THE FIRST SUBMARINE WARSHIP
IT WAS SMALL AND INEFFECTIVE, BUT IT CONTAINED THE GERM OF A MIGHTY
POWER THAT IS AS YET UNDEVELOPED--WHEN NICHOLAS BIDDLE DIED--HE WAS
A MAN OF THE SPIRIT OF AN IDEAL AMERICAN NAVAL OFFICER--FOUGHT HIS
SHIP AGAINST OVERWHELMING ODDS TILL BLOWN OUT OF THE WATER--THE
LOSS OF THE _HANCOCK_--AN AMERICAN CAPTAIN DISMISSED FOR A
GOOD REASON--CAPTAIN RATHBURNE AT NEW PROVIDENCE--LOSS OF THE
_VIRGINIA_--CAPTAIN BARRY’S NOTABLE EXPLOIT--WITH TWENTY-SEVEN MEN
TO HELP HIM, HE CAPTURED A SCHOONER OF TEN GUNS BY BOARDING FROM
SMALL BOATS IN BROAD DAYLIGHT, ALTHOUGH THE SCHOONER WAS MANNED BY
116 SAILORS AND SOLDIERS.
One of the most striking features of the American naval service during
the war of the Revolution was its irregularity. There was a navy
continuously in existence, but the services rendered by individual men
and ships were extremely irregular. It has already been told how John
Paul Jones, after his successful cruise to the Cape Breton waters,
had to remain idle for many months. After his famous cruise in the
_Ranger_ he was again idle until the king of France furnished him a
ship. Captain Gustavus Connyngham, who gained such a reputation in
the _Surprise_ and the _Revenge_ on the British coasts, was actually
obliged to seek service in a privateer, after his return to port, for
lack of other employment. Jones had an excellent offer to do this also,
but he refused on the ground that he was not fighting for money, but
for the “Honour of the American flag.” If men like Jones and Connyngham
were left to shift for themselves, and without pay at that, it follows
that others were treated in like manner.
The cause of this condition of affairs is readily found by the student
in the method of caring for the navy adopted by the Congress. It was a
method in keeping with a deal of the work done then. First, there was a
Marine Committee of the Congress to buy ships and send them on a single
“cruise eastward.” Later, there was a Marine Board, part congressmen
and part plain citizens, “but no two of whom shall be from the same
State.” There was a “Continental Naval Board.” There was a “Board of
Admiralty.” There were naval agents. The powers and duties of all
these were changed so often that no one can follow them in less space
than a large volume, and a more wearying volume than that would be is
difficult to imagine. There was, in short, an utter lack of system in
naval affairs throughout the whole Revolution. Worse yet, the Congress
was as lacking in funds as in system.
The first result of this state of affairs was to prevent the
development of an _esprit de corps_ among the officers. As already
told, Capt. Thomas Thompson of the _Raleigh_ ran away and left the
_Alfred_ to her fate when the _Ariadne_ and _Ceres_ overhauled her.
When John Paul Jones was towing the _Drake_ into Brest he saw a sail,
and left the _Drake_ for a time to examine the stranger. While he was
away the American officer in the _Drake_ tried to carry her off to
another port, hoping to get her fitted out and sent on a cruise with
himself in command, independent of Captain Jones. The list of offences
of this class--the clashing of officers where they would in this day
stand shoulder to shoulder--is distressingly long.
Another very serious result of the mismanagement was in the effect on
the common sailors. It was very difficult to get men for the national
ships, because the life on the privateers was more to their liking, and
the chances of getting prize money very much greater.
And all this is worth relating because the men of the navy won glory
and were indispensable to the ultimate victory of a growing nation, in
spite of it. The record of the naval men as a whole was as brilliant as
the congressional management was inefficient, and that is a condition
of affairs that has since been known in the navy.
To return to the American coast and give an account of the more
interesting naval doings there during the time that the old flag was
winning glory in Europe, it is found that considerable losses were
sustained, though the story is not by any means wholly depressing.
For instance, there is the story of Capt. Nicholas Biddle. “Liberty
never had a more intrepid defender” than Nicholas Biddle. It will
be remembered that he was one of the original captains of the navy,
and was appointed to the brig _Andrea Doria_, in which he gained
reputation. So, when the first of the thirty-two-gun frigates, which
Congress ordered in 1775, was completed, Captain Biddle was placed
in command. She was called the _Randolph_, and she sailed from
Philadelphia in February, 1777. Off Hatteras she sprung her masts in a
gale, and put into Charleston for repairs. Then she sailed again, and
within a week brought in six prizes, including a twenty-gun ship called
the _True Briton_. Unfortunately, a blockading squadron appeared off
Charleston at this time, and until March, 1778, he was held there.
[Illustration: MAP OF THE AMERICAN COAST,
Showing Principal Battles and Forts during the Revolutionary and
French Wars.
