THE WAR OF 1812.--THE "CONSTITUTION" AND THE "GUERRIÈRE."
Difficulties which finally led to the outbreak of war had been growing
for several years; and the Government, as I have said, had all this time
done little or nothing in the way of preparation for defence either on
land or at sea. The navy was opposed as bitterly as ever, and the money
that was needed for its support was given grudgingly. After the war with
Tripoli, in which gunboats had been found of so much use, the
Administration had begun to build great numbers of vessels of this
class. This was a great mistake. Gunboats were useful and even necessary
for operations in bays and rivers and shoal waters, but they could not
take the place of frigates in making war. But it seemed to be a pet
scheme with the President to transform the navy into an immense gunboat
flotilla, and one hundred and seventy-six of these little craft were
built, which turned out to be of no more service in war than so many
mud-scows. The money which was wasted by this mistaken policy would have
built eight frigates of the largest class, and would have added
immeasurably to our power upon the sea.
When the war broke out, there were in the navy, besides the gunboats,
only eighteen vessels, of which three--the "Chesapeake,"
"Constellation," and "Adams"--were repairing, and one was on Lake
Ontario. Of the other fourteen there were those three fine frigates of
forty-four guns,--the "Constitution," the "United States," and the
"President;" and three smaller frigates,--the "Congress," of
thirty-eight guns, the "Essex," of thirty-two, and the "John Adams," of
twenty-eight. The rest were sloops, brigs, and schooners carrying from
ten to twenty guns apiece. To make war on this puny force, the British
Navy possessed two hundred and thirty line-of-battle ships, of from
sixty to one hundred and twenty guns each, and over six hundred frigates
and smaller vessels.
What could the United States now do with its eighteen ships against nine
hundred of the enemy? It seemed a hopeless situation,--so hopeless, that
there were some statesmen in the country who thought it would be best to
lay up and dismantle our little fleet as the only way to enable it to
escape capture. It happened that when this plan was broached, Captain
Bainbridge and Captain Stewart were in Washington, and hearing of it
they went to the Secretary and implored him not to do so suicidal a
thing. "What are our ships for," said they, "if not to fight and attack
the enemy when their country goes to war? If when a war comes they are
all to be laid up, it would be better to give up altogether this
pretence of a navy, which seems to be only used in peace-time, when
there is no real work for it to do. No doubt if one of our frigates
falls in with the enemy's squadron it will be captured; but English
frigates do not always sail in squadrons any more than our own; and if
one of us meets one of them alone at sea, we shall be able to give a
good account of ourselves. Let the frigates go to sea to show what they
can do: at the worst, they can only be captured, and the country will be
no worse off than if they were laid up to rot in idleness."
Persuaded by these arguments the Government consented, though with many
forebodings of disaster, to send the ships to sea; and fortunate it was
that this wise decision was reached. For never in the history of the
world was a naval war conducted with greater skill and gallantry, and
success in proportion to its means, than this which the little navy of
America waged in 1812 against Great Britain. Despite the comparative
force of the two navies, it often happened, as Bainbridge and Stewart
had predicted, that single ships met single ships in naval duels, as it
were; and as through the wisdom of our first constructors our frigates
and sloops were the best of their class afloat, they were often more
than a match in strength of resistance and in power of attack for their
antagonists. Besides, under the thorough training of their captains, who
had learned what naval warfare meant in the school of Preble at Tripoli,
the crews were more careful and more skilful gunners than the enemy, and
far exceeded them in their ability to make their firing tell. The
English, on the other hand, whose conquests over the French and
Spaniards had led them to belittle and despise the navies of other
States, thought that they had an easy victory before them,--or, as we
might say now, a "walk-over,"--and they ridiculed the American frigates,
calling the "Constitution" a "bundle of pine boards under a bit of
striped bunting," until they found out to their cost that they had in
their enormous list of ships hardly a single frigate that compared with
her in all those qualities which a frigate ought to have.
* * * * *
On the 21st of June, 1812, three days after the declaration of war, a
squadron sailed out of New York, under the command of Commodore Rodgers,
composed of the "President," as flagship; the "United States," under
Commodore Decatur; the "Congress," Captain Smith; the "Hornet," Capt.
