account of the unkindness which he had experienced, he resolved to
stay no longer, and repaired to another house to breakfast. He next
procured the necessaries wanted by his people, and then went with his
mates to make a protest. But, not choosing that the declaration should
proceed from his own mouth, Mr. Langford's son acted as interpreter to
the French priest, who was to make it. The priest accordingly made a
strong and full affidavit, that Captain Nicholls and his people had
tried every means to keep the ship above water; that they had used the
French all the time they were on board, with the greatest kindness and
humanity, and that Captain Nicholls had parted from them with the
greatest reluctance, and even at their own desire went into the boat,
after all hopes of life were gone.
Having remained another day at Penzance to refresh the people, and
getting credit for what was wanted, Captain Nicholls, Captain Moore
and the officers set out in a carriage for Exeter, while the people,
who had got a pass from the Mayor, walked on foot. At Redruth, a town
in Cornwall, there were many French officers on parole, as also an
English Commissary. Captain Nicholls accompanied the priest to the
latter in quest of a pass to Falmouth, that he might embark in the
first cartel for France; and here took leave of him.
Captain Nicholls having reached London, was under the necessity of
being examined at the Admiralty and Navy Office, about the loss of the
people and the ship, she being a transport in the service of
government. The Lords of the Admiralty and Commissioners of the Navy
told him that he might say more than any man living, as he had brought
ashore with him the first man of France, a priest, of course an enemy
to both their religion and country: if his behaviour had not been
good, he would not have attempted it; but at the same time, they
acknowledged that without such a proof, they could not have believed,
but finding all hopes gone, he and his people got away by some
stratagem. They would pay they said to the hour that the ship
foundered, and were very sorry that they could do no more.
The four Frenchmen above mentioned, who had left the transport in the
little boat subsequent to the departure of Captain Nicholls and his
men, got into Falmouth within two days.
So ended this dreadful and unfortunate voyage, with the loss of a fine
ship and three hundred and sixty souls.
COMMODORE BARNEY.
No old Triton who has passed his calms under the bows of the long-boat
could say of Joshua Barney that he came into a master's berth through
the cabin windows. He began at the rudiments, and well he understood
the science. All his predilections were for the sea.
Having deserted the counting room, young Barney, at the age of twelve,
was placed for nautical instruction in a pilot-boat at Baltimore, till
he was apprenticed to his brother-in-law. At the age of fourteen, he
was appointed second mate, with the approbation of the owners, and
before he was sixteen he was called upon to take charge of his ship at
sea, in which the master had died. This was on a voyage to Nice. The
ship was in such a state that it was barely possible to make
Gibraltar, where for necessary repairs he pledged her for L700, to be
repaid by the consignee at Nice, who however declined, and called in
the aid of the Governor to compel Barney to deliver the cargo, which
he had refused to do. He was imprisoned, but set at large on some
intimation that he would do as desired, but when he came on board, he
struck his flag, and removed his crew, choosing to consider his vessel
as captured. He then set out for Milan, to solicit the aid of the
British Ambassador there, in which he succeeded so well that the
authorities of Nice met him on his return to apologize for their
conduct. The assignee paid the bond, and Barney sailed for Alicant,
where his vessel was detained for the use of the great armada, then
fitting out against Algiers, the fate of which was a total and
shameful defeat. On his return home, his employer was so well
satisfied with his conduct, that he became his firm friend ever after.
He soon offered himself as second in command on board the sloop
Hornet, of ten guns, one of two vessels then preparing for a cruise
under Commodore Hopkins, for this was in the early part of the
revolution. The sloop fell in with a British tender, which she might
have captured, but for the timidity of the American captain. The
tender, mistaking her enemy, ran alongside and exposed herself to much
danger.--Barney stood by one of the guns as the enemy came near, and
was about to apply the match, when the bold commander commanded him to
desist. Barney, whose spirit revolted at such a cause, threw his
match-stick at the captain, with such force that the iron point stuck
in the door of the round-house. This, in a youth not seventeen, urged
well for the pugnacity of the man. At the end of this cruise, he
volunteered on board the schooner Wasp, in which he soon had a brush
with the Roebuck and another frigate, and with the aid of some galleys
in which he had a command, the enemy was forced to retreat, with more
loss than honor. Barney for his good conduct in this affair, was
appointed to the command of the sloop Sachem, with the commission of
lieutenant before he was seventeen.
