1812
ON THE OCEAN
_Commodore Rodgers' cruise and unsuccessful chase of the_
Belvidera--_Cruise of the _Essex--_Captain Hull's cruise, and
escape from the squadron of Commodore Broke_--Constitution _captures_
Guerrière--Wasp _captures_ Frolic--_Second unsuccessful cruise of
Commodore Rodgers_--United States _captures_ Macedonian--Constitution
_captures_ Java--Essex _starts on a cruise--Summary_
At the time of the declaration of war, June 18, 1812, the American
navy was but partially prepared for effective service. The _Wasp_,
18, was still at sea, on her return voyage from France; the
_Constellation_, 38, was lying in the Chesapeake river, unable to
receive a crew for several months to come; the _Chesapeake_, 38,
was lying in a similar condition in Boston harbor; the _Adams_,
28, was at Washington, being cut down and lengthened from a frigate
into a corvette. These three cruisers were none of them fit to go
to sea till after the end of the year. The _Essex_, 32, was in
New York harbor, but, having some repairs to make, was not yet
ready to put out. The _Constitution_, 44, was at Annapolis, without
all of her stores, and engaged in shipping a new crew, the time of
the old one being up. The _Nautilus_, 14, was cruising off New
Jersey, and the other small brigs were also off the coast. The
only vessels immediately available were those under the command
of Commodore Rodgers, at New York, consisting of his own ship, the
_President_, 44, and of the _United States_, 44, Commodore Decatur,
_Congress_, 38, Captain Smith, _Hornet_, 18, Captain Lawrence,
and _Argus_, 16, Lieut. Sinclair. It seems marvellous that any
nation should have permitted its ships to be so scattered, and
many of them in such an unfit condition, at the beginning of
hostilities. The British vessels cruising off the coast were not
at that time very numerous or formidable, consisting of the
_Africa_, 64, _Acasta_, 40, _Shannon_, 38, _Guerrière_, 38,
_Belvidera_, 36, _Aeolus_, 32, _Southampton_, 32, and _Minerva_,
32, with a number of corvettes and sloops; their force was,
however, strong enough to render it impossible for Commodore
Rodgers to make any attempt on the coast towns of Canada or the
West Indies. But the homeward bound plate fleet had sailed from
Jamaica on May 20th, and was only protected by the _Thalia_, 36,
Capt. Vashon, and _Reindeer_, 18, Capt. Manners. Its capture or
destruction would have been a serious blow, and one which there
seemed a good chance of striking, as the fleet would have to pass
along the American coast, running with the Gulf Stream. Commodore
Rodgers had made every preparation, in expectation of war being
declared, and an hour after official intelligence of it, together
with his instructions, had been received, his squadron put to sea,
on June 21st, and ran off toward the south-east [Footnote: Letter
of Commodore John Rodgers to the Secretary of the Navy, Sept. 1,
1812.] to get at the Jamaica ships. Having learned from an
American brig that she had passed the plate fleet four days before
in lat. 36° N., long. 67° W., the Commodore made all sail in that
direction. At 6 A.M. on June 23d a sail was made out in the N. E.,
which proved to be the British frigate _Belvidera_, 36, Capt.
Richard Byron. [Footnote: Brenton, v. 46.] The latter had sighted
some of Commodore Rodgers' squadron some time before, and stood
toward them, till at 6.30 she made out the three largest ships to
be frigates. Having been informed of the likelihood of war by a New
York pilot boat, the _Belvidera_ now stood away, going N. E. by E.,
the wind being fresh from the west. The Americans made all sail in
chase, the _President_, a very fast ship off the wind, leading,
and the _Congress_ coming next. At noon the _President_ bore S. W.,
distant 2 3/4 miles from the _Belvidera_, Nantucket shoals bearing
100 miles N. and 48 miles E [Footnote: Log of _Belvidera_, June 23,
1812.]. The wind grew lighter, shifting more toward the south-west,
while the ships continued steadily in their course, going N.E. by E.
As the _President_ kept gaining, Captain Byron cleared his ship
for action, and shifted to the stern ports two long eighteen-pounders
on the main-deck and two thirty-two pound carronades on the
quarter-deck.
At 4:30 [Footnote: Cooper, ii, 151. According to James, vi, 117,
the _President_ was then 600 yards distant from the _Belvidera_,
half a point on her weather or port quarter.] the _President's_
starboard forecastle bowgun was fired by Commodore Rodgers himself;
the corresponding main-deck gun was next discharged, and then
Commodore Rodgers fired again. These three shots all struck the
stern of the _Belvidera_, killing and wounding nine men,--one of
them went through the rudder coat, into the after gun-room, the
other two into the captain's cabin. A few more such shots would
have rendered the _Belvidera's_ capture certain, but when the
_President's_ main-deck gun was discharged for the second time it
burst, blowing up the forecastle deck and killing and wounding 16
men, among them the Commodore himself, whose leg was broken. This
saved the British frigate. Such an explosion always causes a half
panic, every gun being at once suspected. In the midst of the
confusion Captain Byron's stern-chasers opened with spirit and
effect, killing or wounding six men more. Had the _President_ still
pushed steadily on, only using her bow-chasers until she closed
abreast, which she could probably have done, the _Belvidera_ could
still have been taken; but, instead, the former now bore up and
fired her port broadside, cutting her antagonist's rigging slightly,
but doing no other damage, while the _Belvidera_ kept up a brisk
and galling fire, although the long bolts, breeching-hooks, and
breechings of the guns now broke continually, wounding several of
the men, including Captain Byron. The _President_ had lost ground
by yawing, but she soon regained it, and, coming up closer than
before, again opened from her bow-chasers a well-directed fire,
which severely wounded her opponent's main-top mast, cross-jack
yard, and one or two other spars; [Footnote: James, vi, 119. He
says the _President_ was within 400 yards.] but shortly afterward
she repeated her former tactics and again lost ground by yawing
to discharge another broadside, even more ineffectual than the
first. Once more she came up closer than ever, and once more yawed;
the single shots from her bow-chasers doing considerable damage,
but her raking broadsides none. [Footnote: Lord Howard Douglass,
"Naval Gunnery," p. 419 (third edition).] Meanwhile the active
crew of the _Belvidera_ repaired every thing as fast as it was
damaged, while under the superintendence of Lieutenants Sykes,
Bruce, and Campbell, no less than 300 shot were fired from her
stern guns. [Footnote: James, vi, 118.] Finding that if the
_President_ ceased yawing she could easily run alongside, Captain
Byron cut away one bower, one stream, and two sheet anchors, the
barge, yawl, gig, and jolly boat, and started 14 tons of water.
The effect of this was at once apparent, and she began to gain;
meanwhile the damage the sails of the combatants had received had
enabled the _Congress_ to close, and when abreast of his consort
Captain Smith opened with his bow-chasers, but the shot fell short.
The _Belvidera_ soon altered her course to east by south, set her
starboard studding-sails, and by midnight was out of danger; and
three days afterward reached Halifax harbor.
Lord Howard Douglass' criticisms on this encounter seem very just.
He says that the President opened very well with her bow-chasers
(in fact the Americans seem to have aimed better and to have done
more execution with these guns than the British with their
stern-chasers); but that she lost so much ground by yawing and
delivering harmless broadsides as to enable her antagonist to
escape. Certainly if it had not been for the time thus lost to no
purpose, the Commodore would have run alongside his opponent, and
the fate of the little 36 would have been sealed. On the other hand
it must be remembered that it was only the bursting of the gun on
board the _President_, causing such direful confusion and loss,
and especially harmful in disabling her commander, that gave the
_Belvidera_ any chance of escape at all. At any rate, whether the
American frigate does, or does not, deserve blame, Captain Byron
and his crew do most emphatically deserve praise for the skill
with which their guns were served and repairs made, the coolness
with which measures to escape were adopted, and the courage with
which they resisted so superior a force. On this occasion Captain
Byron showed himself as good a seaman and as brave a man as he
subsequently proved a humane and generous enemy when engaged in
the blockade of the Chesapeake. [Footnote: Even Niles, unscrupulously
bitter as he is toward the British, does justice to the humanity
of Captains Byron and Hardy--which certainly shone in comparison
to some of the rather buccaneering exploits of Cockburn's followers
in Chesapeake Bay.]
This was not a very auspicious opening of hostilities for America.
The loss of the _Belvidera_ was not the only thing to be regretted,
for the distance the chase took the pursuers out of their course
probably saved the plate fleet. When the _Belvidera_ was first
made out, Commodore Rodgers was in latitude 39° 26' N., and
longitude 71° 10' W.; at noon the same day the _Thalia_ and her
convoy were in latitude 39° N., longitude 62° W. Had they not
chased the _Belvidera_ the Americans would probably have run
across the plate fleet.
The American squadron reached the western edge of the Newfoundland
Banks on June 29th, [Footnote: Letter of Commodore Rodgers, Sept.
1st.] and on July 1st, a little to the east of the Banks, fell in
with large quantities of cocoa-nut shells, orange peels, etc.,
which filled every one with great hopes of overtaking the quarry.
On July 9th, the _Hornet_ captured a British privateer, in latitude
45° 30' N., and longitude 23° W., and her master reported that he
had seen the Jamaica-men the previous evening; but nothing further
was heard or seen of them, and on July 13th, being within twenty
hours' sail of the English Channel, Commodore Rodgers reluctantly
turned southward, reaching Madeira July 21st. Thence he cruised
toward the Azores and by the Grand Banks home, there being
considerable sickness on the ships. On August 31st he reached
Boston after a very unfortunate cruise, in which he had made but
seven prizes, all merchant-men, and had recaptured one American vessel.
On July 3d the _Essex_, 32, Captain David Porter, put out of New
York. As has been already explained she was most inefficiently
armed, almost entirely with carronades. This placed her at the
mercy of any frigate with long guns which could keep at a distance
of a few hundred yards; but in spite of Captain Porter's petitions
and remonstrances he was not allowed to change his armament. On the
11th of July at 2 A. M., latitude 33° N., longitude 66° W., the
_Essex_ fell in with the _Minerva_, 32, Captain Richard Hawkins,
convoying seven transports, each containing about 200 troops, bound
from Barbadoes to Quebec. The convoy was sailing in open order,
and, there being a dull moon, the _Essex_ ran in and cut out
transport No. 299, with 197 soldiers aboard. Having taken out the
soldiers, Captain Porter stood back to the convoy, expecting
Captain Hawkins to come out and fight him; but this the latter
would not do, keeping the convoy in close order around him. The
transports were all armed and still contained in the aggregate
1,200 soldiers. As the _Essex_ could only fight at close quarters
these heavy odds rendered it hopeless for her to try to cut out
the _Minerva_. Her carronades would have to be used at short range
to be effective, and it would of course have been folly to run in
right among the convoy, and expose herself to the certainty of
being boarded by five times as many men as she possessed. The
_Minerva_ had three less guns a side, and on her spar-deck carried
24-pound carronades instead of 32's, and, moreover, had fifty men
less than the _Essex_, which had about 270 men this cruise; on the
other hand, her main-deck was armed with long 12's, so that it is
hard to say whether she did right or not in refusing to fight. She
was of the same force as the _Southampton_ whose captain, Sir James
Lucas Yeo, subsequently challenged Porter, but never appointed a
meeting-place. In the event of a meeting, the advantage, in ships
of such radically different armaments, would have been with that
captain who succeeded in outmanoeuvring the other and in making
the fight come off at the distance best suited to himself. At long
range either the _Minerva_ or _Southampton_ would possess an immense
superiority; but if Porter could have contrived to run up within
a couple of hundred yards, or still better, to board, his superiority
in weight of metal and number of men would have enabled him to carry
either of them. Porter's crew was better trained for boarding than
almost any other American commander's; and probably none of the
British frigates on the American station, except the _Shannon_ and
_Tenedos_, would have stood a chance with the _Essex_ in a
hand-to-hand struggle. Among her youngest midshipmen was one, by
name David Glasgow Farragut, then but thirteen years old, who
afterward became the first and greatest admiral of the United States.
His own words on this point will be read with interest. "Every
day," he says, [Footnote: "Life of Farragut" (embodying his journal
and letters), p. 31. By his son, Loyall Farragut, New York. 1879.]
