Captain Peake and four
of his men had been killed, and thirty-three wounded. Every effort was
made to save the wounded men. Both vessels anchored, for the water here
was but thirty-three feet deep. The prisoners were removed as fast as
possible, while, to keep the _Peacock_ afloat, {196}her guns were thrown
overboard, the shot-holes plugged, and the pumps manned; but in spite of
this she went down, carrying nine of her men and three of the
_Hornet's_. Four of the crew took the stern boat, which was supposed so
damaged as to be useless, and paddled Four others climbed into the
rigging of the fore-top, and as this remained above the surface when the
hull touched bottom, they were saved. On the _Hornet_ one man had been
killed and two wounded by the enemy's fire, and her rigging was
considerably damaged.
As another British war-vessel was not far away, the _Hornet_ had to be
put in fighting trim again with all speed, which was accomplished within
four hours after the action. As she was crowded with prisoners and was
short of water, she turned her prow toward home, arriving at Martha's
Vineyard on the the 19th of March, and proceeding through Long Island
Sound to New York. Congress voted Lawrence a gold medal, and to each of
his commissioned officers a silver one; and he was soon promoted to the
rank of captain, and given command of the frigate _Chesapeake_, then
lying in Boston harbor. The very next naval battle was the one in which
Lawrence lost his life, lost his ship, and lost a great part of his
reputation. {197}Captain Philip Bowes Vere Broke, commanding the British
frigate _Shannon_, of thirty-eight guns, had been cruising along the New
England coast for some time, looking for prizes, and especially for an
opportunity to retrieve the honor of his flag in an encounter with some
American war-ship of the size of his own. Lawrence was preparing for a
cruise against the English fleet engaged in the Greenland whale-fishery;
but when the Shannon appeared in the offing, June 1st, he hastily got
his crew together and went out from Boston to fight her.
Broke had sent in to him a letter containing a formal challenge to try
the powers of the two ships; but it did not arrive till the _Chesapeake_
had sailed, and Lawrence never received it. One sentence of this letter
is very significant, in that it contains the whole germ of the war. "I
doubt not that you, equally confident of success, will feel convinced
that it is only by repeated triumphs in even combats that your little
navy can now hope to console your country for the loss of that trade it
can no longer protect." That was it exactly. American trade, the grudge
of British merchants, and the constant object of British hostilities,
was to be permitted only so far as American guns were able to protect
it; and since the American navy, as Captain Broke said, was little,
while England's was large, it {198}was confidently believed by his
countrymen that this protection would not ultimately amount to much.
At six o'clock in the evening the vessels came within cannon-shot of
each other, and the _Shannon_ opened fire at once. But the Chesapeake
remained silent till her whole broadside could be brought to bear; then
she opened her ports, and for eight minutes there was a terrific and
continuous roar. Now, as before, the Americans were the better gunners,
and in this broadside firing the advantage was with the _Chesapeake_;
but accident favored her antagonist and gave him an opportunity to use
the advantages he possessed in other respects. Two or three shots that
struck the rigging of the Chesapeake rendered her for a short time not
perfectly manageable, and her mizzen-rigging fouled in the _Shannons_
fore-chains. This exposed her to a raking fire, and her upper deck was
swept at once by two of the enemy's guns.
In the broadside firing, Captain Lawrence had been wounded in the leg,
the master was killed, the first lieutenant was disabled, and the marine
officer, the fourth lieutenant, and the boatswain were mortally wounded.
So great a proportion of officers struck down was a rare accident. To
increase the misfortune, a Negro bugler had been substituted for the
drummer, and when Lawrence ordered the {199}signal to be sounded for
boarding, it was found that the bugleman had crawled under the launch,
and when he was hauled out he was still so frightened that he could not
sound a note. Lawrence then passed down verbal orders for the boarders
to come on deck, and at this moment he fell, shot through the body. As
he was carried below, he exclaimed: "Tell the men to fire faster, and
not give up the ship. Fight her till she sinks!"
