blow at British commerce. A fleet of 100 English merchantmen from
Jamaica was expected to pass close to the North American coast and the
most formidable squadron we could then assemble, consisting of the
frigates _President_, _United States_ and _Congress_, with the sloop and
brig _Hornet_ and _Argus_, under the command of Captain John Rodgers,
was held in New York ready to sail. As soon as war was declared, June
18, 1812, a courier set out from Washington and in three days arrived in
New York—quick work for those days, but the information now could be
flashed in a few seconds.
One hour after receiving the news Rodgers got under way and on the
morning of the second day out spoke an American vessel and learned from
her master that he had seen the Jamaica fleet only two days before.
Rodgers made sail in the direction indicated, but he was drawn away in a
futile chase after the British frigate _Belvidera_. Afterward, however,
he resumed his pursuit of the merchant fleet and on July 1 he detected
“quantities of cocoanut shells and orange peels” in the water, which
showed that he was in the wake of the fleet. He followed this sea-trail
several days and was rapidly overtaking the chase, when he lost it in
the fogs on the Newfoundland Banks.
Floating bottles, pieces of wreckage, cask-heads and other ship debris
were the “clicks” of the first “marine wireless” that assisted our early
mariners in discovering the whereabouts of friend or foe on the high
seas. And even a marine “postoffice” was a service recognized early in
the 19th century—many years before it came into general use on land.
When our 32-gun frigate _Essex_ was making her memorable cruise in the
Pacific Ocean, 1813–1814, Captain David Porter records that he stopped
at Charles Island of the Galapagos in the southern Pacific Ocean to
examine the “postoffice”—a box nailed to a tree in which whalers and
other craft deposited records of their cruises and intended movements.
That these ocean “postoffices” were sometimes used for “misinformation”
is shown in the case of this same Captain Porter. One of these “postal
stations” in the Atlantic was the penal island of Fernando de Noronha,
off the extreme eastern limit of Brazil. This was a point usually
touched by vessels bound for the Cape of Good Hope or Cape Horn. While
Porter was cruising in the south Atlantic under orders to join the
_Constitution_ and _Hornet_, he hove-to off this port on December 14,
1812, and sending a boat ashore learned that there was a letter there
addressed to “Sir James Yeo, of the British 32-gun frigate
_Southampton_.” He also learned that only the week before the English
44-gun frigate “_Acasta_ and the 20-gun sloop of war _Morgiana_” had
stopped at that port and had sailed for Rio de Janeiro, leaving a letter
addressed to “Sir James Yeo.”
Before sailing from the United States Porter had been instructed to pose
as Sir James Yeo and was to join the _Constitution_ and _Hornet_, which
two vessels were to pass as the _Acasta_ and _Morgiana_, off Cape Frio,
Brazil. This was done to deceive the enemy. When Porter learned that
there was a letter at Fernando de Noronha addressed to “Sir James Yeo,”
he at once sent a present of porter and cheese to the governor of the
island and received the coveted letter. It was found to contain the
usual references of a voyage by a British commander, but some “key
words” induced Porter to hold the letter to the flame of a candle, when
the following instructions, written in sympathetic ink, became legible:
“I am bound off Bahia, thence off Cape Frio, where I intend to cruise
until the 1st of January. Go off Cape Frio, to the northward of Rio de
Janeiro, and keep a lookout for me. Your friend.”
Captain Porter did as ordered, but on December 29 the _Constitution_
captured, after a hard fight, the British frigate _Java_, and soon
afterward the _Hornet_ sank the English sloop of war _Peacock_. This
left the _Essex_ free to choose her own course and the result was her
memorable cruise of two years in the Pacific.
But the most remarkable instance of early marine wireless was that of
the chase after the _Constitution_ from Boston, across the Atlantic, by
a powerful British squadron, which, on March 10, 1815, cornered _Old
Ironsides_ in Port Praya, near the extreme western coast of Africa, on
the very day she entered that harbor and just seventy-six days after the
hostile vessels had sailed from the blockade of the New England port.
For more than eight months British cruisers had been holding the dreaded
_Constitution_—then commanded by Captain Charles Stewart—in the Hub,
but, late in December, 1814, she gave them the slip and once again was
in blue water. Running down to Bermuda, where he captured the merchant
ship _Lord Nelson_, Stewart stood across the Atlantic to the Madeiras
and then cruised for several days within sight of the Rock of Lisbon.