"the crew were exercised at the great guns, small arms, and single
stick. And I may here mention the fact that I have never been on
a ship where the crew of the old _Essex_ was represented but that
I found them to be the best swordsmen on board. They had been so
thoroughly trained as boarders that every man was prepared for
such an emergency, with his cutlass as sharp as a razor, a dirk
made by the ship's armorer out of a file, and a pistol." [Footnote:
James says: "Had Captain Porter really endeavored to bring the
_Minerva_ to action we do not see what could have prevented the
_Essex_ with her superiority of sailing, from coming alongside of
her. But no such thought, we are sure, entered into Captain Porter's
head." What "prevented the _Essex_" was the _Minerva's_ not
venturing out of the convoy. Farragut, in his journal writes: "The
captured British officers were very anxious for us to have a fight
with the _Minerva_, as they considered her a good match for the
_Essex_, and Captain Porter replied that he should gratify them
with pleasure if his majesty's commander was of their taste. So
we stood toward the convoy and when within gunshot hove to, and
awaited the _Minerva_, but she tacked and stood in among the convoy,
to the utter amazement of our prisoners, who denounced the commander
as a base coward, and expressed their determination to report him
to the Admiralty." An incident of reported "flinching" like this
is not worth mentioning; I allude to it only to show the value of
James' sneers.]
On August 13th a sail was made out to windward, which proved to be
the British ship-sloop _Alert_, 16, Captain T. L. O. Laugharne,
carrying 20 eighteen-pound carronades and 100 men. [Footnote:
James (History, vi, p. 128) says "86 men." In the Naval Archives
at Washington in the "Captains' Letters" for 1812 (vol. n. No.
182) can be found enclosed in Porter's letter the parole of the
officers and crew of the _Alert_ signed by Captain Laugharne; it
contains either 100 or 101 names of the crew of the _Alert_ besides
those of a number of other prisoners sent back in the same cartel.]
As soon as the _Essex_ discovered the _Alert_ she put out drags
astern, and led the enemy to believe she was trying to escape by
sending a few men aloft to shake out the reefs and make sail.
Concluding the frigate to be a merchant-man, the _Alert_ bore down
on her; while the Americans went to quarters and cleared for action,
although the tompions were left in the guns, and the ports kept
closed. [Footnote: "Life of Farragut," p. 16.] The _Alert_ fired
a gun and the _Essex_ hove to, when the former passed under her
stern, and when on her lee quarter poured in a broadside of grape
and canister; but the sloop was so far abaft the frigate's beam
that her shot did not enter the ports and caused no damage.
Thereupon Porter put up his helm and opened as soon as his guns
would bear, tompions and all. The _Alert_ now discovered her error
and made off, but too late, for in eight minutes the _Essex_ was
along side, and the _Alert_ fired a musket and struck, three men
being wounded and several feet of water in the hold. She was
disarmed and sent as a cartel into St. Johns. It has been the
fashion among American writers to speak of her as if she were
"unworthily" given up, but such an accusation is entirely
groundless. The _Essex_ was four times her force, and all that
could possibly be expected of her was to do as she did--exchange
broadsides and strike, having suffered some loss and damage. The
_Essex_ returned to New York on September 7th, having made 10
prizes, containing 423 men. [Footnote: Before entering New York
the _Essex_ fell in with a British force which, in both Porter's
and Farragut's works, is said to have been composed of the
_Acasta_ and _Shannon_, each of fifty guns, and _Ringdove_, of
twenty. James says it was the _Shannon_, accompanied by a merchant
vessel. It is not a point of much importance, as nothing came of
the meeting, and the _Shannon_, alone, with her immensely superior
armament, ought to have been a match twice over for the _Essex_:
although, if James is right, as seems probable, it gives rather a
comical turn to Porter's account of his "extraordinary escape."]
The _Belvidera_, as has been stated, carried the news of the war
to Halifax. On July 5th Vice-Admiral Sawyer despatched a squadron
to cruise against the United States, commanded by Philip Vere
Broke, of the _Shannon_, 38, having under him the _Belvidera_, 36,
Captain Richard Byron, _Africa_, 64, Captain John Bastard, and
_Aeolus_. 32, Captain Lord James Townsend. On the 9th, while off
Nantucket, they were joined by the _Guerrière_, 38, Captain James
Richard Dacres. On the 16th the squadron fell in with and captured
the United States brig _Nautilus_, 14, Lieutenant Crane, which,
like all the little brigs, was overloaded with guns and men. She
threw her lee guns overboard and made use of every expedient to
escape, but to no purpose. At 3 P.M. of the following day, when
the British ships were abreast of Barnegat, about four leagues
off shore, a strange sail was seen and immediately chased, in the
south by east, or windward quarter, standing to the northeast.
This was the United States frigate _Constitution_, 44, Captain
Isaac Hull. [Footnote: For the ensuing chase I have relied mainly
on Cooper; see also "Memoir of Admiral Broke," p. 240; James, vi,
133: and Marshall's "Naval Biography" (London, 1825), ii. 625.]
When the war broke out he was in the Chesapeake River getting a
new crew aboard. Having shipped over 450 men (counting officers),
he put out of harbor on the 12th of July. His crew was entirely
new, drafts of men coming on board up to the last moment. [Footnote:
In a letter to the Secretary of the Navy ("Captains' Letters."
1812. ii, No. 85), Hull, after speaking of the way his men were
arriving, says: "The crew are as yet unacquainted with a ship of
war, as many have but lately joined and have never been on an
armed ship before. * * * We are doing all that we can to make
them acquainted with their duty, and in a few days we shall have
nothing to fear from any single-decked ship."] On the 17th, at
2 P.M., Hull discovered four sail, in the northern board, heading
to the westward. At 3, the wind being very light, the _Constitution_
made sail and tacked, in 18-1/2 fathoms. At 4, in the N. E., a
fifth sail appeared, which afterward proved to be the _Guerrière_,
The first four ships bore N. N. W., and were all on the starboard
tack; while by 6 o'clock the fifth bore E. N. E. At 6.15 the
wind shifted and blew lightly from the south, bringing the American
ship to wind-ward. She then wore round with her head to the
eastward, set her light studding-sails and stay-sails, and at
7.30 beat to action, intending to speak the nearest vessel, the
_Guerrière_. The two frigates neared one another gradually and at
10 the _Constitution_ began making signals, which she continued
for over an hour. At 3.30 A. M. on the 18th the _Guerrière_, going
gradually toward the _Constitution_ on the port tack, and but
one half mile distant, discovered on her lee beam the _Belvidera_
and the other British vessels, and signalled to them. They did
not answer the signals, thinking she must know who they were--a
circumstance which afterward gave rise to sharp recriminations
among the captains--and Dacres, concluding them to be Commodore
Rodgers' squadron, tacked, and then wore round and stood away
from the _Constitution_ for some time before discovering his mistake.
[Illustration: Captain Isaac Hull: a miniature by an unknown artist,
circa 1807-1812. (Courtesy The New-York Historical Society)]
At 5 A. M. Hull had just enough steerage way on to keep his head
to the east, on the starboard tack; on his lee quarter, bearing
N. E. by N., were the _Belvidera_ and _Guerrière_ and astern the
_Shannon_, _Aeolus_, and _Africa_. At 5.30 it fell entirely calm,
and Hull put out his boats to tow the ship, always going southward.
At the same time he whipped up a 24 from the main-deck, and got
the forecastlechaser aft, cutting away the taffrail to give the
two guns more freedom to work in and also running out, through
the cabin windows, two of the long main-deck 24's. The British
boats were towing also. At 6 A. M. a light breeze sprang up, and
the _Constitution_ set studding-sails and stay-sails; the _Shannon_
opened at her with her bow guns, but ceased when she found she
could not reach her. At 6.30, the wind having died away, the
_Shannon_ began to gain, almost all the boats of the squadron
towing her. Having sounded in 26 fathoms, Lieutenant Charles
Morris suggested to Hull to try kedging. All the spare rope was
bent on to the cables, payed out into the cutters, and a kedge
run out half a mile ahead and let go; then the crew clapped on
and walked away with the ship, overrunning and tripping the kedge
as she came up with the end of the line. Meanwhile, fresh lines
and another kedge were carried ahead, and the frigate glided away
from her pursuers. At 7.30 A. M. a little breeze sprang up, when
the _Constitution_ set her ensign and fired a shot at the _Shannon_.
It soon fell calm again and the _Shannon_ neared. At 9.10 a light
air from the southward struck the ship, bringing her to windward.
As the breeze was seen coming, her sails were trimmed, and as soon
as she obeyed her helm she was brought close up on the port tack.
The boats dropped in alongside; those that belonged to the davits
were run up, while the others were just lifted clear of water, by
purchases on the spare spars, stowed outboard, where they could be
used again at a minute's notice. Meanwhile, on her lee beam, the
_Guerrière_ opened fire; but her shot fell short, and the Americans
paid not the slightest heed to it. Soon it again fell calm, when
Hull had 2000 gallons of water started, and again put out his boats
to tow. The _Shannon_ with some of the other boats of the squadron
helping her, gained on the _Constitution_ but by severe exertion
was again left behind. Shortly afterward, a slight wind springing
up, the _Belvidera_ gained on the other British ships, and when it
fell calm she was nearer to the _Constitution_ than any of her
consorts, their boats being put on to her. [Footnote: Cooper speaks
as if this was the _Shannon_; but from Marshall's "Naval Biography"
we learn that it was the _Belvidera_. At other times he confuses
the _Belvidera_ with the _Guerrière_. Captain Hull, of course,
could not accurately distinguish the names of his pursuers. My
account is drawn from a careful comparison of Marshall, Cooper,
and James. ] At 10.30, observing the benefit that the _Constitution_
had derived from warping, Captain Byron did the same, bending all
his hawsers to one another, and working two kedge anchors at the
same time by paying the warp out through one hawse-hole as it was
run in through the other opposite. Having men from the other frigates
aboard, and a lighter ship to work, Captain Byron at 2 P. M. was
near enough to exchange bow--and stern-chasers with the
_Constitution_, out of range however. Hull expected to be overtaken,
and made every arrangement to try in such case to disable the
first frigate before her consorts could close. But neither the
_Belvidera_ nor the _Shannon_ dared to tow very near for fear of
having their boats sunk by the American's stern-chasers.
The _Constitution's_ crew showed the most excellent spirit. Officers
and men relieved each other regularly, the former snatching their
rest any where on deck, the latter sleeping at the guns. Gradually
the _Constitution_ drew ahead, but the situation continued most
critical. All through the afternoon the British frigates kept
towing and kedging, being barely out of gunshot. At 3 P. M. a light
breeze sprung up, and blew fitfully at intervals; every puff was
watched closely and taken advantage of to the utmost. At 7 in the
evening the wind almost died out, and for four more weary hours
the worn-out sailors towed and kedged. At 10.45 a little breeze
struck the frigate, when the boats dropped alongside and were
hoisted up, excepting the first cutter. Throughout the night the
wind continued very light, the _Belvidera_ forging ahead till she
was off the _Constitution's_ lee beam; and at 4 A. M., on the
morning of the 19th, she tacked to the eastward, the breeze being
light from the south by east. At 4.20 the _Constitution_ tacked
also; and at 5.15 the _Aeolus_, which had drawn ahead, passed on
the contrary tack. Soon afterward the wind freshened so that
Captain Hull took in his cutter. The _Africa_ was now so far to
leeward as to be almost out of the race; while the five frigates
were all running on the starboard tack with every stitch of canvas
set. At 9 A. M. an American merchant-man hove in sight and bore
down toward the squadron. The _Belvidera_, by way of decoy,
hoisted American colors, when the _Constitution_ hoisted the
British flag, and the merchant vessel hauled off. The breeze
continued light till noon, when Hull found he had dropped the
British frigates well behind; the nearest was the _Belvidera_,
exactly in his wake, bearing W. N. W. 2 1/2 miles distant. The
_Shannon_ was on his lee, bearing N. by W. 1/2 W. distant 3 1/2
miles. The other two frigates were five miles off on the lee quarter.
Soon afterward the breeze freshened, and "old Ironsides" drew
slowly ahead from her foes, her sails being watched and tended with
the most consummate skill. At 4 P. M. the breeze again lightened,
but even the _Belvidera_ was now four miles astern and to leeward.