Before the cruise, however, Captain Robinson took command of the
Sachem, which soon had an action with a letter-of-marque of superior
force and numbers. It was well contested, and nearly half the crew of
the brig were killed or wounded. In about two hours the
letter-of-marque struck.--The captors secured a valuable prize, in a
cargo of rum, and also a magnificent turtle intended as a present to
Lord North, whose name was marked on the shell. This acceptable West
Indian, Lieutenant Barney presented to a better man than it had been
designed for, for he gave it to the Hon. R. Morris. On the return of
the Sachem, both officers were transferred to a fine brig of fourteen
guns, the Andrew Doria, which forthwith captured the Racehorse, of
twelve guns and a picked crew. This vessel was of the Royal Navy, and
had been detached by the Admiral purposely to take the Doria.
On this voyage a snow was captured, in which the Lieutenant went as
prize master, making up the crew partly of the prisoners. Being hard
by an enemy's ship, he discovered signs of mutiny among his crew, and
shot the ringleader in the shoulder; a proceeding that offered so
little encouragement to his comrades, that they obeyed orders, and
made sail, but it was too late to escape. The purser of the frigate
which captured him, was on a subsequent occasion, so much excited as
to strike Barney, who knocked him down, and went further in his
resentment than fair fighting permits, for he kicked him down the
gangway. The commander obliged the purser to apologize to Barney.
Having been captured in the Virginia frigate, which ran aground at the
Capes, and was deserted by her commander, Barney, with five hundred
other prisoners, was sent round, in the St. Albans frigate, to New
York. As the prisoners were double in number to the crew, Barney,
formed a plan of taking the ship, which was defeated or prevented by
the treachery of a Frenchman.
Barney was a prisoner at New York, for five months, after which he
took the command of a schooner of two guns, and eight men, with a
cargo of tobacco for St. Eustatia, for he was better pleased to do a
little than to do nothing. He was however, taken, after a running
fight, by boarding, by a privateer of four large guns and sixty men.
His next cruise was with his friend Robinson, in a private ship of ten
guns and thirty-five men, in which they encountered the British
privateer Rosebud of sixteen guns and one hundred and twenty men. On
the return, a letter-of-marque of sixteen guns and seventy men was
captured. The Lieutenant had now prize money enough to be converted,
on his return, into a large bundle of continental bills, which he
stowed away in a chaise box, on taking a journey, but which he could
not find when he arrived at his destination. He kept his own secret,
however, and "went to sea again," second in command of the United
States' ship Saratoga, of sixteen nine-pounders. The first prize was a
ship of twelve guns, captured after an action of a few minutes.
On the next day, the Saratoga hoisted English colors, and came along
side a ship which had two brigs in company, then running up the
American ensign, she poured in a broadside, while Lieutenant Barney,
with fifty men, boarded the enemy. The immediate result was, the
conquest of a ship of thirty-two guns and ninety men. The two brigs,
one of fourteen and the other of four guns, were also captured. The
division of prize money would have made the officers rich, but no
division took place, for all but the Saratoga were captured by a
seventy-four and several frigates. Lieutenant Barney was furnished
with bed and board, on deck, and with him, bed and board were
synonymous terms, but he was allowed to choose the softest plank he
could find. In England he was confined in prison, from which he
escaped, and, after various adventures, arrived at Beverly,
Massachusetts, and, as soon as he landed, was offered the command of a
privateer of twenty guns. On his arrival at Philadelphia, he accepted
the command of one of several vessels, cruising against the enemies'
barges, and the refugee boats, that infested the Delaware River and
Bay. His ship was the Hyder Ally, a small vessel of sixteen six
pounders. As a superior vessel of the enemy was approaching, Barney
directed his steersman to interpret his commands by the rule of
contraries.