Shaping her course southward again the _Constitution_, on February 20,
1815, after a brilliant fight, captured the British cruisers _Cyane_ and
_Levant_ and with his two prizes entered Port Praya on the morning of
March 10.
Soon after the _Constitution_ made her escape from Boston, a terrific
snow storm, lasting several days, compelled the English blockading
squadron to take refuge in Cape Cod Bay. On December 22, while the
British officers were making themselves as comfortable as they could in
the bitter cold, the English 18-gun brig sloop _Arab_, Captain Henry
Jane, arrived with the startling information that the _Constitution_ had
escaped. At once there was a hurrying and scurrying for immediate
pursuit. Provisions, bought at an exorbitant price from the canny
landfolk, were hurried aboard and every preparation was made for a chase
of indefinite length.
But in what direction were they to pursue? Absolutely nothing is
recorded in the log of the British flagship as to what course the
_Constitution_ had taken. Here nautical sagacity, aided by the “wireless
telegraphy” then so remarkably in use on the high seas, came to the aid
of the British senior officer of the blockading force—Sir George
Collier, of the 50-gun frigate _Leander_. Sir George sagely conjectured
that the _Flying Yankee_ would most likely take a southern course so as
to escape the bitterly cold winter of New England. In those days there
were no means for heating the cabins, wardroom, steerage or berth decks
of ships, so a prolonged stay in the higher latitudes was a problem to
be seriously considered. Selecting the 50-gun frigate _Newcastle_,
Captain Lord George Stuart, and the 40-gun frigate _Acasta_, Captain
Kerr, to accompany him, Sir George, on December 24th, made sail in a
blind chase southward.
It seems that on the night of December 21st the famous American
privateer, _Prince de Neuchâtel_, also escaped from Boston and made the
same course the _Constitution_ had taken. When only a day or so out she
ran into the same storm that drove the English blockading ships into
Cape Cod Bay.
On the morning of December 28, just as the gale was abating and only
four days after the British squadron sailed, Sir George overtook the
_Prince de Neuchâtel_ and captured her; and from some of the Englishmen
who were aboard the privateer learned somewhat of the proposed itinerary
of the _Constitution_. With this first direct trace of his game, the
British commander shaped his course across the Atlantic for the coast of
Spain.
How eager the English were to capture the _Constitution_, above all
other American frigates, may be seen in the record of a sailor who was
in the _Prince de Neuchâtel_ at the time. He says that after being taken
aboard the _Leander_ as a prisoner he noticed a large placard nailed to
her mainmast, which read as follows:
REWARD.
“A reward of One Hundred pounds sterling to the man who shall first
descry the American frigate _Constitution_, provided she can be
brought to, and a smaller reward should they not be enabled to come up
with her.”
This same sailor writes: “Every one [in the _Leander_] was eager in his
inquiries about this far-famed frigate and most of the men appeared
anxious to fall in with her, she being a constant theme of conversation,
speculation and curiosity. There were, however, two seamen and a
marine—one of whom had had his shin sadly shattered from one of her
grape-shot—who were in the frigate _Java_ when she was captured. These I
have often heard say, in return to their shipmates’ boastings: ‘If you
had seen as much of the _Constitution_ as we have, you would give her a
wide berth, for she throws her shot almighty careless, fires quick, aims
low and is, altogether, an ugly customer.’”
Continuing on his trail of the much-coveted Yankee frigate, Sir George,
on January 4, 1815,—seven days after sailing—while off the Western
Isles, received another “wireless click” when he picked up a prize brig
belonging to the American privateer _Perry_ and from her master learned
that the _Perry_ had spoken the _Constitution_ only a few days before,
on a course that would indicate that she was making for the coast of
Spain. As a matter of fact, this powerful British squadron was at that
moment only a few hours’ sail from the _Constitution_.
Touching at the port of Fayal, January 13th, 1815, Sir George’s chase
after _Old Ironsides_ nearly terminated in disaster. A record left by
one of the American prisoners in the _Leander_ says: “We ran in with a
southwest wind that had freshened to a stiff breeze till coming under
the lee of the Peak of Pico, opposite to Fayal. This aided a little in
breaking the wind and the heavy swell which came rolling in from the
open sea beyond. Immediately to leeward was a rocky, perpendicular bluff
of three hundred feet in height, which the sea was breaking against with
the greatest fury.