At 6.45 there were indications of a heavy rain squall, which once
more permitted Hull to show that in seamanship he excelled even
the able captains against whom he was pitted. The crew were
stationed and every thing kept fast till the last minute, when
all was clewed up just before the squall struck the ship. The
light canvas was furled, a second reef taken in the mizzen top-sail,
and the ship almost instantly brought under short sail. The British
vessels seeing this began to let go and haul down without waiting
for the wind, and were steering on different tacks when the first
gust struck them. But Hull as soon as he got the weight of the
wind sheeted home, hoisted his fore and main-top gallant sails,
and went off on an easy bowline at the rate of 11 knots. At 7.40
sight was again obtained of the enemy, the squall having passed
to leeward; the _Belvidera_, the nearest vessel, had altered her
bearings two points to leeward, and was a long way astern. Next
came the _Shannon_; the _Guerrière_ and _Aeolus_ were hull down,
and the _Africa_ barely visible. The wind now kept light, shifting
occasionally in a very baffling manner, but the _Constitution_
gained steadily, wetting her sails from the sky-sails to the
courses. At 6 A. M., on the morning of the 20th the pursuers were
almost out of sight; and at 8.15 A. M. they abandoned the chase.
Hull at once stopped to investigate the character of two strange
vessels, but found them to be only Americans; then, at midday,
he stood toward the east, and went into Boston on July 26th.
In this chase Captain Isaac Hull was matched against five British
captains, two of whom, Broke and Byron, were fully equal to any
in their navy; and while the latter showed great perseverance,
good seamanship, and ready imitation, there can be no doubt that
the palm in every way belongs to the cool old Yankee. Every daring
expedient known to the most perfect seamanship was tried, and tried
with success; and no victorious fight could reflect more credit on
the conqueror than this three days' chase did on Hull. Later, on
two occasions, the _Constitution_ proved herself far superior in
gunnery to the average British frigate; this time her officers and
men showed that they could handle the sails as well as they could
the guns. Hull out-manoeuvred Broke and Byron as cleverly as a
month later he out-fought Dacres. His successful escape and victorious
fight were both performed in a way that place him above any single
ship captain of war.
On Aug. 2d the _Constitution_ made sail from Boston [Footnote:
Letter of Capt. Isaac Hull, Aug. 28, 1812.] and stood to the
eastward, in hopes of falling in with some of the British cruisers.
She was unsuccessful, however, and met nothing. Then she ran down
to the Bay of Fundy, steered along the coast of Nova Scotia,
and thence toward Newfoundland, and finally took her station off
Cape Race in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, where she took and burned
two brigs of little value. On the 15th she recaptured an American
brig from the British ship-sloop _Avenger_, though the latter
escaped; Capt. Hull manned his prize and sent her in. He then
sailed southward, and on the night of the 18th spoke a Salem
privateer which gave him news of a British frigate to the south;
thither he stood, and at 2 P. M. on the 19th, in lat. 41° 30' N.
and 55° W., made out a large sail bearing E. S. E. and to leeward,
[Footnote: Letter of Capt. Isaac Hull, Aug. 30, 1812.] which proved
to be his old acquaintance, the frigate _Guerrière_, Captain Dacres.
It was a cloudy day and the wind was blowing fresh from the
northwest. The _Guerrière_ was standing by the wind on the
starboard tack, under easy canvas; [Footnote: Letter of Capt. James
R. Dacres, Sept. 7, 1812.] she hauled up her courses, took in her
top-gallant sails, and at 4.30 backed her main-top sail. Hull then
very deliberately began to shorten sail, taking in top-gallant sails,
stay-sails, and flying jib, sending down the royal yards and putting
another reef in the top-sails. Soon the Englishman hoisted three
ensigns, when the American also set his colors, one at each
mast-head, and one at the mizzen peak.
The _Constitution_ now ran down with the wind nearly aft. The
_Guerrière_ was on the starboard tack, and at five o'clock opened
with her weather-guns, [Footnote: Log of _Guerrière_.] the shot
falling short, then wore round and fired her port broadside, of
which two shot struck her opponent, the rest passing over and
through her rigging. [Footnote: See in the Naval Archives (Bureau
of Navigation) the _Constitution's_ Log-Book (vol. ii, from Feb. 1,
1812, to Dec. 13, 1813). The point is of some little importance
because Hull, in his letter, speaks as if both the first broadsides
fell short, whereas the log distinctly says that the second went
over the ship, except two shot, which came home. The hypothesis of
the _Guerrière_ having damaged powder was founded purely on this
supposed falling short of the first two broadsides.] As the British
frigate again wore to open with her starboard battery, the
_Constitution_ yawed a little and fired two or three of her port
bow-guns. Three or four times the _Guerrière_ repeated this
manoeuvre, wearing and firing alternate broadsides, but with little
or no effect, while the _Constitution_ yawed as often to avoid
being raked, and occasionally fired one of her bow guns. This
continued nearly an hour, as the vessels were very far apart when
the action began, hardly any loss or damage being inflicted by either
party. At 6.00 the _Guerrière_ bore up and ran off under her
top-sails and jib, with the wind almost astern, a little on her
port quarter; when the _Constitution_ set her main-top gallant sail
and foresail, and at 6.05 closed within half pistol-shot distance
on her adversary's port beam. [Footnote: "Autobiography of Commodore
Morris" (Annapolis, 1880), p. 164.] Immediately a furious cannonade
opened, each ship firing as the guns bore. By the time the ships
were fairly abreast, at 6.20, the _Constitution_ shot away the
_Guerrière's_ mizzen-mast, which fell over the starboard quarter,
knocking a large hole in the counter, and bringing the ship round
against her helm. Hitherto she had suffered very greatly and the
_Constitution_ hardly at all. The latter, finding that she was ranging
ahead, put her helm aport and then luffed short round her enemy's
bows, [Footnote: Log of _Constitution_.] delivering a heavy raking
fire with the starboard guns and shooting away the _Guerrière's_
main-yard. Then she wore and again passed her adversary's bows,
raking with her port guns. The mizzen-mast of the _Guerrière_,
dragging in the water, had by this time pulled her bow round till
the wind came on her starboard quarter; and so near were the two
ships that the Englishman's bowsprit passed diagonally over the
_Constitution's_ quarter-deck, and as the latter ship fell off it
got foul of her mizzen-rigging, and the vessels then lay with the
_Guerrière's_ starboard bow against the _Constitution's_ port, or
lee quarter-gallery. [Footnote: Cooper, in "Putnam's Magazine."
i. 475.] The Englishman's bow guns played havoc with Captain Hull's
cabin, setting fire to it; but the flames were soon extinguished
by Lieutenant Hoffmann. On both sides the boarders were called
away; the British ran forward, but Captain Dacres relinquished
the idea of attacking [Footnote: Address of Captain Dacres to the
court-martial at Halifax.] when he saw the crowds of men on the
American's decks. Meanwhile, on the _Constitution_, the boarders
and marines gathered aft, but such a heavy sea was running that
they could not get on the _Guerrière_. Both sides suffered heavily
from the closeness of the musketry fire; indeed, almost the entire
loss on the _Constitution_ occurred at this juncture. As Lieutenant
Bush, of the marines, sprang upon the taffrail to leap on the
enemy's decks, a British marine shot him dead; Mr. Morris, the
first Lieutenant, and Mr. Alwyn, the master, had also both leaped
on the taffrail, and both were at the same moment wounded by the
musketry fire. On the _Guerrière_ the loss was far heavier, almost
all the men on the forecastle being picked off. Captain Dacres
himself was shot in the back and severely wounded by one of the
American mizzen topmen, while he was standing on the starboard
forecastle hammocks cheering on his crew [Footnote: James, vi,
144.]; two of the lieutenants and the master were also shot down.
The ships gradually worked round till the wind was again on the
port quarter, when they separated, and the _Guerrière's_ foremast
and main-mast at once went by the board, and fell over on the
starboard side, leaving her a defenseless hulk, rolling her
main-deck guns into the water. [Footnote: Brenton, v, 51.] At
6.30 the _Constitution_ hauled aboard her tacks, ran off a little
distance to the eastward, and lay to. Her braces and standing and
running rigging were much cut up and some of the spars wounded,
but a few minutes sufficed to repair damages, when Captain Hull
stood under his adversary's lee, and the latter at once struck,
at 7.00 P. M., [Footnote: Log of the _Constitution_.] just two
hours after she had fired the first shot. On the part of the
_Constitution_, however, the actual fighting, exclusive of six
or eight guns fired during the first hour, while closing, occupied
less than 30 minutes.
[Illustration: _Constitution_ vs. _Guerrière_ (1): "The Engagement"
is the original title of this, the first in a series of four
paintings of the action done for Captain Hull by Michele F. Corné.
(Courtesy US. Naval Academy Museum)]
[Illustration: _Constitution_ vs. _Guerrière_ (2): "In Action."
The _Guerrière's_ mizzenmast goes down. (Courtesy U.S. Naval
Academy Museum)]
[Illustration: _Constitution_ vs. _Guerrière_ (3): "Dropping
Astern." The _Guerrière's_ mainmast and foremast follow. (Courtesy
U.S. Naval Academy Museum)]
[Illustration: _Constitution_ vs. _Guerrière_ (4): "She Fell in
the Sea, A Perfect Wreck." The puff of smoke over the _Guerrière's_
bow is from a gun being fired to leeward to signal her surrender,
the customary practice when a vessel no longer had a flag to strike.
(Courtesy New Haven Historical Society)]
The tonnage and metal of the combatants have already been referred
to. The _Constitution_ had, as already said, about 456 men aboard,
while of the _Guerrière's_ crew, 267 prisoners were received aboard
the _Constitution_; deducting 10 who were Americans and would not
fight, and adding the 15 killed outright, we get 272; 28 men were
absent in prizes.
COMPARATIVE FORCE
Comparative
Broad- Comparative loss
Tons Guns side Men Loss Force Inflicted
_Constitution_ 1576 27 684 456 14 1.00 1.00
_Guerrière_ 1338 25 556 272 79 .70 .18
The loss of the _Constitution_ included Lieutenant William S. Bush,
of the marines, and six seamen killed, and her first lieutenant,
Charles Morris, Master, John C. Alwyn, four seamen, and one marine,
wounded. Total, seven killed and seven wounded. Almost all this
loss occurred when the ships came foul, and was due to the
_Guerrière's_ musketry and the two guns in her bridle-ports.
The _Guerrière_ lost 23 killed and mortally wounded, including her
second lieutenant, Henry Ready, and 56 wounded severely and slightly,
including Captain Dacres himself, the first lieutenant, Bartholomew
Kent, Master, Robert Scott, two master's mates, and one midshipman.
The third lieutenant of the _Constitution_, Mr. George Campbell
Read, was sent on board the prize, and the _Constitution_ remained
by her during the night; but at daylight it was found that she was
in danger of sinking. Captain Hull at once began removing the
prisoners, and at three o'clock in the afternoon set the _Guerrière_
on fire, and in a quarter of an hour she blew up. He then set sail
for Boston, where he arrived on August 30th. "Captain Hull and his
officers," writes Captain Dacres in his official letter, "have treated
us like brave and generous enemies; the greatest care has been taken
that we should not lose the smallest trifle."
The British laid very great stress on the rotten and decayed
condition of the _Guerrière_; mentioning in particular that the
mainmast fell solely because of the weight of the falling foremast.
But it must be remembered that until the action occurred she was
considered a very fine ship. Thus, in Brighton's "Memoir of Admiral
Broke," it is declared that Dacres freely expressed the opinion
that she could take a ship in half the time the _Shannon_ could.