James Lawrence; and the "Argus," Captain Sinclair. The object of the
cruise was the capture of a fleet of one hundred merchantmen known to
have sailed from Jamaica sometime before for England, under convoy of
some ships-of-war. When two days out, the squadron fell in with and
chased the British frigate "Belvidera." When the chase began, the
frigate was some six miles off; but in the course of the afternoon the
"President," which was the fastest ship of the squadron, gradually
neared her, until she was within half a mile. Then the "President"
opened with her bow-guns; but, most unfortunately, one of these guns
after being fired a few times exploded, killing and wounding several
officers and men, the commodore himself being among the wounded. The
"Belvidera" held on her course, returning the fire from four guns which
she had shifted to her stern-ports. The "President," delayed by her
accident, lost ground; and though a running fight was kept up for
several hours, the "Belvidera," by cutting away her anchors and
throwing overboard her boats, lightened herself so much that she soon
left the squadron far behind. At midnight the pursuit was abandoned.
[Illustration: "AMONG THESE WAS ONE SIXTY-FOUR, THE 'AFRICA.'"]
The squadron now resumed its course in chase of the Jamaica fleet, from
which it had been turned aside in attempting to capture the "Belvidera."
But the delay proved fatal to its enterprise. Intelligence was gained
off the Banks of Newfoundland that the Jamaica-men were ahead, and soon
the ships knew from the quantities of orange-peel and cocoanut-shells
floating in the water that they were on the enemy's track; but they
never sighted him. At last, upon reaching the British Channel, the
pursuit was given up, and Commodore Rodgers, after a ten-weeks' cruise,
returned with six prizes to Boston.
The cruise of Commodore Rodgers had one good effect, in compelling the
ships-of-war of the enemy then on our coast to keep together for their
own safety. Among these was one sixty-four, the "Africa," two large
frigates, the "Shannon" and the "Guerrière," and the small frigate
"Æolus," all under the command of Com. Philip Broke, of the "Shannon."
These were presently joined by the "Belvidera," and all were cruising
together near New York, and off the Jersey coast. About the middle of
July the little schooner "Nautilus," of twelve guns, left New York on a
cruise, and running into the midst of the squadron was made a prize
after a six-hours' chase.
On the 12th of July, four days before the capture of the "Nautilus," the
"Constitution" had sailed from Chesapeake Bay, under Captain Hull, bound
for New York. Late on the afternoon of the 16th, the day on which the
"Nautilus" was taken, she too fell in with the British squadron. For
three long and weary days and nights the enemy pursued her, and during
all that time the zeal and courage of her officers never flagged, and no
means were left untried that might assist in her escape. The untiring
efforts of Captain Hull were seconded by his first lieutenant, Charles
Morris, the same who had been with Decatur when he burned the
"Philadelphia" in the harbor of Tripoli, and certainly one of the best
officers that ever fought under the American flag. He shall tell in his
own words the story of
THE CHASE OF THE "CONSTITUTION."
We had proceeded beyond the Delaware, but out of sight of the
land, when on the afternoon of the 16th we discovered four
vessels at a great distance to the northwest and a single ship
to the northeast, from which quarter a light wind was then
blowing. The wind changed to the southward about sunset, which
brought us to windward, and we stood for the ship, the wind
being very light. The chase was evidently a frigate, and the
first impression was that she might be a part of Commodore
Rodgers's squadron. By eleven P.M. we were within signal
distance, and it was soon apparent she was not an American
vessel of war. There being no apprehension that a British
frigate would make any attempt to avoid an engagement, Captain
Hull felt justified in delaying any nearer approach till
daylight, when our newly-collected and imperfectly-disciplined
men would be less likely to be thrown into confusion. The ship
was accordingly brought to the wind with her head to the
southward and westward under easy sail, with a light wind from
the northwest. The other ship did the same at about two miles'
distance. The watch not on duty were allowed to sleep at their
quarters, and the officers slept in the same manner.