]
Meantime, however, his success had fired the hearts of the South
Carolinians, and while he was there he had the satisfaction of seeing
them fit out four State cruisers carrying, all told, sixty-four guns.
This work completed, Captain Biddle, with the State fleet as consorts,
sailed out to look for the blockading squadron, but it had sailed away.
So Captain Biddle took his little squadron down along the Caribbean
coasts. Here, east of the Barbadoes, they happened to fall in with the
British ship-of-the-line _Yarmouth_, Captain Vincent.
To properly understand what followed, it must be known that a
ship-of-the-line was built of such heavy timbers that nothing smaller
than a twelve-pounder could seriously damage its hull. The only guns
in Biddle’s squadron that could hope to penetrate her hull were
Biddle’s own, and his ship had but thirty-two guns to the _Yarmouth’s_
sixty-four, and they were smaller at that; so Captain Biddle signalled
the State cruisers to run for it while he, in spite of the vast
superiority of the enemy, sailed boldly up to her, broadside to
broadside.
Better yet, for one full hour he was able to maintain the contest
with his thirty-two small guns against sixty-four large ones. He was
wounded, but he refused to allow his men to carry him below, and while
he was thus directing the battle from the quarter-deck, the powder in
the _Randolph’s_ magazine was in some way fired, and the ship was
literally blown out of the water. Pieces of the wreck, in flames, fell
on the _Yarmouth_, while an American ensign, rolled up ready to be sent
aloft, in case the one flying should be shot away, fell, unsinged, upon
her forecastle.
It was at 10 o’clock on the morning of March 7, 1778, that this
disaster occurred. The _Randolph_ had on board 315 men at the time. The
people of the _Yarmouth_ supposed that all hands had perished, and made
sail after the rest of the Yankee squadron, though without success.
On March 12th the _Yarmouth_ happened back over the very water where
the fight had taken place, and there found a piece of the _Randolph_
floating about with four seamen upon it, who were, of course, picked
up. Captain Vincent of the _Yarmouth_ reported five men killed and
twelve wounded.
The little brig _Cabot_, of fourteen guns, that made such a brave fight
in the first cruise of the first squadron, came to grief on the coast
of Nova Scotia. She was in command of Capt. Joseph Olney. The British
frigate _Milford_, with which John Paul Jones had had so much fun,
happened along, and as the _Cabot_ was even slower than she, Captain
Olney ran her ashore to keep her from the enemy. The crew barely had
time to get ashore, but they fired the _Cabot_ before leaving. Once
on shore, they were, of course, afoot and friendless in the enemy’s
country, but Captain Olney and his men captured a schooner and returned
home in her.
This occurred in March, 1777. On April 9th, following, Capt. Dudley
Saltonstall, in the _Trumbull_ of twenty-eight guns, captured two
British transports off New York harbor that were laden with military
stores for the British army, and so more than retrieved the loss of
the _Cabot_. The _Trumbull_ lost seven killed and eight wounded. The
only record of the loss on the transports says that “the enemy suffered
severely.”
The year 1777 was noted for the building of the first American
submarine torpedo boat. David Bushnell, of Saybrook, Connecticut (he
moved to Peekskill, New York, later), a most ingenious mechanical
engineer, devised a turtle-shaped cask large enough to hold a man
and carry a torpedo containing 150 pounds of powder, with mechanism
to fasten it to the wooden bottom of a ship and to fire it when so
fastened. Because this was the first attempt to use a submarine vessel
for the purposes of war, and because Bushnell’s invention, fearsome as
it was, is not even yet developed to anything like the degree of which
it is capable, the description which he wrote of the thing is well
worth giving in full, as follows:
“GENERAL PRINCIPLES AND CONSTRUCTION OF A SUBMARINE VESSEL,
COMMUNICATED BY DAVID BUSHNELL, OF CONNECTICUT, THE INVENTOR,
A LETTER OF OCTOBER, 1787, TO THOMAS JEFFERSON, THEN MINISTER
PLENIPOTENTIARY OF THE UNITED STATES AT PARIS.
“The external shape of the submarine vessel bore some resemblance
to two upper tortoise shells of equal size, joined together; the
flue of entrance into the vessel being represented by the openings
made by the swells of the shells at the head of the animal. The
inside was capable of containing the operator, and air sufficient
to support him thirty minutes, without receiving fresh air. At the
bottom opposite to the entrance was fixed a quantity of lead for
ballast; at one edge, which was directly before the operator, who
sat upright, was an oar for rowing forward or backward; at the other
edge was a rudder for steering. An aperture, at the bottom, with its
valve, was designed to admit water for the purpose of descending,
and two brass forcing-pumps served to eject the water within, when
necessary for ascending. At the top there was likewise an oar, for
ascending or descending, or continuing at any particular depth. A
water-gauge or barometer determined the depth of descent; a compass
directed the course, and a ventilator within supplied the vessel
with fresh air, when on the surface. The entrance into the vessel
was elliptical, and so small as barely to admit one person. This
entrance was surrounded by a broad elliptical iron band, the lower
edge of which was let into the wood whereof the body of the vessel
was made, in such a manner as to give its utmost support to the body
of the vessel against the pressure of the water. Above the upper edge
of this iron band there was a brass crown or cover, resembling a hat
with its crown and brim, which shut water-tight upon the iron band.