The fall of the main-mast occurred when the fight was practically
over; it had no influence whatever on the conflict. It was also
asserted that her powder was bad, but on no authority; her first
broadside fell short, but so, under similar circumstances, did the
first broadside of the _United States_. None of these causes account
for the fact that her shot did not hit. Her opponent was of such
superior force--nearly in the proportion of 3 to 2--that success
would have been very difficult in any event, and no one can doubt
the gallantry and pluck with which the British ship was fought; but
the execution was very greatly disproportioned to the force. The
gunnery of the _Guerrière_ was very poor, and that of the
_Constitution_ excellent; during the few minutes the ships were
yard-arm and yard-arm; the latter was not hulled once, while no
less than 30 shot took effect on the former's engaged side,
[Footnote: Captain Dacres' address to the court-martial.] five
sheets of copper beneath the bends. The _Guerrière_, moreover,
was out-manoeuvred; "in wearing several times and exchanging
broadsides in such rapid and continual changes of position, her
fire was much more harmless than it would have been if she had
kept more steady." [Footnote: Lord Howard Douglass, "Treatise on
Naval Gunnery" (London, 1851), p. 454.] The _Constitution_ was
handled faultlessly; Captain Hull displayed the coolness and skill
of a veteran in the way in which he managed, first to avoid being
raked, and then to improve the advantage which the precision and
rapidity of his fire had gained. "After making every allowance
claimed by the enemy, the character of this victory is not essentially
altered. Its peculiarities were a fine display of seamanship in the
approach, extraordinary efficiency in the attack, and great readiness
in repairing damages; all of which denote cool and capable officers,
with an expert and trained crew; in a word, a disciplined man-of-war."
[Footnote: Cooper, ii. 173.] The disparity of force, 10 to 7, is
not enough to account for the disparity of execution, 10 to 2. Of
course, something must be allowed for the decayed state of the
Englishman's masts, although I really do not think it had any
influence on the battle, for he was beaten when the main mast fell;
and it must be remembered, on the other hand, that the American
crew was absolutely new, while the _Guerrière_ was manned by old
hands. So that, while admitting and admiring the gallantry, and,
on the whole, the seamanship of Captain Dacres and his crew, and
acknowledging that he fought at a great disadvantage, especially
in being short-handed, yet all must acknowledge that the combat
showed a marked superiority, particularly in gunnery, on the part
of the Americans. Had the ships not come foul, Captain Hull would
probably not have lost more than three or four men; as it was, he
suffered but slightly. That the _Guerrière_ was not so weak as she
was represented to be can be gathered from the fact that she mounted
two more main-deck guns than the rest of her class; thus carrying
on her main-deck 30 long 18-pounders in battery, to oppose to the
30 long 24's, or rather (allowing for the short weight of shot)
long 22's, of the _Constitution_. Characteristically enough, James,
though he carefully reckons in the long bow-chasers in the
bridle-ports of the _Argus_ and _Enterprise_, yet refuses to count
the two long eighteens mounted through the bridle-ports on the
_Guerrière's_ main-deck. Now, as it turned out, these two bow guns
were used very effectively, when the ships got foul, and caused
more damage and loss than all of the other main-deck guns put together.
[Illustration: This diagram is taken from Commodore Morris'
autobiography and the log of the _Guerrière_: the official accounts
apparently consider "larboard" and "starboard" as interchangeable
terms.]
Captain Dacres, very much to his credit, allowed the ten Americans
on board to go below, so as not to fight against their flag; and
in his address to the court-martial mentions, among the reasons
for his defeat, "that he was very much weakened by permitting the
Americans on board to quit their quarters." Coupling this with the
assertion made by James and most other British writers that the
_Constitution_ was largely manned by Englishmen, we reach the
somewhat remarkable conclusion, that the British ship was defeated
because the Americans on board would _not_ fight against their
country, and that the American was victorious because the British
on board _would_. However, as I have shown, in reality there were
probably not a score of British on board the _Constitution_.
In this, as well as the two succeeding frigate actions, every one
must admit that there was a great superiority in force on the side
of the victors, and British historians have insisted that this
superiority was so great as to preclude any hopes of a successful
resistance. That this was not true, and that the disparity between
the combatants was not as great as had been the case in a number of
encounters in which English frigates had taken French ones, can be
best shown by a few accounts taken from the French historian Troude,
who would certainly not exaggerate the difference. Thus on March 1,
1799, the English 38-gun 18-pounder frigate _Sybille_, captured the
French 44-gun 24-pounder frigate _Forte_, after an action of two
hours and ten minutes. [Footnote: "Batailles Navales de la France."
O. Troude (Paris, 1868), iv, 171.] In _actual_ weight the shot
thrown by one of the main-deck guns of the defeated _Forte_ was
over six pounds heavier than the shot thrown by one of the main-deck
guns of the victorious _Constitution_ or _United States_. [Footnote:
See Appendix B, for actual weight of French shot.]
There are later examples than this. But a very few years before
the declaration of war by the United States, and in the same
struggle that was then still raging, there had been at least two
victories gained by English frigates over French foes as superior
to themselves as the American 44's were to the British ships they
captured. On Aug. 10, 1805, the _Phoenix_, 36, captured the _Didon_,
40, after 3 1/2 hours' fighting, the comparative broadside force
being: [Footnote: Ibid., lii, 425.]
_PHOENIX_ _DIDON_
13×18 14×18
2× 9 2× 8
6×32 7×36
----------------- -----------------
21 guns, 444 lbs. 23 guns, 522 lbs.
(nominal; about
600, real)
On March 8, 1808, the _San Florenzo_, 36, captured the _Piedmontaise_,
40, the force being exactly what it was in the case of the _Phoenix_
and Didon.[Footnote: Ibid., in, 499.] Comparing the real, not the
nominal weight of metal, we find that the _Didon_ and _Piedmontaise_
were proportionately of greater force compared to the _Phoenix_
and _San Florenzo_, than the _Constitution_ was compared to the
_Guerrière_ or _Java_. The French 18's threw each a shot weighing
but about two pounds less than that thrown by an American 24 of
1812, while their 36-pound carronades each threw a shot over 10
pounds heavier than that thrown by one of the _Constitution's_
spar-deck 32's.
That a 24-pounder can not always whip an 18-pounder frigate is
shown by the action of the British frigate _Eurotas_ with the
French frigate _Chlorinde_, on Feb. 25, 1814. [Footnote: James,
vi, 391.] The first with a crew of 329 men threw 625 pounds of
shot at a broadside, the latter carrying 344 men and throwing 463
pounds; yet the result was indecisive. The French lost 90 and the
British 60 men. The action showed that heavy metal was not of much
use unless used well.
To appreciate rightly the exultation Hull's victory caused in the
United States, and the intense annoyance it created in England, it
must be remembered that during the past twenty years the Island
Power had been at war with almost every state in Europe, at one
time or another, and in the course of about two hundred single
conflicts between ships of approximately equal force (that is, where
the difference was less than one half), waged against French, Spanish,
Italian, Turkish, Algerine, Russian, Danish, and Dutch antagonists,
her ships had been beaten and captured in but five instances. Then
war broke out with America, and in eight months five single-ship
actions occurred, in every one of which the British vessel was
captured. Even had the victories been due solely to superior force
this would have been no mean triumph for the United States.
On October 13, 1812, the American 18-gun ship-sloop _Wasp_, Captain
Jacob Jones, with 137 men aboard, sailed from the Delaware and ran
off southeast to get into the track of the West India vessels; on
the 16th a heavy gale began to blow, causing the loss of the
jib-boom and two men who were on it. The next day the weather
moderated somewhat, and at 11.30 P.M., in latitude 37° N., longitude
65° W., several sail were descried. [Footnote: Capt. Jones' official
letter, Nov. 24, 1812.] These were part of a convoy of 14
merchant-men which had quitted the bay of Honduras on September
12th, bound for England, [Footnote: James' History, vi, 158.] under
the convoy of the British 18-gun brig-sloop _Frolic_, of 19 guns
and 110 men, Captain Thomas Whinyates. They had been dispersed by
the gale of the 16th, during which the _Frolic's_ main-yard was
carried away and both her top-sails torn to pieces [Footnote: Capt.
Whinyates' official letter, Oct. 18, 1812.]; next day she spent in
repairing damages, and by dark six of the missing ships had joined
her. The day broke almost cloudless on the 18th (Sunday), showing
the convoy, ahead and to leeward of the American ship, still some
distance off, as Captain Jones had not thought it prudent to close
during the night, while he was ignorant of the force of his antagonists.
The _Wasp_ now sent down to her top-gallant yards, close reefed her
top-sails, and bore down under short fighting canvas; while the
_Frolic_ removed her main-yard from the casks, lashed it on deck,
and then hauled to the wind under her boom main-sail and close-reefed
foretop-sail, hoisting Spanish colors to decoy the stranger under
her guns, and permit the convoy to escape. At 11.32 the action
began--the two ships running parallel on the starboard tack, not
60 yards apart, the _Wasp_, firing her port, and the _Frolic_ her
starboard, guns. The latter fired very rapidly, delivering three
broadsides to the _Wasp's_ two, [Footnote: Cooper, 182.] both crews
cheering loudly as the ships wallowed through the water. There was
a very heavy sea running, which caused the vessels to pitch and
roll heavily. The Americans fired as the engaged side of their ship
was going down, aiming at their opponent's hull [Footnote: Miles'
Register, in, p. 324.]; while the British delivered their broadsides
while on the crests of the seas, the shot going high. The water
dashed in clouds of spray over both crews, and the vessels rolled
so that the muzzles of the guns went under. [Footnote: _Do_.] But
in spite of the rough weather, the firing was not only spirited
but well directed. At 11.36 the _Wasp's_ maintop-mast was shot
away and fell, with its yard, across the port fore and foretop-sail
braces, rendering the head yards unmanageable; at 11.46 the gaff
and mizzentop-gallant mast came down, and by 11.52 every brace and
most of the rigging was shot away. [Footnote: Capt. Jones' letter.]
It would now have been very difficult to brace any of the yards.
But meanwhile the _Frolic_ suffered dreadfully in her hull and lower
masts, and had her gaff and head braces shot away.[Footnote: Capt.
Whinyates' letter.] The slaughter among her crew was very great,
but the survivors kept at their work with the dogged courage of
their race. At first the two vessels ran side by side, but the
American gradually forged ahead, throwing in her fire from a
position in which she herself received little injury; by degrees
the vessels got so close that the Americans struck the _Frolic's_
side with their rammers in loading, [Footnote: Capt. Jones' letter.]
and the British brig was raked with dreadful effect. The Frolic
then fell aboard her antagonist, her jib-boom coming in between
the main- and mizzen-rigging of the _Wasp_ and passing over the
heads of Captain Jones and Lieutenant Biddle, who were standing
near the capstan. This forced the _Wasp_ up in the wind, and she
again raked her antagonist, Captain Jones trying to restrain his
men from boarding till he could put in another broadside. But they
could no longer be held back, and Jack Lang, a New Jersey seaman,
leaped on the _Frolic's_ bowsprit. Lieutenant Biddle then mounted
on the hammock cloth to board, but his feet got entangled in the
rigging, and one of the midshipmen seizing his coat-tails to help
himself up, the lieutenant tumbled back on the deck. At the next
swell he succeeded in getting on the bowsprit, on which there were
already two seamen whom he passed on the forecastle. But there was
no one to oppose him; not twenty Englishmen were left unhurt.
[Footnote: Capt. Whinyates' letter.] The man at the wheel was still
at his post, grim and undaunted, and two or three more were on deck,
including Captain Whinyates and Lieutenant Wintle, both so severely
wounded that they could not stand without support. [Footnote: James,
vi, 161.] There could be no more resistance, and Lieutenant Biddle
lowered the flag at 12.15--just 43 minutes after the beginning of
the fight. [Footnote: Capt. Jones' letter.] A minute or two afterward
both the _Frolic's_ masts went by the board--the foremast about
fifteen feet above the deck, the other short off. Of her crew, as
already said, not twenty men had escaped unhurt. Every officer was
wounded; two of them, the first lieutenant, Charles McKay, and
master, John Stephens, soon died. Her total loss was thus over
90 [Footnote: Capt. Whinyates' official letter thus states it, and
is, of course, to be taken as authority; the Bermuda account makes
it 69, and James only 62;] about 30 of whom were killed outright
or died later. The _Wasp_ suffered very severely in her rigging
and aloft generally, but only two or three shots struck her hull;
five of her men were killed--two in her mizzen-top and one in her
maintop-mast rigging--and five wounded, [Footnote: Capt. Jones'
letter.] chiefly while aloft.