But it was too late. The enemy were already on his deck in great
numbers, and after a short and unorganized resistance his men were
overcome and his ship was captured. The victors considerably increased
the casualties by firing down the hatchways with musketry, in
justification of which it is said that some one had fired up the hatch
and killed a marine.
The havoc in both crews had been frightful for so short a battle. On
the _Shannon_, twenty-four were killed and fifty-eight wounded; on the
_Chesapeake_ forty-seven were killed and ninety-eight wounded. Nearly
one third of all the men engaged in the action had been struck. Captain
Lawrence died in four days. His age was but thirty-one. He had been
greatly admired for his personal bravery, his courteousness, his regard
for the sailors under his command, and his wonderful nautical skill.
{200}In explanation of this defeat, it is said that Captain Broke had
been for weeks giving his men a special training for such an encounter;
while the _Chesapeake_ had a heterogeneous crew, a part of them were new
men, and many of the old ones were in a state of half mutiny from not
having received prize money that was due them. Some of the officers were
sick on shore, others were inexperienced, and several of the sailors
were seen drunk in the streets of Boston an hour before they were
summoned to go on board as the vessel was weighing anchor. These facts
seem to be well established; but the explanation does not make it any
the less a British victory. If Broke's men were under good discipline,
while Lawrence's were not, he is entitled to as much credit for his
achievement as if it had been accomplished through superior courage or
any other means. And Lawrence, had he not died, might properly have
been censured, or even punished, for going out to fight under such
circumstances, when he could have waited till he had trained his crew.
It was also said that the sailors entertained a superstitious belief
that the _Chesapeake_ was an unlucky ship. It was she that had been
fired into by the _Leopard_, in 1807, when she had not a single gun
in condition to return the shot; and just before her battle with the
{201}_Shannon_ she had cruised across the Atlantic to the coast of
Africa, and home again by way of the West Indies, without taking a
single prize.
Broke's victory was a grateful salve to England's pride, so sorely
wounded by the naval events of 1812, and her historians have never tired
of dwelling upon it. One of the latest of them devotes more than eight
pages to it alone, while he disposes of all the other sea-fights of this
war in less than three.
The American brig _Argus_, of twenty guns, commanded by Captain William
Henry Allen, after taking Hon. William H. Crawford to France as the new
United States Minister at the French court, made a cruise in the English
and Irish channels, where she captured twenty merchantmen. But in the
evening of August 13th she had the misfortune to capture a vessel loaded
with wine. The crew spent most of the night in transferring the cargo,
and helped themselves liberally to the contents of some of the casks.
Just before daylight, when all of them were tired out and many were
intoxicated, they completed their misfortune by setting fire to the
prize.
By the light of the burning vessel, the British brig _Pelican_, of
twenty-one guns, sighted the _Argus_ and bore down upon her. The
_Pelican_ got the {202}weather-gage, and came within close range. The
_Argus_ opened with a broadside, and for three quarters of an hour the
firing was kept up on both sides with great spirit. At the end of
that time the American had lost her steering apparatus and most of her
running rigging, while the enemy was lying under her stern, firing at
leisure. Captain Allen was mortally wounded before the fighting had
been going on five minutes, and his first lieutenant was disabled a few
minutes later. There was now nothing for the _Argus_ but to surrender.
She had lost six men killed and seventeen wounded; the _Pelican_, three
killed and five wounded.
Early in September the American brig _Enterprise_, of fourteen guns,
commanded by Lieutenant William Burrows, was cruising along the coast of
Maine in search of Canadian privateers, when, on the 5th, near Penguin
Point, within sight of Portland, the British brig _Boxer_, of fourteen
guns, Captain Samuel Blythe, was encountered. Both vessels prepared for
action, and a few minutes past three o'clock they had approached within
half pistol-shot, when both opened fire. The wind was light, the
sea nearly smooth, and the broadsides of the _Enterprise_ were very
effective. Burrows had mounted a long gun in his poop-cabin, running it
out of a window, and after the first broadside he drew ahead, sheered
{203}across the enemy's bow, and raked him with this gun. This was
repeated, with other skilful manoeuvres, and in forty minutes the
_Boxer_, being hailed, said she was ready to surrender, but could not
haul down her colors, because they were nailed to the mast.