The crown was hung to the iron band with hinges, so as to turn over
sideways when opened. To make it perfectly secure when shut, it might
be screwed down upon the band by the operator, or by a person without.
“There were in the brass crown three round doors, one directly in
front and one on each side, large enough to put the hand through.
When open they admitted fresh air. Their shutters were ground
perfectly tight into their places with emery, and were hung with
hinges and secured in their places when shut. There were likewise
several glass windows in the crown for looking through and for
admitting light in the daytime, with covers to secure them. There
were two air-pipes in the crown; a ventilator which drew fresh air
through one of the air-pipes, and discharged it into the lower part
of the vessel.
“The fresh air introduced by the ventilator expelled the impure air
through the other pipe. Both air-pipes were so constructed that they
shut themselves, whenever the water rose near their tops, so that no
water could enter through them. They opened themselves immediately
after they rose above the water. The vessel was chiefly ballasted
with lead fixed to its bottom. When this was not sufficient, a
quantity was placed within, more or less, according to the weight
of the operator. Its ballast rendered it so solid that there was no
danger of its oversetting. The vessel, with all its appendages and
the operator, was of sufficient weight to settle it low in the water.
About two hundred pounds of the lead at the bottom for ballast, could
be let down forty or fifty feet below the vessel. This enabled the
operator to rise instantly to the surface of the water in case of
accident.
“When the operator desired to descend, he placed his foot upon the
top of a brass valve, depressing it, by which he opened a large
aperture in the bottom of the vessel, through which the water entered
at his pleasure. When he had admitted a sufficient quantity, he
descended very gradually. If he admitted too large a quantity, in
order to obtain an equilibrium, he ejected as much as was necessary
by the two brass forcing-pumps which were placed at each end.
Whenever the vessel leaked, or he desired to ascend to the surface,
he also made use of these forcing-pumps. When the skilful operator
had obtained an equilibrium, he could row upward or downward, or
continue at any particular depth, with an oar placed near the top
of the vessel, formed upon the principle of the screw, the axis of
the oar entering the vessel. By turning the oar in one direction he
raised the vessel, by turning it the other way he depressed it. A
glass tube, eighteen inches long and one inch in diameter, standing
upright, its upper end closed, and its lower end, which was open,
screwed into a brass pipe, through which the external water had a
passage into the glass tube, served as a water-gauge or barometer.
“There was a piece of cork, with phosphorus on it, put into the
water-gauge, condensing the air within, and bearing the cork on its
surface. By the light of the phosphorus, the ascent of the water
in the gauge was rendered visible, and the depth of the vessel
ascertained by a graduated scale.
“An oar formed on the principle of the screw was fixed in the fore
part of the vessel; its axis entered the vessel, and, being turned
in one direction, rowed the vessel forward; but being turned in the
other, rowed backward. It was constructed to be turned by the hand
or foot.
“A rudder to the hinder part of the vessel, which commanded it with
the greatest ease, was made very elastic, and might be used for
rowing forward. The tiller was within the vessel, at the operator’s
right hand, fixed at a right angle on an iron rod which passed
through the vessel.
“A compass marked with phosphorus directed the course above and under
water.
“The internal shape of the vessel, in every possible section of it,
verged toward an ellipsis, as near as the design would allow; but
every horizontal section, although elliptical, was yet as near to a
circle as could be admitted.
“The body of the vessel was made exceedingly strong; a firm piece of
wood was framed parallel to the conjugate diameter, to prevent the
sides from yielding to the great pressure of the incumbent water in a
deep immersion. This piece of wood was also a seat for the operator.
“Every opening was well secured. The pumps had two sets of valves.
The aperture at the bottom for admitting water was covered with a
plate perforated full of holes, to receive the water and prevent
anything from closing the passage or stopping the valve from
shutting. The brass valve might likewise be forced into its place
with a screw. The air-pipes had a kind of hollow sphere fixed round
the top of each, to secure the air-pipe valves from injury. These
hollow spheres were perforated full of holes for the passage of air
through the pipes; within the air-pipes were shutters to secure them,
should any accident happen to the pipes or the valves on their tops.
All the joints were exactly made, and were water-tight.