When the enemy was ranging alongside, Barney cried out, "Hard a-port."
The helmsman clapt his helm the other way, and the enemy's jib-boom
caught in the fore rigging, and held her in a position to be raked,
and never was the operation of raking more suddenly or effectually
performed. The British flag came down in less than half an hour, and
the captors made little delay for compliments, for a frigate from the
enemy was rapidly approaching. The prize was the General Marle, of the
Royal Navy, with twenty nine pounders, and one hundred and thirty-six
men; nearly double the force and metal of the captors. After the
peace, Commodore Barney made a partial settlement in Kentucky, and
became a favorite with the old hunters of that pleasant land. He was
appointed Clerk of the District Court of Maryland, and also an
auctioneer. He also engaged in commerce, when his business led him to
Cape Francois during the insurrection, and where he armed his crew,
and fought his way, to carry off some specie which he had secreted in
barrels of coffee.
On his return he was captured by a pirate, which called herself an
English privateer. Barney, however, was a bad prisoner, and with a
couple of his hands rose upon the buccaneers and captured their ship.
In this situation it was no time for Argus himself to sleep, with more
than an eye at a time. The Commodore slept only by day in an armed
chair on deck, with his sword between his legs, and pistols in his
belt, while his cook and boatswain, well armed, stood the watch at his
side. On another occasion, he was captured in the West Indies, by an
English frigate, where he received the usual British courtesies, and
he was tried in Jamaica for piracy, &c. It is needless to say that,
though in an enemy's country, he was acquitted by acclamation. This
accusation originated with the commander of the frigate, who, however,
prudently kept out of sight; though an officer in the same frigate,
expressed at a Coffee House, a desire to meet Barney, without knowing
that he was present, that he might have an opportunity to settle
accounts with the rascal. The rascal bestowed upon the officer the
compliments that were usual on such an occasion, and tweaked that part
of his head that is so prominent in an elephant.
We cannot follow the Commodore through his subsequent fortunes and
adventures. In France he received the hug fraternal of the President
of the Convention, and the commission of Captain of the highest grade
in the Navy. He fitted out several vessels of his own to harass the
British trade, in which he was very successful. He received the
command of two frigates, which were almost wrecked in a storm, though
he succeeded in saving them. In the last war, his services are more
immediately in our memories.
NAVAL BATTLES
OF THE UNITED STATES.
The depredations committed on American commerce in the Mediterranean,
by the piratical corsairs of the Barbary powers, induced Congress, in
1794, to authorize the formation of a naval force for its protection.
Four ships of forty-four guns each and two of thirty-six were ordered
to be built.--Captain Thomas Truxton was one of the first six captains
appointed by the President, at the organization of the naval
establishment, in 1794. He was appointed to the command of the
Constellation of thirty-six guns, and ordered to protect the commerce
of the United States in the West Indies, from the ravages of the
French. On the ninth of February, 1799, he captured the French frigate
Insurgente, of which twenty-nine of the crew were killed and
forty-four wounded. The Constellation had but one man killed and two
wounded.
In 1800, the Constellation engaged with the French frigate Vengeance
of fifty-four guns, near Guadaloupe; but owing to the darkness of the
night the latter escaped, after having thrice struck her colors and
lost one hundred and sixty men in the engagement.
The same year, the United States frigate Boston captured the French
national corvette Le Berceau.
In the month of August, 1801, Captain Sterrett of the United States
schooner Enterprize, of twelve guns and ninety men, fell in, off
Malta, with a Tripolitan cruiser of fourteen guns and eighty-five men.