[Illustration: _Wasp_ vs. _Frolic_: a contemporary painting by
Thomas Birch, believed to have been done for the _Wasp's_ captain,
James Biddle. (Courtesy Peabody Museum of Salem)]
The two vessels were practically of equal force. The loss of the
_Frolic's_ main-yard had merely converted her into a brigantine,
and, as the roughness of the sea made it necessary to fight under
very short canvas, her inferiority in men was fully compensated for
by her superiority in metal. She had been desperately defended; no
men could have fought more bravely than Captain Whinyates and his
crew. On the other hand, the Americans had done their work with a
coolness and skill that could not be surpassed; the contest had
been mainly one of gunnery, and had been decided by the greatly
superior judgment and accuracy with which they fired. Both officers
and crew had behaved well; Captain Jones particularly mentions
Lieutenant Claxton, who, though too ill to be of any service,
persisted in remaining on deck throughout the engagement.
The _Wasp_ was armed with 2 long 12's and 16 32-pound carronades;
the _Frolic_ with 2 long 6's, 16 32-pound carronades, and 1 shifting
12-pound carronade.
COMPARATIVE FORCE.
Tons. No. Guns. Weight Metal. Crews. Loss.
_Wasp_ 450 9 250 135 10
_Frolic_ 467 10 274 110 90
Vice-Admiral Jurien de la Gravière comments on this action as
follows [Footnote: "Guerres Maritimes," ii, 287 (Septième Édition,
Paris, 1881).]:
DIAGRAM [Footnote: It is difficult to reconcile the accounts of
the manoeuvres in this action. James says "larboard" where Cooper
says "starboard"; one says the _Wasp_ wore, the other says that
she could not do so, etc.]
[Illustration: Shows the paths of the _Wasp_ and the _Frolic_ during
their battle and the positions of the ships at various times during
the battle from 11.32 to 12.15]
"The American fire showed itself to be as accurate as it was rapid.
On occasions when the roughness of the sea would seem to render
all aim excessively uncertain, the effects of their artillery were
not less murderous than under more advantageous conditions. The
corvette _Wasp_ fought the brig _Frolic_ in an enormous sea, under
very short canvas, and yet, forty minutes after the beginning of
the action, when the two vessels came together, the Americans who
leaped aboard the brig found on the deck, covered with dead and
dying, but one brave man, who had not left the wheel, and three
officers, all wounded, who threw down their swords at the feet of
the victors." Admiral de la Gravière's criticisms are especially
valuable, because they are those of an expert, who only refers to
the war of 1812 in order to apply to the French navy the lessons
which it teaches, and who is perfectly unprejudiced. He cares for
the lesson taught, not the teacher, and is quite as willing to
learn from the defeat of the _Chesapeake_ as from the victories
of the _Constitution_--while most American critics only pay heed
to the latter.
The characteristics of the action are the practical equality of the
contestants in point of force and the enormous disparity in the
damage each suffered; numerically, the _Wasp_ was superior by 5 per
cent., and inflicted a ninefold greater loss.
Captain Jones was not destined to bring his prize into port, for
a few hours afterward the _Poictiers_, a British 74, Captain John
Poer Beresford, hove in sight. Now appeared the value of the _Frolic's_
desperate defence; if she could not prevent herself from being
captured, she had at least ensured her own recapture, and also the
capture of the foe. When the _Wasp_ shook out her sails they were
found to be cut into ribbons aloft, and she could not make off with
sufficient speed. As the _Poictiers_ passed the _Frolic_, rolling
like a log in the water, she threw a shot over her, and soon
overtook the _Wasp_. Both vessels were carried into Bermuda. Captain
Whinyates was again put in command of the _Frolic_. Captain Jones
and his men were soon exchanged; 25,000 dollars prize-money was
voted them by Congress, and Captain and Lieutenant Biddle were
both promoted, the former receiving the captured ship _Macedonian_.
Unluckily the blockade was too close for him to succeed in getting
out during the remainder of the war.
On Oct. 8th Commodore Rodgers left Boston on his second cruise, with
the _President_, _United States_, _Congress_, and _Argus_, [Footnote:
Letter of Commodore Rodgers. Jan. 1. 1813.] leaving the _Hornet_
in port. Four days out, the _United States_ and _Argus_ separated,
while the remaining two frigates continued their cruise together.
The _Argus_, [Footnote: Letter of Capt. Arthur Sinclair, Jan. 4,
1813.] Captain Sinclair, cruised to the eastward, making prizes
of 6 valuable merchant-men, and returned to port on January 3d.
During the cruise she was chased for three days and three nights
(the latter being moonlight) by a British squadron, and was obliged
to cut away her boats and anchors and start some of her water. But
she saved her guns, and was so cleverly handled that during the
chase she actually succeeded in taking and manning a prize, though
the enemy got near enough to open fire as the vessels separated.
Before relating what befell the _United States_, we shall bring
Commodore Rodgers' cruise to an end.
On Oct. 10th the Commodore chased, but failed to overtake, the
British frigate _Nymphe_, 38, Captain Epworth. On the 18th, off
the great Bank of Newfoundland, he captured the Jamaica packet
_Swallow_, homeward bound, with 200,000 dollars in specie aboard.
On the 31st, at 9 A. M., lat. 33° N., long. 32° W., his two frigates
fell in with the British frigate _Galatea_, 36, Captain Woodley
Losack, convoying two South Sea ships, to windward. The _Galatea_
ran down to reconnoitre, and at 10 A. M., recognizing her foes,
hauled up on the starboard tack to escape. The American frigates
made all sail in chase, and continued beating to windward, tacking
several times, for about three hours. Seeing that she was being
overhauled, the _Galatea_ now edged away to get on her best point
of sailing; at the same moment one of her convoy, the _Argo_, bore
up to cross the hawse of her foes, but was intercepted by the
_Congress_, who lay to to secure her. Meanwhile the _President_
kept after the _Galatea_; she set her top-mast, top-gallant mast
and lower studding-sails, and when it was dusk had gained greatly
upon her. But the night was very dark, the _President_ lost sight
of the chase, and, toward midnight, hauled to the wind to rejoin
her consort. The two frigates cruised to the east as far as 22° W.,
and then ran down to 17° N.; but during the month of November they
did not see a sail. They had but slightly better luck on their
return toward home. Passing 120 miles north of Bermuda, and cruising
a little while toward the Virginia capes, they reentered Boston
on Dec. 31st, having made 9 prizes, most of them of little value.
When four days out, on Oct. 12th, Commodore Decatur had separated
from the rest of Rodgers' squadron and cruised east; on the 25th,
in lat. 29° N., and long. 29° 30' W. while going close-hauled on
the port tack, with the wind fresh from the S. S. E., a sail was
descried on the weather beam, about 12 miles distant. [Footnote:
Official letter of Commodore Decatur, Oct. 30. 1812.] This was the
British 38-gun frigate _Macedonian_, Captain John Surnam Carden.
She was not, like the _Guerrière_, an old ship captured from the
French, but newly built of oak and larger than any American
18-pounder frigate; she was reputed (very wrongfully) to be a
"crack ship." According to Lieut. David Hope, "the state of
discipline on board was excellent; in no British ship was more
attention paid to gunnery. Before this cruise, the ship had been
engaged almost every day with the enemy; and in time of peace the
crew were constantly exercised at the great guns." [Footnote:
Marshall's "Naval Biography," vol. iv, p. 1018.] How they could have
practised so much and learned so little is certainly marvellous.
The Macedonian set her foretop-mast and top-gallant studdings sails
and bore away in chase, [Footnote: Capt. Carden to Mr. Croker,
Oct. 28, 1812.] edging down with the wind a little aft the starboard
beam. Her first lieutenant wished to continue on this course and
pass down ahead of the _United States_, [Footnote: James, vi. 165.]
but Capt. Carden's over-anxiety to keep the weather-gage lost him
this opportunity of closing. [Footnote: Sentence of Court-martial
held on the _San Domingo_, 74. at the Bermudas. May 27, 1812.]
Accordingly he hauled by the wind and passed way to windward of the
American. As Commodore Decatur got within range, he eased off and
fired a broadside, most of which fell short [Footnote: Marshall,
iv, 1080.]; he then kept his luff, and, the next time he fired, his
long 24's told heavily, while he received very little injury himself.
[Footnote: Cooper, 11, 178.] The fire from his main-deck (for he
did not use his carronades at all for the first half hour) [Footnote:
Letter of Commodore Decatur.] was so very rapid that it seemed as
if the ship was on fire; his broadsides were delivered with almost
twice the rapidity of those of the Englishman. [Footnote: James, vi,
169.] The latter soon found he could not play at long bowls with any
chance of success; and, having already erred either from timidity
or bad judgment, Captain Carden decided to add rashness to the
catalogue of his virtues. Accordingly he bore up, and came down
end on toward his adversary, with the wind on his port quarter.
The _States_ now (10.15) laid her main-topsail aback and made heavy
play with her long guns, and, as her adversary came nearer, with
her carronades also.
[Illustration: Shows the paths of the _United States_ and the
_Macedonian_ during their battle and the positions of the ships
at various times during the battle from 09.45 to 11.15]
The British ship would reply with her starboard guns, hauling up
to do so; as she came down, the American would ease off, run a
little way and again come to, keeping up a terrific fire. As the
_Macedonian_ bore down to close, the chocks of all her forecastle
guns (which were mounted on the outside) were cut away [Footnote:
Letter of Captain Carden.]; her fire caused some damage to the
American's rigging, but hardly touched her hull, while she herself
suffered so heavily both alow and aloft that she gradually dropped
to leeward, while the American fore-reached on her. Finding herself
ahead and to windward, the _States_ tacked and ranged up under her
adversary's lee, when the latter struck her colors at 11.15, just
an hour and a half after the beginning of the action. [Footnote:
Letter of Commodore Decatur.]
[Illustration: Captain Stephen Decatur: a charcoal drawing done
in 1809 by Charles B.J.F. St.-Memin. (Courtesy Library of Congress)]
The _United States_ had suffered surprisingly little; what damage
had been done was aloft. Her mizzen top-gallant mast was cut away,
some of the spars were wounded, and the rigging a good deal cut;
the hull was only struck two or three times. The ships were never
close enough to be within fair range of grape and musketry, [Footnote:
Letter of Commodore Decatur.] and the wounds were mostly inflicted
by round shot and were thus apt to be fatal. Hence the loss of the
Americans amounted to Lieutenant John Messer Funk (5th of the ship)
and six seamen killed or mortally wounded, and only five severely
and slightly wounded.
The _Macedonian_, on the other hand, had received over a hundred
shot in her hull, several between wind and water; her mizzen-mast
had gone by the board; her fore--and maintop-masts had been shot
away by the caps, and her main-yard in the slings; almost all her
rigging was cut away (only the fore-sail being left); on the
engaged side all of her carronades but two, and two of her main-deck
guns, were dismounted. Of her crew 43 were killed and mortally
wounded, and 61 (including her first and third lieutenants) severely
and slightly wounded. [Footnote: Letter of Captain Carden.] Among
her crew were eight Americans (as shown by her muster-roll); these
asked permission to go below before the battle, but it was refused
by Captain Carden, and three were killed during the action. James
says that they _were_ allowed to go below, but this is untrue; for
if they had, the three would not have been slain. The others
testified that they had been forced to fight, and they afterward
entered the American service--the only ones of the _Macedonian's_
crew who did, or who were asked to.
The _Macedonian_ had her full complement of 301 men; the _States_
had, by her muster-roll of October 20th, 428 officers, petty officers,
seamen, and boys, and 50 officers and privates of marines, a total
of 478 (instead of 509 as Marshall in his "Naval Biography" makes
it).
COMPARATIVE FORCE.
Broadside Weight
Size. Guns. Metal. Men. Loss.
_United States_ 1576 27 786 478 12
_Macedonian_ 1325 25 547 301 104
Comparative Comparative Loss
Force. Inflicted.
_States_ 100 100
_Macedonian_ 66 11
That is, the relative force being about as three is to two,
[Footnote: I have considered the _United States_ as mounting her
full allowance of 54 guns; but it is possible that she had no more
than 49. In Decatur's letter of challenge of Jan. 17, 1814 (which
challenge, by the way, was a most blustering affair, reflecting
credit neither on Decatur, nor his opponent, Captain Hope, nor on
any one else, excepting Captain Stackpole of H. M. S. _Statira_),
she is said to have had that number; her broadside would then be
15 long 24's below, 1 long 24, 1 12-pound, and 8 42-pound carronades
above. Her _real_ broadside weight of metal would thus be about
680 lbs., and she would be superior to the _Macedonian_ in the
proportion of 5 to 4. But it is possible that Decatur had landed
some of his guns in 1813, as James asserts; and though I am not at
all sure of this, I have thought it best to be on the safe side in
describing his force.] the damage done was as nine to one!