“Particular attention was given to bring every part necessary to
performing the operation, both within and without the vessel, before
the operator, so that everything might be found in the dark. Nothing
required the operator to turn to the right hand or the left.
“DESCRIPTION OF A MAGAZINE AND ITS APPENDAGES DESIGNED TO BE
CONVEYED BY THE SUBMARINE VESSEL TO THE BOTTOM OF A SHIP.
“In the fore part of the brim of the crown of the vessel was a
socket, and an iron tube passing through the socket; the tube stood
upright, and could slide up and down six inches. At the top of the
tube was a wood-screw, fixed by means of a rod, which passed through
the tube and screwed the wood-screw fast upon the top of the tube. By
pushing the wood-screw up against the bottom of a ship, and turning
it at the same time, it would enter the planks. When the wood-screw
was firmly fixed, it could be cast off by unscrewing the rod which
fastened it upon the top of the tube.
“Behind the vessel was a place, above the rudder, for carrying a
large powder magazine. This was made of two pieces of oak timber,
large enough, when hollowed out, to contain an hundred and fifty
pounds of powder, with the apparatus used in firing it. A rope
extended from the magazine to the wood-screw above mentioned; when
the wood-screw was fixed, and to be cast off from its tube, the
magazine was to be cast off likewise, leaving it hanging to the
wood-screw. It was lighter than water, that it might rise up against
the object to which the screw and itself were fastened.
“Within the magazine was a clock, constructed to run any proposed
length of time under twelve hours; when it had run out its time, it
unpinioned a strong lock, resembling a gun-lock, which gave fire to
the powder. This apparatus was so pinioned that it could not possibly
move till, by casting off the magazine from the vessel, it was set in
motion.
“The skilful operator could swim so low on the surface as to approach
very near a ship in the night without fear of being discovered,
and might, if he chose, approach the stem or stern with very little
danger. He could sink very quickly, keep at any necessary depth, and
row a great distance in any direction he desired without coming to
the surface. When he rose to the surface he could soon obtain a fresh
supply of air, and, if necessary, he might then descend again and
pursue his course.
“EXPERIMENTS MADE TO PROVE THE NATURE AND USE OF A SUBMARINE VESSEL.
“The first experiment I made was with about two ounces of powder,
which I exploded four feet under water, to prove to some of the first
personages in Connecticut that powder would take fire under water.
“The second experiment was made with two pounds of powder, enclosed
in a wooden bottle, and fired under a hogshead, with a two-inch oak
plank between the hogshead and the powder; the hogshead was loaded
with stones, as deep as it could swim. A wooden pipe, descending
through the lower head of the hogshead and through the plank into the
powder contained in the bottle, was primed with powder. A match put
to the priming exploded the powder with a great effect, rending the
plank into pieces, demolishing the hogshead, and casting the stones
and ruins of the hogshead, with a body of water, many feet into
the air, to the astonishment of the spectators. This experiment was
likewise made for the satisfaction of the gentlemen above mentioned.
“I afterwards made many experiments of a similar nature, some with
large quantities of powder.
“In the first essays with the submarine vessel, I took care to prove
its strength to sustain the great pressure of the incumbent water,
when sunk deep, before I trusted any person to descend much below the
surface; and I never suffered any person to go under water without
having a strong piece of rigging made fast to it, until I found him
well acquainted with the operations necessary for his safety. After
that I made him descend and continue at particular depths without
rising or sinking; row by the compass; approach a vessel; go under
her, and fix the wood-screw into her bottom, etc., until I thought
him sufficiently expert to put my design into execution. I found,
agreeably to my expectations, that it required many trials to make a
person of common ingenuity a skilful operator. The first I employed
was very ingenious, and made himself master of the business, but was
taken sick in the campaign of 1776, at New York, before he had an
opportunity to make use of his skill, and never recovered his health
sufficiently afterwards.
“After various attempts to find an operator to my wish, I sent one
who appeared more expert than the rest from New York, to a fifty-gun
ship, lying near Governor’s Island. He went under the ship and
attempted to fasten the wood-screw into her bottom, but struck, as he
supposes, a bar of iron. Not being well skilled in the management of
the vessel, in attempting to move to another place, he lost the ship,
and after seeking her in vain for some time he rowed some distance
and rose to the surface of the water, but found daylight had advanced
so far, that he durst not renew the attempt. On his return from the
ship to New York, he passed near Governor’s Island, and thought he
was discovered by the enemy; he cast off the magazine, as he imagined
it retarded him in the swell, which was very considerable.
“After it had been cast off one hour, the time the internal apparatus
was set to run, it blew up with great violence.
“Afterwards, there were two attempts made in Hudson’s River, above
the city, but they effected nothing. Soon after this the enemy went
up the river, and pursued the vessel which had the submarine boat on
board, and sunk it with their shot. Though I afterwards recovered
the vessel, I found it impossible to prosecute the design any
further. I had been in a bad state of health from the beginning of my
undertaking, and was now very ill. The situation of public affairs
was such, that I despaired of obtaining the public attention and
assistance necessary. I therefore gave over the pursuit for that time
and waited for a more favorable opportunity, which never arrived.