As the following morning opened upon us it disclosed our
companion of the night to be a large frigate just without
gunshot, on the lee quarter, and a ship-of-the-line and three
other frigates, a brig, and a schooner, about two miles nearly
astern, with all sails set standing for us, with English colors
flying.
All our sails were soon set, and the nearest frigate,
fortunately for us, but without any apparent reason, tacked and
immediately wore round again in chase,--a manoeuvre that
occupied some ten minutes, and allowed us to gain a distance,
which though short, proved to be of the utmost importance to
our safety. By sunrise our ship was entirely becalmed and
unmanageable, while the ships astern retained a light breeze
till it brought three of the frigates so near that their shot
passed beyond us. The distance was, however, too great for
accuracy, and their shot did not strike our ship.
Our boats were soon hoisted out, and the ship's head kept from
the enemy, and exertions were made to increase our distance
from them by towing. This and occasional cat's-paws, or slight
puffs of wind, enabled us to gain nothing. A few guns were
fired from our stern-ports; but so much rake had been given to
the stern that the guns could not be used with safety, and
their further use was relinquished. All means were adopted
which seemed to promise any increase of speed. The hammocks
were removed from the nettings, and the cloths rolled up to
prevent their unfavorable action; several thousand gallons of
water were started and pumped overboard, and all the sails kept
thoroughly wet to close the texture of the canvas.
While making all these exertions, our chances for escape were
considered hopeless. For many years the ship had proved a very
dull sailer, especially during the late cruise, and it was
supposed that the first steady breeze would bring up such a
force as would render resistance of no avail; and our situation
seemed hopeless.
At about eight A.M. one of the frigates called all the boats of
the squadron to her, and having arranged them for towing,
furled all sails. This brought her toward us steadily and
seemed to decide our fate. Fortunately for us, a light breeze
filled our sails and sent us forward a few hundred yards before
her sails could be set to profit by it.
With our minds excited to the utmost to devise means of escape,
I happened to recollect that when obliged by the timidity of my
old commander, Cox, to warp the "President" in and out of
harbors where others depended on sails, our practice had
enabled us to give her a speed of nearly three miles an hour.
We had been on soundings the day before, and on trying we now
found twenty-six fathoms. This depth was unfavorably great, but
it gave me confidence to suggest to Captain Hull the expediency
of attempting to warp the ship ahead. He acceded at once; and
in a short time the launch and first cutter were sent ahead
with a kedge, and with all the hawsers and rigging, from five
inches and upward, that could be found, making nearly a mile of
length. When the kedge was thrown, the men hauled on the
connecting hawser, slowly and carefully at first, till the ship
was in motion, and gradually increasing until a sufficient
velocity was given to continue until the anchor could be taken
ahead, when the same process was repeated. In this way the ship
was soon placed out of the range of our enemy's guns, and by
continued exertions when the wind failed, and giving every
possible advantage to the sails when we had air enough to fill
them, we prevented them from again closing very near us. The
ship which we had first chased gained a position abeam of us
about nine A.M., and fired several broadsides; but the shot
fell just short of us and only served to enliven our men and
excite their jocular comments.
The exertions of neither party were relaxed during this day or
the following night. There was frequent alternation of calms
and very light winds from the southeast, which we received with
our heads to the southwestward. When the wind would give us
more speed than with warping and towing, the boats were run up
to their places or suspended to the spars in the chains by
temporary tackles, with their crews in them, ready to act at a
moment's notice.
At daylight of the second day, on the 18th, it was found that
one frigate had gained a position on our lee bow, two nearly
abeam, one on the lee quarter about two miles from us, and the
ship-of-the-line, brig, and schooner, three miles from us in
the same direction. The wind had now become tolerable steady,
though still light. The frigate on the lee bow tacked about
four A.M. and would evidently reach within gunshot if we
continued our course. This we were anxious to avoid, as a
single shot might cripple some spar and impede our progress. If
we tacked, we might be exposed to the fire of the other frigate
on the lee quarter; but as she was a smaller vessel, the risk
appeared to be less, and we also tacked soon. In passing the
lee frigate at five, we expected a broadside or more, as we
should evidently pass within gunshot; but from some unexplained
cause Lord James Townshend, in the "Æolus," of thirty-two guns,
suffered us to pass quietly and tacked in our wake, while the
others soon took the same direction.