In this action the Tripolitans thrice hauled down her colors, and
thrice perfidiously renewed the conflict. Fifty of her men were killed
and wounded. The Enterprize did not lose a man.
Captain Sterrett's instructions not permitting him to make a prize of
the cruiser, he ordered her crew to throw overboard all their guns and
powder, and to go and tell their countrymen the treatment they might
expect from a nation, determined to pay tribute only in powder and
ball. On her arrival at Tripoli, so great was the terror produced,
that the sailors abandoned the cruisers then fitting out, and not a
man could be procured to navigate them.
The Tripolitan cruisers continuing to harass the vessels of the United
States, Congress determined in 1803, to fit out a fleet that should
chastise their insolence. The squadron consisted of the Constitution,
44 guns; the Philadelphia, 44; the Argus, 18; the Siren, 16; the
Nautilus, 16; the Vixen, 16; and the Enterprize, 14. Commodore Preble
was appointed to the command of this squadron, in May 1803, and on the
13th of August, sailed in the Constitution for the Mediterranean.
Having adjusted the difficulties which had sprung up with the emperor
of Morocco, he turned his whole attention to Tripoli. The season was,
however, too far advanced for active operations.
On the 31st of October, the Philadelphia, being, at nine o'clock in
the morning, about five leagues to the westward of Tripoli, discovered
a sail in shore, standing before the wind to the eastward. The
Philadelphia immediately gave chase. The sail hoisted Tripolitan
colors, and continued her course near the shore. The Philadelphia
opened a fire upon her, and continued it, till half past eleven;
when, being in seven fathoms water, and finding her fire could not
prevent the vessel entering Tripoli, she gave up the pursuit. In
beating off, she ran on a rock, not laid down in any chart, distant
four and a half miles from the town. A boat was immediately lowered to
sound. The greatest depth of water was found to be astern. In order to
back her off, all sails were laid aback; the top-gallant-sails
loosened; three anchors thrown away from the bows; the water in the
hold started; and all the guns thrown overboard, excepting a few abaft
to defend the ship against the attacks of the Tripolitan gun-boats,
then firing at her. All this, however, proved ineffectual; as did also
the attempt to lighten her forward by cutting away her foremast. The
Philadelphia had already withstood the attack of the numerous
gun-boats for four hours, when a large reinforcement coming out of
Tripoli, and being herself deprived of every means of resistance and
defence she was forced to strike, about sunset. The Tripolitans
immediately took possession of her, and made prisoners of the officers
and men, in number, three hundred. Forty-eight hours afterwards, the
wind blowing in shore, the Tripolitans got the frigate off, and towed
her into the harbor.
On the 14th of December, Commodore Preble sailed from Malta, in
company with the Enterprize, commanded by Lieutenant Stephen Decater.
When the latter was informed of the loss of the Philadelphia, he
immediately formed a plan of recapturing and destroying her, which he
proposed to Commodore Preble. At first the commodore thought the
projected enterprize too hazardous: but at length granted his consent.
Lieutenant Decater then selected for the enterprise the ketch
Intrepid, lately captured by him. This vessel he manned with seventy
volunteers, chiefly of his own crew; and on the 3d of February sailed
from Syracuse, accompanied by the brig Siren, lieutenant Stewart.
