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 _MILFORD_--THE 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 Barry was cruising off the
Virginia capes; and on April 17, 1776, 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 _Lexington_ carried sixteen guns and twice as many men as
the tender.
May 10, 1776, 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 _Providence_ 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 16th 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 _Cerebus_ recaptured one
of these transports, and the prisoners managed to retake the other, but
they were again captured and taken in. When Captain Biddle 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.
[Illustration: _John Barry_
_From an engraving of the portrait by Chappel._]
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
_Gaspé_, she took four prizes while at sea between May and August.
Meantime the schooner _Wasp_, under Capt. Charles Alexander, took the
British bark _Betsey_ on May 9th, while in October, under Lieutenant
Baldwin, she captured three more prizes.
[Illustration: Facsimile of Account between Dudley Saltonstall and
Elisha Hinman.
_From the original at the Lenox Library._]
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 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 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 safely into the Delaware, but
there the career of the little _Andrea Doria_ came to an end, for,
before she could get to sea again, she had to be burned to prevent her
falling into the hands of the enemy, who captured Philadelphia about
that time.
[Illustration: St. Pierre, Martinique.
_From an old engraving._]
Another West India fight was still more to the glory of the young
American navy, even though the enemy was not captured. The American
brig _Reprisal_ sailed for Martinique early in the summer of 1776,
and on the way captured and sent home a number of prizes. But when
just outside of the port to which she was bound she fell in with the
British sloop-of-war _Shark_, of sixteen guns. Not only was the _Shark_
the larger vessel; the _Reprisal_, because of the number of prizes
sent home, was short-handed. Nevertheless, when the _Shark_ ranged up
alongside of the Yankee and opened fire the Yankee fought back. The
firing of the great guns brought the people of the port by hundreds
to the heights overlooking the sea. And it was a spectacle well worth
their coming, too, for the vigor of the Yankee defence compelled the
_Shark_ to haul off for repairs.
The _Reprisal_, during this cruise, was commanded by Capt. Lambert
Wickes. As will appear further on, it was he who first flaunted the
American flag in British waters and took British ships within sight of
the British coasts.
The _Shark_ afterward came into port and demanded of the authorities
that the _Reprisal_ be surrendered as a pirate. Of course the
authorities (they were Frenchmen) refused.
How valuable all the prizes that have been mentioned were to the
struggling colonists cannot be told here, but the reader will remember
that at this time the American forces were wholly dependent on foreign
sources for both powder and great guns. The Congress had, indeed, taken
steps to manufacture muskets of “three-quarters of an inch bore, and of
good substance at the breech, the barrel to be three feet eight inches
long, the bayonet to be 18 inches in the blade.” But there was no
factory for making these weapons, and the individual gunsmiths employed
could do very little toward supplying an army. There was, in short,
no sort of military supplies that was not lacking among the American
forces and no sort that these captures of the Yankee naval vessels did
not to a greater or less extent supply.
And what was of equal importance to the American success was the
injury done to the enemy. During the year 1776 the Yankees captured
342 vessels, all told, “of which forty-two were recaptured, eighteen
released, and five burned.”
But the story of the fortunes of the navy during the first year of its
existence is not yet completed. The early adventures of John Paul Jones
are yet to be told.
It is to the credit of Commodore Hopkins that at the end of the cruise
of his fleet he appreciated and admired the first lieutenant of the
service. As already told, he ordered Lieutenant Jones to the command
of the twelve-gun brig _Providence_ on May 10, 1776. Having no blank
commissions, Commodore Hopkins wrote the new commission on the back of
the old one that Jones had received as a lieutenant from the Congress.
For a time the _Providence_ was used for carrying troops and convoying
merchantmen along shore, and so successful was her new captain in
eluding the vigilant cruisers of the enemy that he attracted the notice
of Congress, and was promoted to the rank of captain, of which act he
received notice on August 8, 1776.
With the notice that he had been promoted came orders to cruise for
prizes “between Boston and the Delaware.” Captain Jones was now
fighting, not for the commercial privileges of oppressed colonists,
but for a new nation struggling for recognition. There is no doubt
that since July 4, 1776, he had performed his duty with a better heart
than before that date, because there was greater honor in helping to
establish a nation than in seeking justice for a colony, and with
men of his class honor is all of life. In his eager search for the
enemy after his promotion, Captain Jones stretched the territory that
had been assigned to him so that he reached the neighborhood of the
Bermudas.
Here on September 1, 1776, the lookout discovered a fleet of five ships
well to windward. Jones believed that they were merchantmen, and began
beating up to the largest of the fleet, but on getting closer she was
found to be a frigate--the _Solebay_, of twenty-eight guns. At that
Jones put his brig on the other tack, and for nearly four hours kept
beyond range, though the frigate steadily gained upon him, and was at
the last within less than a hundred yards, and a little on the brig’s
lee quarter. The frigate had meantime been firing at intervals with her
bow guns, though without effect.
But now the time had come when she could yaw around, and with a
single broadside cut the little brig to pieces. Any man would have
been justified in surrendering at once to save life, and only a man
of extraordinary bravery and resources would have thought of doing
otherwise. But Jones was the man for the occasion.
Fortunately, the weather was precisely to his liking--the sea was
level, and yet there was a fresh breeze to fill the sails rap-full.
Easing his vessel away from the wind a little to give her more headway
and bring her more directly under the bows of the frigate, where
she would be in less danger of a broadside, Captain Jones, in a low
voice, passed the word to stand by to square away before the wind
and set studdingsails high and low on both sides. Very quickly, but
without attracting attention, the crew led out the weather-braces and
the spanker-brails, and placed the coils of the lee-braces ready for
veering away. The studdingsails in stops were brought to the rails, and
halliards and sheets made fast. This 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.
[Illustration: John Paul Jones.
_From an engraving by Longacre of the portrait by C. W. Peale._]
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 was 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 100 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
catching codfish. While engaged in this very pleasant occupation the
British frigate _Milford_ came down on him, and the _Providence_ again
had to run. But Jones soon found that he could easily outsail the
_Milford_, 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, 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, 1776, 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 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, 1776, 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 13th, 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 150 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.
Among other goods of the greatest value, the cargo of the _Mellish_
included 10,000 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 coal mines were blocked
with ice; finding, moreover, that, with the addition of 150 prisoners
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 _Milford_, that had chased
the _Providence_ in the last voyage, was discovered. Knowing the speed
of the _Milford_, 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 _Milford_ was steadily gaining,
but the _Alfred_, with shortened sail, remained with the prizes as
if to protect them. But when night was fully come the _Alfred_, with
signals aloft for her prizes to follow, went off on the other tack,
and the _Milford_ promptly followed, while the prizes, except 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 _Milford_ 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 15, 1776, 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 _Mellish_ 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 1776 was greater than that of
any other man who had been afloat.
Nevertheless, on reaching port, instead of finding rewards and
promotions awaiting him, “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, 1776, 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 promotion 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.