[Illustration: "A SQUALL OF WIND AND RAIN PASSED OVER US."]
We had now all our pursuers astern and on the lee quarter; and
as the wind was gradually increasing, our escape must depend on
our superiority of sailing, which we had no reason to hope or
expect. Exertions, however, were not relaxed. The launch and
first cutter, which we dared not lose, were hoisted on board at
six A.M. under the direction of Captain Hull, with so little
loss of time or change of sails that our watching enemies could
not conceive what disposition had been made of them. This we
afterward learned from Lieutenant Crane, who was a prisoner in
their squadron. The sails were kept saturated with water, a set
of sky-sails was made and set, and all other sails set and
trimmed to the greatest advantage, close by the wind. The ship
directly astern gained slowly but gradually till noon; though,
as the wind increased, our good ship was going at that time at
the unexpected rate of ten knots an hour. At noon we had the
wind abeam, and as it gradually freshened, we began to leave
our fleet pursuer. Our ship had reached a speed of twelve and a
half knots by two P.M. Our hopes began to overcome
apprehension, and cheerfulness was more apparent among us.
Though encouraged we were by no means assured, as all the ships
were still near and ready to avail themselves of any advantage
that might offer. About six P.M. a squall of wind and rain
passed over us, which induced us to take in our light sails
before the rain covered us from the view of the enemy; but most
of them were soon replaced, as the wind moderated. When the
rain had passed, we had evidently gained a mile or more during
its continuance. Still the pursuit was continued, and our own
ship pressed forward to her utmost speed. The officers and men
again passed the night at quarters. At daylight on the morning
of the 19th our enemies had been left so far astern that danger
from them was considered at an end, and at eight A.M. they at
last relinquished the chase and hauled their wind. Our officers
and crew could now indulge in some rest, of which the former
had taken little for more than sixty hours.... The result may
be remembered as an evidence of the advantages to be expected
from perseverance under the most discouraging circumstances so
long as _any_ chance for success may remain.
After the prolonged labor and anxiety of the three days' chase, the
people of the "Constitution" needed some relaxation of the strain, and
Captain Hull put into Boston, where he remained a week. From there he
sailed to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, where he took and burned some
prizes; but hearing that the squadron from which he had just escaped was
in the neighborhood, he steered for the southward. All the time the
sailors were kept exercised at the guns, under the careful oversight of
the officers; for the captain knew that the result, in any battle he
might be called upon to fight, depended mostly upon skill in firing,
which practice alone could give.
On the 19th of August, at two o'clock in the afternoon, while cruising
about in the ocean somewhere in the latitude of New York, the
"Constitution" made a strange sail to the southward and eastward.
Captain Hull had just before received information that an English
frigate was cruising alone to the southward of him, and suspecting that
this stranger was the object of his search, he bore down for her under
all sail, she meanwhile making no attempt to get away. At three o'clock
the ships were near enough to make each other out, and Hull's conjecture
proved to be right. The stranger was the frigate "Guerrière," under
Captain Dacres, which had now left the squadron of Commodore Broke, and
was on her way to Halifax.
By four o'clock the "Constitution" was gaining rapidly on her opponent,
and three quarters of an hour later, being then about three miles off,
the "Guerrière" backed her main-topsails and waited for the Americans to
come up. Upon this the "Constitution" took in her top-gallant sails,
staysails, and flying jib, took a second reef in the topsails, hauled
the courses up, sent down the royal yards, cleared ship for action, and
beat to quarters. At the same time she bore up, and steered for the
"Guerrière's" quarter.
[Illustration: CAPTAIN ISAAC HULL.]
At five o'clock the "Guerrière" hoisted her colors and opened fire, but
her shot fell short. Then for nearly an hour the two ships manoeuvred,
Hull doing his best to get into a good position to rake, and the English
frigate each time deftly evading him by "wearing ship," as it is
called,--that is, by turning quickly on her heel, with the wind astern.