After a tempestuous passage of fifteen days, the two vessels arrived
off the harbor of Tripoli, towards the close of day.--It was
determined that at ten o'clock in the evening the Intrepid should
enter the harbor, accompanied by the boats of the Siren. But a change
of wind had separated the two vessels six or eight miles. As delay
might prove fatal, Lieutenant Decater entered the harbor alone about
eight o'clock. The Philadelphia lay within half gun shot of the
Bashaw's castle and principal battery. On her starboard quarter lay
two Tripolitan cruisers within two cables length; and on the
starboard bow a number of gun-boats within half gun shot. All her
guns were mounted and loaded. Three hours were, in consequence of the
lightness of the wind, consumed in passing three miles, when being
within two hundred yards of the Philadelphia, they were hailed from
her, and ordered to anchor on peril of being fired into. The pilot on
board the Intrepid was ordered to reply, that all their anchors were
lost. The Americans had advanced within fifty yards of the frigate,
when the wind died away into a calm. Lieutenant Decater ordered a rope
to be taken out and fastened to the fore-chains of the frigate, which
was done, and the Intrepid warped alongside. It was not till then the
Tripolitans suspected them to be an enemy; and their confusion in
consequence was great. As soon as the vessels were sufficiently near,
Lieutenant Decater sprang on board the frigate, and was followed by
midshipman Morris. It was a minute before the remainder of the crew
succeeded in mounting after them. But the Turks, crowded together on
the quarter deck, were in too great consternation to take advantage of
this delay. As soon as a sufficient number of Americans gained the
deck they rushed upon the Tripolitans, who were soon overpowered; and
about twenty of them were killed.
After taking possession of the ship, a firing commenced from the
Tripolitan batteries and castle, and from two cruisers near the ship;
a number of launches were also seen rowing about in the harbor;
whereupon Lieutenant Decater resolved to remain in the frigate, for
there he would be enabled to make the best defence. But perceiving
that the launches kept at a distance, he ordered the frigate to be set
on fire, which was immediately done, and so effectually, that with
difficulty was the Intrepid preserved. A favorable breeze at this
moment sprung up, which soon carried them out of the harbor. None of
the Americans were killed, and only four wounded. For this heroic
achievement Lieutenant Decater was promoted to the rank of post
captain. His commission was dated on the day he destroyed the
Philadelphia.
After the destruction of the Philadelphia frigate, commodore Preble
was, during the spring and early part of the summer, employed in
keeping up the blockade of the harbor of Tripoli, in preparing for an
attack upon the town and in cruising. A prize that had been taken was
put in commission, and called the Scourge. A loan of six gun-boats and
two bomb-vessels, completely fitted for service, was obtained from the
king of Naples. Permission was also given to take twelve or fifteen
Neapolitans on board each boat, to serve under the American flag.
With this addition to his force, the commodore on the 21st of July,
joined the vessels off Tripoli. The number of men engaged in the
service amounted to one thousand and sixty.
On the Tripolitan castle and batteries, one hundred and fifteen guns
were mounted, fifty-five of which were pieces of heavy ordnance, the
others long eighteen and twelve pounders. In the harbor were nineteen
gun-boats carrying each a long brass eighteen or twenty-four pounder
in the bow, and two howitzers abaft; also two schooners of eight guns
each, a brig of ten and two galleys of four guns each. In addition to
the ordinary Turkish garrison, and the crews of the armed vessels,
estimated at three thousand, upwards of twenty thousand Arabs had been
assembled for the defence of the city.
The weather prevented the squadron from approaching the city until the
twenty-eighth, when it anchored within two miles and a half of the
fortifications; but the wind suddenly shifting, and increasing to a
gale, the commodore was compelled to return. On the 3d of August, he
again approached to within two or three miles of the batteries. Having
observed that several of the enemy's boats were stationed without the
reef of rocks, covering the entrance, he made signal for the squadron
to come within speaking distance, to communicate to the several
commanders his intention of attacking the shipping and batteries. The
gun-boats and bomb-ketches were immediately manned and prepared for
action. The former were arranged in two divisions of three each. At
half past one the squadron stood in for the batteries. At two, the
gun-boats were cast off. At half past two, signal was made for the
bomb-ketches and gun-boats to advance and attack.--At three quarters
past two, the signal was given for a general action. It commenced by
the bomb-ketches throwing shells into the town. A tremendous fire
immediately commenced from the enemy's batteries and vessels, of at
least two hundred guns. It was immediately returned by the American
squadron, now within musket shot of the principal batteries.