Of course, it would have been almost impossible for the _Macedonian_
to conquer with one third less force; but the disparity was by no
means sufficient to account for the ninefold greater loss suffered,
and the ease and impunity with which the victory was won. The
British sailors fought with their accustomed courage, but their
gunnery was exceedingly poor; and it must be remembered that though
the ship was bravely fought, still the defence was by no means so
desperate as that made by the _Essex_ or even the _Chesapeake_,
as witnessed by their respective losses. The _Macedonian_, moreover,
was surrendered when she had suffered less damage than either the
_Guerrière_ or _Java_. The chief cause of her loss lay in the fact
that Captain Carden was a poor commander. The gunnery of the _Java_,
_Guerrière_, and _Macedonian_ was equally bad; but while Captain
Lambert proved himself to be as able as he was gallant, and Captain
Dacres did nearly as well, Captain Carden, on the other hand, was
first too timid, and then too rash, and showed bad judgment at all
times. By continuing his original course he could have closed at
once; but he lost his chance by over-anxiety to keep the weather-gage,
and was censured by the court-martial accordingly. Then he tried
to remedy one error by another, and made a foolishly rash approach.
A very able and fair-minded English writer says of this action:
"As a display of courage the character of the service was nobly
upheld, but we would be deceiving ourselves were we to admit that
the comparative expertness of the crews in gunnery was equally
satisfactory. Now, taking the difference of effect as given by
Captain Carden, we must draw this conclusion--that the comparative
loss in killed and wounded (104 to 12), together with the dreadful
account he gives of the condition of his own ship, while he admits
that the enemy's vessel was in comparatively good order, must have
arisen from inferiority in gunnery as well as in force." [Footnote:
Lord Howard Douglass, "Naval Gunnery." p. 525]
On the other hand, the American crew, even according to James, were
as fine a set of men as ever were seen on shipboard. Though not one
fourth were British by birth, yet many of them had served on board
British ships of war, in some cases voluntarily, but much more
often because they were impressed. They had been trained at the
guns with the greatest care by Lieutenant Allen. And finally
Commodore Decatur handled his ship with absolute faultlessness.
To sum up: a brave and skilful crew, ably commanded, was matched
against an equally brave but unskilful one, with an incompetent
leader; and this accounts for the disparity of loss being so much
greater than the disparity in force.
At the outset of this battle the position of the parties was just
the reverse of that in the case of the _Constitution_ and _Guerrière_:
the Englishman had the advantage of the wind, but he used it in a
very different manner from that in which Captain Hull had done. The
latter at once ran down to close, but manoeuvred so cautiously that
no damage could be done him till he was within pistol shot. Captain
Carden did not try to close till after fatal indecision, and then
made the attempt so heedlessly that he was cut to pieces before he
got to close quarters. Commodore Decatur, also, manoeuvred more
skilfully than Captain Dacres, although the difference was less
marked between these two. The combat was a plain cannonade; the
_States_ derived no advantage from the superior number of her men,
for they were not needed. The marines in particular had nothing
whatever to do, while they had been of the greatest service against
the _Guerrière_. The advantage was simply in metal, as 10 is to 7.
Lord Howard Douglass' criticisms on these actions seem to me only
applicable in part. He says (p. 524): "The Americans would neither
approach nor permit us to join in close battle until they had gained
some extraordinary advantage from the superior faculties of their
long guns in distant cannonade, and from the intrepid, uncircumspect,
and often very exposed approach of assailants who had long been
accustomed to contemn all manoeuvring. Our vessels were crippled
in distant cannonade from encountering rashly the serious
disadvantage of making direct attacks; the uncircumspect
gallantry of our commanders led our ships unguardedly into the
snares which wary caution had spread."
These criticisms are very just as regards the _Macedonian_, and I
fully agree with them (possibly reserving the right to doubt Captain
Carden's gallantry, though readily admitting his uncircumspection).
But the case of the _Guerrière_ differed widely. There the American
ship made the attack, while the British at first avoided close
combat; and, so far from trying to cripple her adversary by a
distant cannonade, the _Constitution_ hardly fired a dozen times
until within pistol shot. This last point is worth mentioning,
because in a work on "Heavy Ordnance," by Captain T. F. Simmons,
R. A. (London, 1837), it is stated that the _Guerrière_ received
her injuries _before_ the closing, mentioning especially the "thirty
shot below the water-line"; whereas, by the official accounts of
both commanders, the reverse was the case. Captain Hull, in his
letter, and Lieutenant Morris, (in his autobiography) say they only
fired a few guns before closing; and Captain Dacres, in his letter,
and Captain Brenton, in his "History," say that not much injury was
received by the _Guerrière_ until about the time the mizzen-mast
fell, which was three or four minutes after close action began.
Lieutenant Allen was put aboard the _Macedonian_ as prize-master;
he secured the fore- and main-masts and rigged a jury mizzen-mast,
converting the vessel into a bark. Commodore Decatur discontinued
his cruise to convoy his prize back to America; they reached New
London Dec. 4th. Had it not been for the necessity of convoying
the _Macedonian_, the _States_ would have continued her cruise,
for the damage she suffered was of the most trifling character.
Captain Garden stated (in Marshall's "Naval Biography") that the
_States_ measured 1,670 tons, was manned by 509 men, suffered so
from shot under water that she had to be pumped out every watch,
and that two eighteen-pound shot passed in a horizontal line through
her main-masts; all of which statements were highly creditable to
the vividness of his imagination. The _States_ measured but 1,576
tons (and by English measurement very much less), had 478 men aboard,
had not been touched by a shot under water-line, and her lower masts
were unwounded. James states that most of her crew were British,
which assertion I have already discussed; and that she had but one
boy aboard, and that he was seventeen years old,--in which case 29
others, some of whom (as we learn from the "Life of Decatur") were
only twelve, must have grown with truly startling rapidity during
the hour and a half that the combat lasted.
During the twenty years preceding 1812 there had been almost
incessant warfare on the ocean, and although there had been
innumerable single conflicts between French and English frigates,
there had been but one case in which the French frigate, single-handed,
was victorious. This was in the year 1805 when the _Milan_ captured
the _Cleopatra_. According to Troude, the former threw at a broadside
574 pounds (actual), the latter but 334; and the former lost 35 men
out of her crew of 350, the latter 58 out of 200. Or, the forces
being as 100 to 58, the loss inflicted was as 100 to 60; while the
_States'_ force compared to the _Macedonian's_ being as 100 to 66,
the loss she inflicted was as 100 to 11.
British ships, moreover, had often conquered against odds as great;
as, for instance, when the _Sea Horse_ captured the great Turkish
frigate _Badere-Zaffer_; when the _Astrea_ captured the French
frigate _Gloire_, which threw at a broadside 286 pounds of shot,
while she threw but 174; and when, most glorious of all, Lord
Dundonald, in the gallant little _Speedy_, actually captured the
Spanish xebec _Gamo_ of over five times her own force! Similarly,
the corvette _Comus_ captured the Danish frigate _Fredrickscoarn_,
the brig _Onyx_ captured the Dutch sloop _Manly_, the little cutter
_Thorn_ captured the French _Courier-National_, and the _Pasly_
the Spanish _Virgin_; while there had been many instances of drawn
battles between English 12-pound frigates and French or Spanish
18-pounders.
Captain Hull having resigned the command of the _Constitution_,
she was given to Captain Bainbridge, of the _Constellation_, who
was also entrusted with the command of the _Essex_ and _Hornet_.
The latter ship was in the port of Boston with the _Constitution_,
under the command of Captain Lawrence. The _Essex_ was in the
Delaware, and accordingly orders were sent to Captain Porter to
rendezvous at the Island of San Jago; if that failed several other
places were appointed, and if, after a certain time, he did not
fall in with his commodore he was to act at his own discretion.
[Illustration: Captain William Bainbridge: a portrait by John
Wesley Jarvis, circa 1814. (Courtesy U.S. Naval Academy Museum)]
On October 26th the _Constitution_ and _Hornet_ sailed, touched
at the different rendezvous, and on December 13th arrived off San
Salvador, where Captain Lawrence found the _Bonne Citoyenne_, 18,
Captain Pitt Barnaby Greene. The _Bonne Citoyenne_ was armed with
18 32-pound carronades and 2 long nines, and her crew of 150 men
was exactly equal in number to that of the _Hornet_; the latter's
short weight in metal made her antagonist superior to her in about
the same proportion that she herself was subsequently superior to
the _Penguin_, or, in other words, the ships were practically equal.
Captain Lawrence now challenged Captain Greene to single fight,
giving the usual pledges that the _Constitution_ should not
interfere. The challenge was not accepted for a variety of reasons;
among others the _Bonne Citoyenne_ was carrying home half a million
pounds in specie. [Footnote: Brenton and James both deny that
Captain Greene was blockaded by the _Hornet_, and claim that he
feared the _Constitution_. James says (p. 275) that the occurrence
was one which "the characteristic cunning of Americans turned greatly
to their advantage"; and adds that Lawrence only sent the challenge
because "it could not be accepted," and so he would "suffer no
personal risk." He states that the reason it was sent, as well as
the reason that it was refused, was because the _Constitution_ was
going to remain in the offing and capture the British ship if she
proved conqueror. It is somewhat surprising that even James should
have had the temerity to advance such arguments. According to his
own account (p. 277) the _Constitution_ left for Boston on Jan. 6th,
and the _Hornet_ remained blockading the _Bonne Citoyenne_ till the
24th, when the _Montagu_, 74, arrived. During these eighteen days
there could have been no possible chance of the _Constitution_ or
any other ship interfering, and it is ridiculous to suppose that
any such fear kept Captain Greene from sailing out to attack his
foe. No doubt Captain Greene's course was perfectly justifiable,
but it is curious that with all the assertions made by James as to
the cowardice of the Americans, this is the only instance throughout
the war in which a ship of either party declined a contest with an
antagonist of equal force (the cases of Commodore Rodgers and Sir
George Collier being evidently due simply to an overestimate of the
opposing ships.)] Leaving the _Hornet_ to blockade her, Commodore
Bainbridge ran off to the southward, keeping the land in view.
At 9 A. M., Dec. 29, 1812, while the _Constitution_ was running
along the coast of Brazil, about thirty miles offshore in latitude
13° 6' S., and longitude 31° W., two strange sail were made,
[Footnote: Official letter of Commodore Bainbridge, Jan. 3, 1813.]
inshore and to windward. These were H. B. M. frigate _Java_, Captain
Lambert, forty-eight days out of Spithead, England, with the captured
ship _William_ in company. Directing the latter to make for San
Salvador, the _Java_ bore down in chase of the _Constitution_.
[Footnote: Official letter of Lieutenant Chads, Dec. 31, 1812.] The
wind was blowing light from the N.N.E., and there was very little
sea on. At 10 the _Java_ made the private signals, English, Spanish,
and Portuguese in succession, none being answered; meanwhile the
_Constitution_ was standing up toward the _Java_ on the starboard
tack; a little after 11 she hoisted her private signal, and then,
being satisfied that the strange sail was an enemy, she wore and
stood off toward the S.E., to draw her antagonist away from the
land, [Footnote: Log of the _Constitution_.] which was plainly
visible. The _Java_ hauled up, and made sail in a parallel course,
the _Constitution_ bearing about three points on her lee bow.
The _Java_ gained rapidly, being much the swifter.