“In the year 1777, I made an attempt from a whale-boat against the
_Cerberus_ frigate, then lying at anchor between Connecticut River
and New London, by throwing a machine against her side by means
of a line. The machine was loaded with powder to be exploded by a
gun-lock, which was to be unpinioned by an apparatus, to be turned
by being brought alongside of the frigate. This machine fell in with
a schooner at anchor, astern of the frigate, and concealed from
my sight. By some means or other it was fired, and demolished the
schooner and three men, and blew the only one left alive overboard,
who was taken up very much hurt.
“After this, I fixed several kegs under water charged with powder, to
explode upon touching anything as they floated along with the tide.
I set them afloat in the Delaware, above the English shipping at
Philadelphia, in December, 1777. I was unacquainted with the river
and obliged to depend upon a gentleman very imperfectly acquainted
with that part of it, as I afterwards found. We went as near the
shipping as we durst venture. I believe the darkness of the night
greatly deceived him, as it did me. We set them adrift, to fall with
the ebb upon the shipping. Had we been within sixty rods, I believe
they must have fallen in with them immediately, as I designed; but as
I afterwards found, they were set adrift much too far distant, and
did not arrive until after being detained some time by the frost;
they advanced in the daytime in a dispersed situation and under great
disadvantages.
“One of them blew up a boat with several persons in it, who
imprudently handled it too freely, and thus gave the British that
alarm which brought on the ‘Battle of the Kegs.’ The above vessel,
magazine, etc., were projected in the year 1771, but not completed
until the year 1775.
“D. BUSHNELL.”
The man who handled the submarine boat in New York harbor was Sergeant
Ezra Lee, and the ship mentioned was the sixty-four-gun liner _Eagle_.
It is a great pity that a full record of Bushnell’s experiments and of
the experiences of Sergeant Ezra Lee, who handled the strange craft,
was not made for the benefit of subsequent inventors, because much
useless labor would have been saved. For instance, every inventor who
has since worked on the idea has had to learn for himself that it is
utterly impossible to see through the water after he has been once
submerged, while other matters of little less importance have been
worked out over and again.
The attack on the _Cerberus_ mentioned above was described by the
British captain as follows:
“Wednesday night, being at anchor to the westward of New London, in
Black Point Bay, the schooner I had taken, at anchor close by me,
astern, about eleven o’clock at night, we discovered a line towing
astern that came from the bows; we immediately conjectured that it
was somebody that had veered himself away by it, and began to haul
in; we then found that the schooner had got hold of it (who had
taken it for a fishing line), gathered it near fifteen fathom, which
was buoyed up by little bits of sticks at stated distances, until
he came to the end, at which was fastened a machine, which was too
heavy for one man to haul up, being upwards of 100 cwt.; the other
people of the boat turning out, assisted him, got it upon deck, and
were unfortunately examining it too curiously, when it went off like
the sound of a gun, blew the boat to pieces, and set her in a flame,
killed the three men that were in the stern; the fourth, who was
standing forward, was blown into the water; I hoisted out the boat,
and picked him up much hurt; as soon as he could recollect himself,
he gave me the following description, as near as he could remember.
It was two vessels shaped like a boat, about twenty inches long, and
a foot broad, secured to each other at the distance of four feet, by
two iron bars, one at each end, and an iron tube or gun-barrel in the
centre, which was loose (as he had himself turned it round with his
hand); they swam one over the other, the upper one keel upwards; the
lower swam properly, but was so under water as just to keep the upper
one a few inches above the surface; to the after iron bar hung a flat
board, to which was fixed a wheel about six inches in diameter, and
communicated itself to one on the upper side of the boat, of a lesser
diameter; opposite to these was another wheel, on the flat of the
under one or loaded vessel, which had likewise communication with
the wheels of the upper boat; it was covered with lead, and the keel
heavily loaded in order to keep it down in the water.
“The fatal curiosity of the seamen (who unfortunately had been
bred in working in iron) set this wheel agoing, which it did with
great ease backwards and forwards, and during their looking at it,
which was about five minutes from the time of its being first put in
motion, it burst. Upon examining round the ship after this accident,
we found the other part of the line on the larboard side buoyed up in
the same manner, which I ordered to be cut away immediately for fear
of hauling up another machine, which I concluded was fast at the end,
and might burst when near the ship.