One of her officers is said to have sprung upon a gun, shaken his fists
at the Americans, in a fearful state of excitement, and shouted "No! no!
no!" adding a few opprobrious epithets, when a superior officer ordered
him down. This exhibition, together with the ridiculous fact that a ship
with her colors nailed was trying to surrender, brought a hearty laugh
from the American crew, notwithstanding the shattered spars and bloody
decks.
The _Enterprise_ immediately ceased firing, and took possession of the
prize. The American vessel had suffered very little injury, though her
hull was peppered with grapeshot, a ball had passed through her foremast
and one through her mainmast, and her upper rigging was considerably
cut. She had lost one man killed and thirteen wounded, three of them
mortally. The _Boxer_ had been hulled repeatedly, three balls had passed
through her foremast, some of her guns were dismounted, her top-gallant.
forecastle was cut away, and her rigging badly injured. The number of
her men that were killed {204}has never been ascertained; fourteen were
wounded. The commanders of the two vessels both fell, almost at the same
moment: Blythe cut in two by an eighteen-pound ball, Burrows mortally
wounded by a canister-shot. They were buried side by side in Portland,
with the honors of war.
The poet Longfellow, who at that time was in his seventh year and
lived in Portland, alludes to this battle in his poem entitled "My Lost
Youth."=
```"'I remember the sea-fight far away,
```How it thundered o'er the tide!
```And the dead captains, as they lay
```In their graves, o'erlooking the tranquil bay
````Where they in battle died.
`````And the sound of that mournful song
`````Goes through me with a thrill:
`````'A boy's will is the wind's will,
```And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts.'"=
On the day when the _Chesapeake_ was captured by the _Shannon_, three
American war-vessels, under Commodore Decatur--the _United States_,
the _Macedonian_, and the _Hornet_--were driven into the harbor of New
London, Conn., by a superior force of British ships, and so rigorously
was the blockade of the port kept up, that not one of the three got to
sea again during the war. At the same time the land defences, manned
by Connecticut militia, pre{205}vented the blockading squadron from
entering the harbor to attack them. Decatur made many attempts to get
out with his fleet, but was always frustrated by the vigilance of the
blockaders, which he believed was assisted by traitors on shore. He
declared that whenever he planned an escape, the enemy were warned of
his intention by blue lights burned at the mouth of the harbor; and from
this circumstance the opprobrious name of "Blue-Lights" was applied to
the Federal party, which had opposed the war. It is not unlikely that
something of this sort was done, either by traitors or by spies in the
employ of the blockaders; but that the Federal party of Connecticut
had anything to do with it is sufficiently refuted by the fact that the
Connecticut militia, largely Federalists, not only protected Decatur's
vessels when they might have permitted them to be captured, but rendered
some distinguished services before the war was over, especially in the
gallant defence of Stonington. Still the Federalists continued to oppose
the war, though in a hopeless minority as to the whole country, and,
like all parties out of power, sharply and unceasingly criticised the
Administration. Their criticisms, too, were sometimes based on pretty
strong facts, as, for instance, when they ridiculed the idea that it
was a war for sailors' rights, by quoting an {206}official circular to
collectors of customs which forbade them to grant protections to Negro
sailors. Even thus early were some of our politicians imbued with the
notion that the color of a man's skin must necessarily make a vast
difference with his rights under the government for which he paid taxes
and bore arms.
The freedom of the Massachusetts coast from blockade was a source of
irritation to the more southerly States; and when in December, 1813, the
President complained to Congress that supplies were furnished to British
cruisers, and other contraband trade was carried on through the ports of
the Bay State, Congress laid a new embargo on the exportation, either by
land or water, of any goods, produce, live stock, or specie. A similar
embargo bill had passed the House of Representatives in July, but was
then defeated in the Senate.
Up to the close of 1813, the English had captured from the Americans
seven vessels of war, mounting one hundred and nineteen guns. In the
same time, the Americans had captured from the English twenty-six
vessels of war, mounting five hundred and sixty guns.