At 1.30 the _Constitution_ luffed up, shortened her canvas to
top-sails, top-gallant sails, jib, and spanker, and ran easily off
on the port tack, heading toward the southeast; she carried her
commodore's pendant at the main, national ensigns at the mizzenpeak
and main top-gallant mast-head, and a Jack at the fore. The _Java_
also had taken in the main-sail and royals, and came down in a
lasking course on her adversary's weather-quarter, [Footnote:
Lieutenant Chads' Address to the Court-martial, April 23, 1813.]
hoisting her ensign at the mizzen-peak, a union Jack at the mizzen
top-gallant mast-head, and another lashed to the main-rigging. At
2 P. M., the _Constitution_ fired a shot ahead of her, following
it quickly by a broadside, [Footnote: Commodore Bainbridge's
letter.] and the two ships began at long bowls, the English firing
the lee or starboard battery while the Americans replied with their
port guns. The cannonade was very spirited on both sides, the ships
suffering about equally. The first broadside of the _Java_ was very
destructive, killing and wounding several of the _Constitution's_
crew. The _Java_ kept edging down, and the action continued, with
grape and musketry in addition; the swifter British ship soon
forereached and kept away, intending to wear across her slower
antagonist's bow and rake her; but the latter wore in the smoke,
and the two combatants ran off to the westward, the Englishman
still a-weather and steering freer than the _Constitution_, which
had luffed to close. [Footnote: Log of the _Constitution_.] The
action went on at pistol-shot distance. In a few minutes, however,
the _Java_ again forged ahead, out of the weight of her adversary's
fire, and then kept off, as before, to cross her bows; and, as
before, the _Constitution_ avoided this by wearing, both ships
again coming round with their heads to the east, the American
still to leeward. The Java kept the weather-gage tenaciously,
forereaching a little, and whenever the _Constitution_ luffed
up to close, [Footnote: Log of _Constitution_.] the former tried
to rake her. But her gunnery was now poor, little damage being
done by it; most of the loss the Americans suffered was early in
the action. By setting her foresail and main-sail the _Constitution_
got up close on the enemy's lee beam, her fire being very heavy
and carrying away the end of the _Java's_ bowsprit and her jib-boom.
[Footnote: Lieutenant Chads' letter.] The _Constitution_ forged
ahead and repeated her former manoeuvre, wearing in the smoke. The
_Java_ at once hove in stays, but owing to the loss of head-sail
fell off very slowly, and the American frigate poured a heavy raking
broadside into her stern, at about two cables' length distance. The
_Java_ replied with her port guns as she fell off. [Footnote:
Lieutenant Chads' letter.] Both vessels then bore up and ran off
free, with the wind on the port quarter; the _Java_ being abreast
and to windward of her antagonist, both with their heads a little
east of south. The ships were less than a cable's length apart, and
the _Constitution_ inflicted great damage while suffering very little
herself. The British lost many men by the musketry of the American
topmen, and suffered still more from the round and grape, especially
on the forecastle, [Footnote: Testimony of Christopher Speedy, in
minutes of the Court-martial on board H. M. S. _Gladiator_, at
Portsmouth, April 23, 1813] many marked instances of valor being
shown on both sides. The _Java's_ masts were wounded and her rigging
cut to pieces, and Captain Lambert then ordered her to be laid
aboard the enemy, who was on her lee beam. The helm was put a-weather,
and the _Java_ came down for the _Constitution's_ main-chains. The
boarders and marines gathered in the gangways and on the forecastle,
the boatswain having been ordered to cheer them up with his pipe
that they might make a clean spring. [Footnote: Testimony of James
Humble, in _do., do._] The Americans, however, raked the British
with terrible effect, cutting off their main top-mast above the cap,
and their foremast near the cat harpings. [Footnote: Log of
_Constitution_.] The stump of the _Java's_ bowsprit got caught in
the _Constitution's_ mizzen-rigging, and before it got clear the
British suffered still more.
[Illustration: _Constitution_ vs. _Java_: a comptemporary American
engraving done under the supervision of a witness to the action.
(Courtesy Beverley R. Robinson Collection, U.S. Naval Academy Museum)]
Finally the ships separated, the _Java's_ bowsprit passing over the
taffrail of the _Constitution_; the latter at once kept away to
avoid being raked. The ships again got nearly abreast, but the
_Constitution_, in her turn, forereached; whereupon Commodore
Bainbridge wore, passed his antagonist, luffed up under his quarter,
raked him with the starboard guns, then wore, and recommenced the
action with his port broadside at about 3.10. Again the vessels
were abreast, and the action went on as furiously as ever. The wreck
of the top hamper on the _Java_ lay over her starboard side, so that
every discharge of her guns set her on fire, [Footnote: Lieut. Chads'
Address.] and in a few minutes her able and gallant commander was
mortally wounded by a ball fired by one of the American main-top-men.
[Footnote: Surgeon J. C. Jones' Report.] The command then devolved
on the first lieutenant, Chads, himself painfully wounded. The
slaughter had been terrible, yet the British fought on with stubborn
resolution, cheering lustily. But success was now hopeless, for
nothing could stand against the cool precision of the Yankee fire.
The stump of the _Java's_ foremast was carried away by a double-headed
shot, the mizzen-mast fell, the gaff and spanker boom were shot away,
also the main-yard, and finally the ensign was cut down by a shot,
and all her guns absolutely silenced; when at 4.05 the _Constitution_,
thinking her adversary had struck, [Footnote: Log of the _Constitution_
(as given in Bainbridge's letter).] ceased firing, hauled aboard
her racks, and passed across her adversary's bows to windward, with
her top-sails, jib, and spanker set. A few minutes afterward the
_Java's_ main-mast fell, leaving her a sheer hulk. The _Constitution_
assumed a weatherly position, and spent an hour in repairing damages
and securing her masts; then she wore and stood toward her enemy,
whose flag was again flying, but only for bravado, for as soon as
the _Constitution_ stood across her forefoot she struck. At 5.25
she was taken possession of by Lieutenant Parker, 1st of the
_Constitution_, in one of the latter's only two remaining boats.
The American ship had suffered comparatively little. But a few round
shot had struck her hull, one of which carried away the wheel; one
18-pounder went through the mizzen-mast; the fore-mast, main-top-mast,
and a few other spars were slightly wounded, and the running rigging
and shrouds were a good deal cut; but in an hour she was again in
good fighting trim. Her loss amounted to 8 seamen and 1 marine
killed; the 5th lieutenant, John C. Alwyn, and 2 seamen, mortally,
Commodore Bainbridge and 12 seamen, severely, and 7 seamen and 2
marines, slightly wounded; in all 12 killed and mortally wounded,
and 22 wounded severely and slightly. [Footnote: Report of Surgeon
Amos A. Evans.]
"The _Java_ sustained unequalled injuries beyond the _Constitution_,"
says the British account. [Footnote: "Naval Chronicle," xxix. 452.]
These have already been given in detail; she was a riddled and
entirely dismasted hulk. Her loss (for discussion of which see
farther on) was 48 killed (including Captain Henry Lambert, who
died soon after the close of the action, and five midshipmen),
and 102 wounded, among them Lieutenant Henry Ducie Chads, Lieutenant
of Marines David Davies, Commander John Marshall, Lieut. James
Saunders, the boatswain. James Humble, master, Batty Robinson, and
four midshipmen.
In this action both ships displayed equal gallantry and seamanship.
"The _Java_," says Commodore Bainbridge, "was exceedingly well
handled and bravely fought. Poor Captain Lambert was a distinguished
and gallant officer, and a most worthy man, whose death I sincerely
regret." The manoeuvring on both sides was excellent; Captain
Lambert used the advantage which his ship possessed in her superior
speed most skilfully, always endeavoring to run across his adversary's
bows and rake him when he had forereached, and it was only owing
to the equal skill which his antagonist displayed that he was foiled,
the length of the combat being due to the number of evolutions. The
great superiority of the Americans was in their gunnery. The fire
of the _Java_ was both less rapid and less well directed than that
of her antagonist; the difference of force against her was not
heavy, being about as ten is to nine, and was by no means enough
to account for the almost fivefold greater loss she suffered.
[Illustration: This differs somewhat from the English diagram:
the American officers distinctly assert that the Java kept the
weather-gage in every position.]
The foregoing is a diagram of the battle. It differs from both of
the official accounts, as these conflict greatly both as to time
and as regards some of the evolutions. I generally take the mean
in cases of difference; for example, Commodore Bainbridge's report
makes the fight endure but 1 hour and 55 minutes, Lieutenant Chads'
2 hours and 25 minutes: I have made it 2 hours and 10 minutes, etc.,
etc.
The tonnage and weight of metal of the combatants have already
been stated; I will give the complements shortly. The following is
the
COMPARATIVE FORCE AND LOSS.
Relative
Weight No. Relative Loss
Tons. Metal. Men. Loss. Force. Inflicted.
_Constitution_ 1576 654 475 34 100 100
_Java_ 1340 576 426 150 89 23
In hardly another action the war do the accounts of the respective
forces differ so widely; the official British letter makes their
total of men at the beginning of the action 377, of whom Commodore
Bainbridge officially reports that he paroled 378! The British
state their loss in killed and mortally wounded at 24; Commodore
Bainbridge reports that the dead alone amounted to nearly 60!
Usually I have taken each commander's account of his own force
and loss, and I should do so now if it were not that the British
accounts differ among themselves, and whenever they relate to the
Americans, are flatly contradicted by the affidavits of the latter's
officers. The British first handicap themselves by the statement
that the surgeon of the _Constitution_ was an Irishman and lately
an assistant surgeon in the British navy ("Naval Chronicle," xxix,
452); which draws from Surgeon Amos A. Evans a solemn statement in
the Boston _Gazette_ that he was born in Maryland and was never in
the British navy in his life. Then Surgeon Jones of the _Java_, in
his official report, after giving his own killed and mortally wounded
at 24, says that the Americans lost in all about 60, and that 4 of
their amputations perished under his own eyes; whereupon Surgeon
Evans makes the statement (_Niles' Register_, vi, p. 35), backed
up by affidavits of his brother officers, that in all he had but
five amputations, of whom only one died, and that one, a month
after Surgeon Jones had left the ship. To meet the assertions of
Lieutenant Chads that he began action with but 377 men, the
_Constitution's_ officers produced the _Java's_ muster-roll, dated
Nov. 17th, or five days after she had sailed, which showed 446
persons, of whom 20 had been put on board a prize. The presence of
this large number of supernumeraries on board is explained by the
fact that the _Java_ was carrying out Lieutenant-General Hislop,
the newly-appointed Governor of Bombay, and his suite, together
with part of the crews for the _Cornwallis_, 74, and gun-sloops
_Chameleon_ and _Icarus_; she also contained stores for those two ships.
Besides conflicting with the American reports, the British statements
contradict one another. The official published report gives but two
midshipmen as killed; while one of the volumes of the "Naval Chronicle"
(vol. xxix, p. 452) contains a letter from one of the _Java's_
lieutenants, in which he states that there were five. Finally,
Commodore Bainbridge found on board the _Constitution_, after the
prisoners had left, a letter from Lieutenant H. D. Cornick, dated
Jan. 1, 1813, and addressed to Lieutenant Peter V. Wood, 22d Regiment,
foot, in which he states that 65 of their men were killed. James
("Naval Occurrences") gets around this by stating that it was
probably a forgery; but, aside from the improbability of Commodore
Bainbridge being a forger, this could not be so, for nothing would
have been easier than for the British lieutenant to have denied
having written it, which he never did. On the other hand, it would
be very likely that in the heat of the action, Commodore Bainbridge
and the _Java's_ own officers should overestimate the latter's loss.
[Footnote: For an account of the shameless corruption then existing
in the Naval Administration of Great Britain, see Lord Dundonald's
"Autobiography of a seaman." The letters of the commanders were
often garbled, as is mentioned by Brenton. Among numerous cases
that he gives, may be mentioned the cutting out of the _Chevrette_,
where he distinctly says, "our loss was much greater than was ever
acknowledged." (Vol. i, p. 505, edition of 1837.)]
Taking all these facts into consideration, we find 446 men on board
the _Java_ by her own muster-list; 378 of these were paroled by
Commodore Bainbridge at San Salvador; 24 men were acknowledged by
the enemy to be killed or mortally wounded; 20 were absent in a
prize, leaving 24 unaccounted for, who were undoubtedly slain.
The British loss was thus 48 men killed and mortally wounded, and
102 wounded severely and slightly. The _Java_ was better handled
and more desperately defended than the _Macedonian_ or even the
_Guerrière_. and the odds against her were much smaller; so she
caused her opponent greater loss, though her gunnery was no better
than theirs.