“The mode these villains must have taken to have swiftered the
ship, must have been to have rowed off in the stream a considerable
distance ahead of the ship, leaving one of their infernals in shore,
and floating the other at the distance of the line, which, from the
quantity that we have got on board (near 70 fathoms), and what the
man tells me they saved in the schooner, which was upwards of 150
fathoms more, must have been near 500 fathom; they at the length of
this line put the other in the water, and left it for the tide to
float down, which in this place runs very strong.
“As the ingenuity of these people is singular in their secret modes
of mischief, and as I presume this is their first essay, I have
thought it indispensably my duty to return and give you the earliest
information of the circumstances, to prevent the like fatal accident
happening to any of the advanced ships that may possibly be swiftered
in the same manner, and to forbid all seamen from attempting hauling
the line, or bringing the vessel near the ship, as it is filled with
that kind of combustible that burns though in the water.
“I am, sir, etc.,
“J. SYMONS.”
David Bushnell was born in Saybrook (now Westbrook), Connecticut, in
the year 1742. He entered Yale College in 1771, and graduated in 1775.
During his collegiate career he turned his attention to submarine
warfare, and after leaving college devoted his time and patrimony
entirely to the subject. He was noted for his studious habits, great
inventive genius, and eccentricity. The unfortunate issue of his
projects rendered him very dejected. Disappointed by his failures and
the neglect of the government, he went to France at the close of the
war, where he remained for a number of years, when he returned and
settled in Georgia, under the assumed name of Dr. Bush, desiring thus
to conceal his identity and connection with the early efforts of his
life. There he was placed at the head of one of the most respectable
schools in the State, but subsequently engaged in the practice of
medicine, by which he amassed a considerable fortune. He was much
beloved and respected by all who knew him, and died at the age of
ninety years, in the year 1826. By his will his proper name became
known; his executors were required to make inquiries in the town of
Saybrook for persons of the blood and family of Bushnell, and whoever
in the opinion of the executors was found to be most worthy, on the
score of moral worth, should be regarded as the sole legatee. But
should none of the kindred be found to fulfil the condition set forth
in the will, the estate was to be transferred to Franklin College,
Georgia. Legatees were found in Connecticut.
[Illustration: Signatures of John Manly and Hector McNeil.]
The loss of the American frigate _Hancock_ of thirty-two guns followed
the capture of the two valuable transports off New York. It was in May
that the _Hancock_, under Capt. John Manly (he who in the Massachusetts
schooner _Lee_ worked such havoc on the British store-ships off Boston
in 1775), sailed from Boston on a cruise, having in company the
_Boston_ of twenty-four guns under Capt. Hector McNeil. When four days
out they overhauled a strange sail, and Captain Manly, after a bit of
veering to and fro to determine the enemy’s speed and power, gave him
a broadside. At this the stranger tried to run for it, and with stern
chasers strove to disable the _Hancock’s_ rigging. But the _Hancock_
was then one of the swiftest American ships, and Captain Manly held his
fire until alongside, when he gave him a broadside.
Although manifestly of inferior strength, the enemy fought back bravely
for an hour, and then, the _Boston_ having arrived within range, he
struck his colors. It proved to be the frigate _Fox_ of twenty-eight
guns, Captain Fotheringham. The _Hancock_ lost eight in killed and
wounded, and the _Fox_ thirty-two.
Having placed a prize crew on the _Fox_, Captain Manly made the mistake
of sailing too close to Halifax, the principal British naval station
in America. Here, on June 1st, he fell in with three British ships,
the _Rainbow_ of forty-four guns, commanded by Sir George Collier; the
frigate _Flora_ of thirty-two guns, and the sloop-of-war _Victor_ of
eighteen guns.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
[_Over_]
Facsimile of a Letter from Thomas Jefferson to Captain McNeil.]
When the enemy was discovered the _Boston_ was well out to sea, and
having the weather gauge, she down with her helm and sailed away.
The _Hancock_ and the _Fox_ were close in shore, and they were soon
hard pressed. Manly, seeing himself deserted, at once began throwing
overboard all unnecessary weights, and so lightened his ship that he
was in a fair way to escape, when the wind failed him, although the
enemy still held enough to draw within easy range and in a position
to rake. He was thus under the guns of the _Rainbow_ of forty-four
guns and the _Victor_ of twenty, and could not turn his ship in any
direction. Of course he surrendered.
Meantime the _Flora_ had recaptured the _Fox_, although the prize crew,
few as they were in number, made a good fight.
It was the belief of Captain Manly that had the _Boston_ come down to
engage the _Flora_ and so pitched the _Victor_ against the _Fox_, he
would have been able to account for the _Rainbow_, and when the affair
came before Congress Captain Manly’s view prevailed, and Captain McNeil
was dismissed from the service for running away.
On the theory that ships are sent to sea to fight to the last gasp, the
fate of Captain McNeil was merited, even though one prominent naval
historian tries to justify his conduct. Had a Biddle or a John Paul
Jones had the _Boston_, one can well believe that the whole British
squadron would have been carried into port.