But all this drew the ships apart, when both really wished to close and
fight; and presently by a common impulse Hull and Dacres concluded to
give up manoeuvring, and both ran off to the eastward, with the wind
free, the "Guerrière" a little ahead, but the "Constitution" quickly
crawling up on her.
Now began the real battle, for before this it had been little more than
the play of fencers, each feeling his way to discover his opponent's
skill and strength. But the ships were now side by side, and the
"Constitution's" practised gunners were firing terrible broadsides in
quick succession, her guns double-shotted with round shot and grape. The
"Guerrière" answered, but her guns were not so heavy as the Americans,
nor was her gunnery so skilful. In just ten minutes after the real fight
began, her mizzen-mast toppled and fell over the side, the shrouds
holding the wreck of mast and spars and sails, which dragged behind in
the water.
The "Guerrière's" speed was now slackened, and Captain Hull ranged
ahead; and putting his helm hard aport, he lay across her bows and raked
her with his broadside twice from stem to stern. But as he swung round
again, the "Guerrière's" jib-boom and bowsprit crossed his quarter-deck
and got entangled in his rigging. It was a critical moment, for the
bow-guns of the enemy were so close that their wads, entering the
"Constitution's" cabin, set it on fire. By dint of great exertions the
fire was put out, and Lieutenant Morris, standing on the taffrail,
attempted to pass some turns of the main brace over the "Guerrière's"
bowsprit, to keep her fast and give his men a chance to board. But
Morris in his exposed position had not yet finished his task, when a
marine on the "Guerrière," taking deliberate aim, put a bullet through
his body. The brave lieutenant fell, though happily not killed but only
badly wounded, and the two ships were separated.
[Illustration: "SHE LAY A HELPLESS WRECK IN THE TROUGH OF THE SEA."]
All thoughts of boarding were now given up, but there was no need of it.
Hull kept up his heavy fire, and in ten minutes more the "Guerrière's"
foremast and mainmast had also gone, and she lay a helpless wreck in the
trough of the sea, rolling her main-deck guns under water. The
"Constitution," knowing that the enemy was at her mercy, now hauled off
for half an hour to repair the slight injuries she had received; and
after completing this task in a leisurely way, and making everything
shipshape, she came back to receive the enemy's surrender. It was a
bitter task for Captain Dacres to acknowledge himself beaten in the
first frigate fight between the veteran navy of England and the derided
vessels of the young Republic; but it was all that he could do, for he
had fought his ship until she was little better than a dismantled hulk,
and it was vain to think of trying to prolong resistance. So the captain
came on board the "Constitution" and delivered up himself and all his
men as prisoners; and the next day the "Guerrière," being so shattered
that it was of no use to take her into port, was burned where she lay,
and left to sink in the ocean.
Great were the rejoicings when the "Constitution" arrived at Boston with
her trophies and prisoners. Men, women, and children vied with each
other in demonstrations of delight. We can hardly realize to-day what
the people felt at the news of the destruction of a British frigate. To
understand the feeling, we must look back at the twenty years during
which American ships and American seamen had suffered repeated outrage
at the hands of British ships-of-war,--outrage which had been borne only
because the young country felt too weak to cope with those forces which
had conquered all the navies of the Continent. At the outset, war with
such foes offered a dismal prospect. And to think that in the first real
encounter on the seas, a veritable pitched battle, these redoubtable
champions of the ocean had been so utterly crushed and annihilated that
not one fragment remained of their good ship the "Guerrière," which had
harried with impunity our very coasters, was something more than men's
minds could at once grasp.
For Hull and his companions no reward seemed too great. Feasted in
Boston at a great civic banquet, received with an ovation at every town
through which he passed, he was for the moment the country's hero.
Congress struck a medal in his honor, and votes of thanks were passed by
the legislatures of New York and Massachusetts, and by many municipal
bodies. The Society of the Cincinnati elected him an honorary member.
The citizens of Philadelphia presented to him a great silver vase, and a
golden sword whose engraved hilt bore a picture of the battle; the vase
and sword may be seen to-day in the hall of the State Department at
Washington. Morris was promoted to the rank of captain; and finally
Congress passed an act appropriating fifty thousand dollars as a bounty
for the officers and seamen of the "Constitution."