Lieutenant Parker, prize-master of the _Java_, removed all the
prisoners and baggage to the _Constitution_, and reported the prize
to be in a very disabled state; owing partly to this, but more to
the long distance from home and the great danger there was of
recapture, Commodore Bainbridge destroyed her on the 31st, and
then made sail for San Salvador. "Our gallant enemy," reports
Lieutenant Chads, "has treated us most generously"; and
Lieutenant-General Hislop presented the Commodore with a very
handsome sword as a token of gratitude for the kindness with which
he had treated the prisoners.
Partly in consequence of his frigate's injuries, but especially
because of her decayed condition, Commodore Bainbridge sailed from
San Salvador on Jan. 6, 1813, reaching Boston Feb. 27th, after his
four months' cruise. At San Salvador he left the _Hornet_ still
blockading the _Bonne Citoyenne_.
In order "to see ourselves as others see us," I shall again quote
from Admiral Jurien de la Gravière, [Footnote "Guerres Maritimes,"
ii, 284 (Paris, 1881).] as his opinions are certainly well worthy
of attention both as to these first three battles, and as to the
lessons they teach. "When the American Congress declared war on
England in 1812," he says, "it seemed as if this unequal conflict
would crush her navy in the act of being born; instead, it but
fertilized the germ. It is only since that epoch that the United
States has taken rank among maritime powers. Some combats of frigates,
corvettes, and brigs, insignificant without doubt as regards
material results, sufficed to break the charm which protected the
standard of St. George, and taught Europe what she could have
already learned from some of our combats, if the louder noise of our
defeats had not drowned the glory, that the only invincibles on the
sea are good seamen and good artillerists.
"The English covered the ocean with their cruisers when this
unknown navy, composed of six frigates and a few small craft
hitherto hardly numbered, dared to establish its cruisers at the
mouth of the Channel, in the very centre of the British power. But
already the _Constitution_ had captured the _Guerrière_ and _Java_,
the _United States_ had made a prize of the _Macedonian_, the _Wasp_
of the _Frolic_, and the _Hornet_ of the _Peacock_. The honor of
the new flag was established. England, humiliated, tried to
attribute her multiplied reverses to the unusual size of the
vessels which Congress had had constructed in 1799, and which did
the fighting in 1812. She wished to refuse them the name of frigates,
and called them, not without some appearance of reason, disguised
line-of-battle ships. Since then all maritime powers have copied
these gigantic models, as the result of the war of 1812 obliged
England herself to change her naval material; but if they had
employed, instead of frigates, cut-down 74's (vaisseaux rasés),
it would still be difficult to explain the prodigious success of
the Americans. * * *
"In an engagement which terminated in less than half an hour, the
English frigate _Guerrière_, completely dismasted, had fifteen men
killed, sixty-three wounded, and more than thirty shot below the
water-line. She sank twelve hours after the combat. The
_Constitution_, on the contrary, had but seven men killed and seven
wounded, and did not lose a mast. As soon as she had replaced a few
cut ropes and changed a few sails, she was in condition, even by
the testimony of the British historian, to take another _Guerrière_.
The _United States_ took an hour and a half to capture the
_Macedonian_, and the same difference made itself felt in the damage
suffered by the two ships. The _Macedonian_ had her masts shattered,
two of her main-deck and all her spar-deck guns disabled; more than
a hundred shot had penetrated the hull, and over a third of the
crew had suffered by the hostile fire. The American frigate, on the
contrary, had to regret but five men killed and seven wounded; her
guns had been fired each sixty-six times to the _Macedonian's_
thirty-six. The combat of the _Constitution_ and the _Java_ lasted
two hours, and was the most bloody of these three engagements. The
_Java_ only struck when she had been razed like a sheer hulk; she
had twenty-two men killed and one hundred and two wounded.
* * * * *
"This war should be studied with unceasing diligence; the pride of
two peoples to whom naval affairs are so generally familiar has
cleared all the details and laid bare all the episodes, and through
the sneers which the victors should have spared, merely out of care
for their own glory, at every step can be seen that great truth, that
there is only success for those who know how to prepare it.
* * * * *
"It belongs to us to judge impartially these marine events, too
much exalted perhaps by a national vanity one is tempted to excuse.
The Americans showed, in the War of 1812, a great deal of skill
and resolution. But if, as they have asserted, the chances had
always been perfectly equal between them and their adversaries, if
they had only owed their triumphs to the intrepidity of Hull,
Decatur, and Bainbridge, there would be for us but little interest
in recalling the struggle. We need not seek lessons in courage
outside of our own history. On the contrary, what is to be well
considered is that the ships of the United States constantly fought
with chances in their favor, and it is on this that the American
government should found its true title to glory. * * * The Americans
in 1812 had secured to themselves the advantage of a better
organization [than the English]."
The fight between the _Constitution_ and the _Java_ illustrates
best the proposition, "that there is only success for those who
know how to prepare it." Here the odds in men and metal were only
about as 10 to 9 in favor of the victors, and it is safe to say
that they might have been reversed without vitally affecting the
result. In the fight Lambert handled his ship as skilfully as
Bainbridge did his; and the _Java's_ men proved by their indomitable
courage that they were excellent material. The _Java's_ crew was
new shipped for the voyage, and had been at sea but six weeks; in
the _Constitution's_ first fight her crew had been aboard of her
but _five_ weeks. So the chances should have been nearly equal,
and the difference in fighting capacity that was shown by the
enormous disparity in the loss, and still more in the damage
inflicted, was due to the fact that the officers of one ship had,
and the officers of the other had not, trained their raw crews.
The _Constitution's_ men were not "picked," but simply average
American sailors, as the _Java's_ were average British sailors.
The essential difference was in the training.
During the six weeks the _Java_ was at sea her men had fired but
six broadsides, of blank cartridges; during the first five weeks
the _Constitution_ cruised, her crew were incessantly practised
at firing with blank cartridges and also at a target. [Footnote:
In looking through the logs of the _Constitution_, _Hornet_, etc.,
we continually find such entries as "beat to quarters, exercised
the men at the great guns," "exercised with musketry," "exercised
the boarders," "exercised the great guns, blank cartridges, and
afterward firing at mark."] The Java's crew had only been exercised
occasionally, even in pointing the guns, and when the captain of
a gun was killed the effectiveness of the piece was temporarily
ruined, and, moreover, the men did not work together. The
_Constitution's_ crew were exercised till they worked like machines,
and yet with enough individuality to render it impossible to
cripple a gun by killing one man. The unpractised British sailors
fired at random; the trained Americans took aim. The British
marines had not been taught any thing approximating to skirmishing
or sharp-shooting; the Americans had. The British sailors had not
even been trained enough in the ordinary duties of seamen; while
the Americans in five weeks had been rendered almost perfect. The
former were at a loss what to do in an emergency at all out of
their own line of work; they were helpless when the wreck fell over
their guns, when the Americans would have cut it away in a jiffy.
As we learn from Commodore Morris' "Autobiography," each Yankee
sailor could, at need, do a little carpentering or sail-mending,
and so was more self-reliant. The crew had been trained to act as
if guided by one mind, yet each man retained his own individuality.
The petty officers were better paid than in Great Britain, and so
were of a better class of men, thoroughly self-respecting; the
Americans soon got their subordinates in order, while the British
did not. To sum up: one ship's crew had been trained practically
and thoroughly, while the other crew was not much better off than
the day it sailed; and, as far as it goes, this is a good test of
the efficiency of the two navies.
The U.S. brig _Vixen_, 12, Lieutenant George U. Read, had been
cruising off the southern coast; on Nov. 22d she fell in with the
_Southampton_, 32, Captain Sir James Lucas Yeo, and was captured
after a short but severe trial of speed. Both vessels were wrecked
soon afterward.
The _Essex_, 32, Captain David Porter, left the Delaware on Oct.
28th, two days after Commodore Bainbridge had left Boston. She
expected to make a very long cruise and so carried with her an
unusual quantity of stores and sixty more men than ordinarily, so
that her muster-roll contained 319 names. Being deep in the water
she reached San Jago after Bainbridge had left. Nothing was met with
until after the Essex had crossed the equator in longitude 30° W.
on Dec. 11th. On the afternoon of the next day a sail was made out
to windward, and chased. At nine in the evening it was overtaken,
and struck after receiving a volley of musketry which killed one
man. The prize proved to be the British packet _Nocton_, of 10
guns and 31 men, with $55,000 in specie aboard. The latter was
taken out, and the _Nocton_ sent home with Lieutenant Finch and
a prize crew of 17 men, but was recaptured by a British frigate.
The next appointed rendezvous was the Island of Fernando de Noronha,
where Captain Porter found a letter from Commodore Bainbridge,
informing him that the other vessels were off Cape Frio. Thither
cruised Porter, but his compatriots had left. On the 29th he
captured an English merchant vessel; and he was still cruising
when the year closed.
The year 1812, on the ocean, ended as gloriously as it had begun.
In four victorious fights the disparity in loss had been so great
as to sink the disparity of force into insignificance. Our successes
had been unaccompanied by any important reverse. Nor was it alone
by the victories, but by the cruises, that the year was noteworthy.
The Yankee men-of-war sailed almost in sight of the British coast
and right in the tract of the merchant fleets and their armed
protectors. Our vessels had shown themselves immensely superior
to their foes.
The reason of these striking and unexpected successes was that our
navy in 1812 was the exact reverse of what our navy is now, in 1882.
I am not alluding to the personnel, which still remains excellent;
but, whereas we now have a large number of worthless vessels,
standing very low down in their respective classes, we then
possessed a few vessels, each unsurpassed by any foreign ship of
her class. To bring up our navy to the condition in which it stood
in 1812 it would not be _necessary_ (although in reality both very
wise and in the end very economical) to spend any more money than
at present; only instead of using it to patch up a hundred antiquated
hulks, it should be employed in building half a dozen ships on the
most effective model. If in 1812 our ships had borne the same relation
to the British ships that they do now, not all the courage and skill
of our sailors would have won us a single success. As it was, we
could only cope with the lower rates, and had no vessels to oppose
to the great "liners"; but to-day there is hardly any foreign ship,
no matter how low its rate, that is not superior to the corresponding
American ones. It is too much to hope that our political shortsightedness
will ever enable us to have a navy that is first-class in point of
size; but there certainly seems no reason why what ships we have
should not be of the very best quality. The effect of a victory is
two-fold, moral and material. Had we been as roughly handled on water
as we were on land during the first year of the war, such a succession
of disasters would have had a most demoralizing effect on the nation
at large. As it was, our victorious seafights, while they did not
inflict any material damage upon the colossal sea-might of England,
had the most important results in the feelings they produced at home
and even abroad. Of course they were magnified absurdly by most of
our writers at the time; but they do not need to be magnified, for
as they are any American can look back upon them with the keenest
national pride. For a hundred and thirty years England had had no
equal on the sea; and now she suddenly found one in the untried navy
of an almost unknown power.
BRITISH VESSELS CAPTURED OR DESTROYED IN 1812.
Name. Guns. Tonnage. Remarks.
_Guerrière_ 49 1,340
_Macedonian_ 49 1,325
_Java_ 49 1,340
_Frolic_ 19 477 Recaptured.
_Alert_ 20 323
_____ _______
186 4,807
19 477 Deducting Frolic.
_____ _______
167 4,330
AMERICAN VESSELS CAPTURED OR DESTROYED.
Name. Guns. Tonnage.
_Wasp_ 18 450
_Nautilus_ 14 185
_Vixen_ 14 185
_____ _______
46 820
VESSELS BUILT IN 1812.
Name. Rig. Guns. Tonnage. Where Built. Cost.
_Nonsuch_ Schooner 14 148 Charleston $15,000
_Carolina_ Schooner 14 230 " 8,743
_Louisiana_ Ship 16 341 New Orleans 15,500
PRIZES MADE. [Footnote: These can only be approximately given;
the records are often incomplete or contradictory, especially
as regards the small craft. Most accounts do not give by any
means the full number.]
Ship. No. of Prizes.
_President_ 1
_United States_ 2
_Constitution_ 9
_Congress_ 2
_Chesapeake_ 1
_Essex_ 11
_Wasp_ 2
_Hornet_ 1
_Argus_ 6
_Small Craft_ 5
__
46