As for Manly, it must be told that, in spite of the record he had made
when he was in the service of Massachusetts--a record that had induced
Congress to put him third on the list of captains when it made its
first revision of the list--he was permitted to leave the navy for the
privateer service after he was exchanged and returned to port.
The naval record for 1778 opens in January, when, on the 27th, in the
_Providence_, armed with twelve four-pounders, Capt. John P. Rathburne
descended on New Providence island in the Bahamas. He landed at 11
o’clock at night with twenty-five men (half of his crew) and released
thirty odd American prisoners confined on shore. Then he captured Fort
Nassau with its cannon and ammunition and 300 stand of muskets. At
daylight he captured, without a fight, an armed vessel of sixteen guns,
together with five merchantmen and another fort. A British sloop-of-war
(ship) having appeared off the port, she was fired on from the shore,
when she made haste to sail away.
After holding the place two days and getting all the portable munitions
of war on board and spiking the cannon, Captain Rathburne burned two of
the prizes and carried four home.
The loss of one of the new American frigates which the Congress had
ordered, the _Virginia_, of twenty-eight guns, followed. She was coming
down Chesapeake Bay and grounded at night. In the morning two British
warships were seen near by, and her commander, Capt. James Nicholson,
with his crew, took to the boats and escaped ashore. The congressional
inquiry that followed cleared Nicholson of blame. It is said that he
went ashore not to escape a fight, but because of very important papers
he was carrying.
[Illustration: A Typical Nassau Fort--Fort Fincastle.
_From a photograph by Rau._]
The next exploit of note was that of Capt. John Barry, who, while in
command of the brig _Lexington_, had had an honorable career. It will
be remembered that the command of the _Effingham_, then building in the
Delaware, was given to him and that the British captured Philadelphia
before the ship could get away to sea. To keep the ship out of the
British hands she was moved up the river to White Hill, New Jersey,
and by order of Mr. Hopkinson of the Navy Board was sunk. Barry and
Hopkinson had a very loud dispute over the sinking of the _Effingham_,
for Barry was confident that, with the ten guns already on board and
the thirteen guns on the frigate _Washington_ that was in company
with her, a good fight could be made against any of the force the
British were able to send. Hopkinson became personal in his remarks,
and Barry’s Irish blood got hot, and some things not quite courteous
were said in return; but Barry, to his great disgust, had to sink the
ship, and afterwards, on the order of Congress, withdraw the offensive
remarks, although time had proved him entirely right in the matter of
sinking the ship.
However, while charges were pending against him in this matter, he
led a boat expedition down the river, carrying four rowboats manned
by twenty-seven men, all told, past the British ships and soldiers
at Philadelphia, and arrived safely off Port Penn, which was then in
the hands of the Americans. On the opposite side of the river lay two
ships, the _Mermaid_ and the _Kitty_, with two others not named, laden
under convoy of the large schooner _Alert_ armed with ten guns. The
ships were loaded with food supplies for the British at Philadelphia.
The run past Philadelphia had been made at night, of course, and so
Port Penn was reached in broad daylight. But in spite of the fact that
the British were already astir and the Americans in plain view, Barry
with his gallant band made a dash at the schooner, and before the
British could rally for a defence clambered over the rail, cutlass in
hand.
At that the British dropped everything and fled below, leaving Barry to
put on the hatches and keep them there. In view of the many occasions
on which the British historians charge the American sailors with
cowardice it must be told here that this “wild Irishman” with his
twenty-seven men beat down under the hatches one major, two captains,
three lieutenants, ten soldiers, and 100 seamen and marines--he
captured 116 armed men with just twenty-seven.
When he had secured them he stripped and burned the transports, and
carried the schooner over to Port Penn. This was on February 26, 1778.
The British sent a frigate and a sloop-of-war down the river to
recapture the schooner, and so, finding he could not get her away to
sea, Barry was obliged to destroy the vessel, which he did by pointing
his guns down her hatch and shooting holes through her bottom. But he
had in the meantime for two months patrolled the lower Delaware and
cut off the British supplies to such an extent that there was actual
suffering in the British camp. He gave them a taste, at least, of what
Washington’s brave hosts were suffering that winter at Valley Forge.
He returned to White Hill by travelling through the forest that then
surrounded Philadelphia.
Having by this effort once more commanded the attention of the
authorities, he was sent to the _Raleigh_ at Boston, and on September
25, 1778, sailed away with two merchant ships in convoy. Three days
later he was a wanderer in the unbroken forests of Maine.
The little fleet got to sea early in the morning. At noon two sails
were seen in the south, and Captain Barry, after signalling the
convoy to steer close-hauled, ran down for a look at the strangers.
Because the wind was light it took him the whole of the afternoon to
learn their character, but at sundown he found they were two English
frigates. At this Captain Barry ordered the merchantmen back to port,
cleared his ship for action, and thereafter for forty-eight hours
engaged in a game of hide-and-seek with the enemy wherein he had, now
and again, the darkness of night, the horizon, and sundry fog-banks to
conceal him.
[Illustration: An English Frigate of Forty Guns.
_From an engraving by Verico._]
On sending the merchantmen toward port Barry took that course himself,
until the darkness wholly enveloped the enemy, when he again resumed
his course. At dawn next day he found himself in a fog, and during the
forenoon nothing could be seen, but at noon the fog disappeared, and
then the enemy were again seen to the south on a course parallel to
Barry’s.
Seeing this, Barry came up close-hauled and crowded on all sail, while
the enemy came on in like dress until 3 or 4 o’clock, when another fog
shut them from view. Then Barry headed away eastwardly with a free
wind, and ran so until daylight on the 27th, when he furled the canvas
and let her drift under bare poles until 6 o’clock, while he searched
the horizon for the frigates.
Having seen nothing, Captain Barry made sail, and held a course to the
southeast until 9.30, when he again saw the enemy. At this he came up
to the wind, tacked about, and heading away to the northwest with “a
staggering breeze,” the _Raleigh_ made “11 knots and 2 fathoms on a
dragged bowline,” per hour.
That was a pace that the Englishmen could not hold, and the _Raleigh_
soon dropped them behind the horizon, but at noon the _Raleigh_ ran
out of the streak of wind, as a sailor might say, while the enemy were
still holding it.
The leader of the frigates rapidly overhauled the _Raleigh_ after that,
and at 4 in the afternoon the _Raleigh_ tacked to the west to see what
the force of the leader was. Captain Barry hoped he might make a good
fight with her single-handed before the other could come up, and at 5
in the afternoon “the _Raleigh_ edged away, brailing her mizzen and
taking in her staysails.” Crossing the enemy’s bows, the _Raleigh_
dropped down abreast of him, and set the American ensign. The frigate,
showing fourteen guns on a side, hoisted the king’s flag, and then the
_Raleigh_ gave her a broadside. She replied swiftly, and at the second
fire had the good fortune to carry away the _Raleigh’s_ foretopmast
and mizzen-topgallantmast. She was now able to outsail the _Raleigh_,
and so shot ahead to get clear of the too hot fire of the Yankee, and
then began to fire at long range while Captain Barry was clearing away
the wreck aloft. Once the wreckage was down, however, Barry bore up
and strove to get alongside and board, but with her superior canvas
the frigate avoided this. Meantime the other ship was coming near,
and Captain Barry, finding he could not, in his crippled condition,
maintain a fight with two, decided to run his ship ashore on some
islands that were visible, for the fight was made off the coast of
Maine.
And then night came on with a still fading breeze. The _Raleigh_, with
all sail set, headed for the coast. The frigates followed, and until
midnight the two ships drifted along with the red flames spurting from
their sides, and the nearing cliffs echoing to the thunder of the
conflict.
At 12 o’clock the enemy hauled off for a brief interval, but the
other ship having come up, the two renewed the conflict, and then the
_Raleigh_ grounded.
The enemy now took positions on the _Raleigh’s_ quarter. Captain Barry
kept the four stern chasers working, but lowered his boats forward and
went ashore with a lot of his men to fortify the island on which he had
grounded, being determined to fire his ship and resist capture in any
event. But while he was away a frightened petty officer hauled down the
flag.
The _Raleigh_ was eventually put into the British navy, but Captain
Barry and his men on the island escaped to the mainland. The ship
that made so good a fight against the _Raleigh_ was the _Unicorn_, of
twenty-eight guns. Her consort was the _Experiment_, of fifty. The
Americans lost twenty-five killed and wounded, and the _Unicorn_ ten
killed and an unknown number of wounded--probably twenty-five or thirty.
On the whole, the years 1777 and 1778 were disastrous, and the record
was, in a sense, to the discredit of the American navy. Two captains
were, indeed, dropped from the naval list for failing to support the
flag, and where they failed the record was in part only made good by
the heroism of the others. Of the thirteen frigates which the Congress
decided to build in December, 1775, but four remained. Some were lost
at sea, as already described, and the rest fell into the hands of the
British through the operations of the land forces.
But if we compare the American forces with those of the English, the
wonder is that the Americans were able to keep the flag afloat at all,
for the British navy in American waters in 1778 numbered eighty-nine
ships mounting 2,576 guns, while the Americans had fourteen ships
mounting 332 guns. And what is of more importance, the British ships
were at this time manned by crews that were disciplined, while, as
already noted, the Yankee ships were to a very great extent manned
by landsmen. A time was to come when, in the matter of training, the
superiority was to be on the other decks, but in 1778 it was all in
favor of the British.