“I had taken my perch upon the booms so as to have a chance of clearly
seeing the working of the frigate, as well as the different objects of
curiosity within my range.... The anchor was let go and the cable spun
out to its entire length with the most fearful swiftness. But when all
was out the frigate still went, stern-on, toward the bluff, as though
the anchor was yet at the cathead. When she had drifted so as to be
without the shelter of the Peak and exposed to the wind and heavy swell,
both driving her on to inevitable destruction, unless suddenly checked
in her course, none was so blind as not to see the peril, the almost
instant annihilation with which the frigate was threatened, and in a
twinkling it was known that the anchor had not taken hold, but was
dragging.
“What means were adopted for the safety of the ship I know not, for my
curiosity had full employment in following the old commodore [Sir George
Collier] about the deck in his mad ravings. I have read and heard much
of the coolness, intrepidity and readiness of the English naval officers
in all sudden cases of emergency and danger; and this commodore was one
of the oldest in commission and a staunch veteran in the service. He had
seen long service, fought many a fight, been slashed and cut to
disfiguration—as his numerous scars plainly told—had had one of his legs
broken at three different places, at three separate periods between the
hip and knee, each setting worse than the last, making his leg crooked,
more crooked, most crooked.
“When he saw that the frigate was gathering sternway toward the bluff,
he raved, stormed and swore at the ship, cable, anchor, officers, men,
boys, hell and the devil, clinching each oath separately by a whack of
his cane at and on everything within his reach. Now he was running
toward the wheel at the stern, then furiously driving across the deck to
the hawseholes at the bow, tacking first to larboard, then to the
starboard side of the ship; yelling at the first lieutenant for not
making the anchor hold on, swearing at the anchor for not obeying the
lieutenant, damning the cable for not being longer, the water for being
so deep, the bottom for lying so low; and, at last, when he had nothing
else to crisp with his red-hot blessings, he blasted his own eyes,
heart, liver and lights, winding up with a curse upon the prisoners,
conveying their souls in a trice to the lower regions without benefit of
clergy, for being the cause of all the disasters in store for him and
his frigate—henceforth and forever.
“I was as fully sensible of the danger of our situation as any one, but
I could not suppress my laughter at the antics which this hero of many
wars was cutting about the decks. I have no simile nor comparison for
his movements, for, verily, there is none. It was not a
hitch-and-go-ahead, nor a half-hitch and side lurch; neither was it a
back-and-fill, balance-haul or a bob-and-hop, straddling slide. No more
like a cock-and-primed, tip-toe dance than a toe-and-heel,
fore-and-after is like a cut-and-thrust, forward-spring, a
back-staggering or blinker-wiper. It partook of the whole in about equal
parts. In fact, I could liken his run with his crooked leg to nothing
but the effort of the crab to walk upright upon a slippery surface,
doggedly intent to win the wager of the half-blown terrapin, who, in the
same attitude, is being balked in his first trial at the double-shuffle
by attempting it in a wig, gown and Wellingtons instead of short-cuts
and pumps and going at it with sleeves rolled up as an honest one
should.
“At last the second anchor brought her up, and lucky it was that it did,
for she had drifted within a few minutes’ distance of the bluff, where
the frigate would not have held together five minutes. With the
freshened winds and lashing waves throwing the spray mast-high, every
soul on board must have been lost, for the water was deep and the first
thing the frigate would have struck was the perpendicular cliff—three
hundred feet high and of unknown depth below.”
After this narrow escape Sir George transferred his prisoners to the
sloop of war _Pheasant_ and, after replenishing his stores, resumed his
chase after the Yankee frigate. Just what course was pursued by the
commander from this point is not shown in American or British records.
It is a fact, however, that the presence of the _Constitution_ in
European waters was known in many ocean ports and that several British
cruisers were sent out from Lisbon, Gibraltar and other nearby ports to
intercept her.
It was, undoubtedly, by means of this “wireless marine telegraphy” that
Sir George so shaped his course, after leaving Fayal, that he arrived
off Port Praya, March 10, 1815, only a few hours after the
_Constitution_ with her two prizes, the _Cyane_ and _Levant_, had
entered that harbor. The miraculous escape of the American frigate from
Sir George’s overwhelming force in the offing of Port Praya is a matter
of history. It is recorded that he was so chagrined over the
extraordinary escape of the _Constitution_—after he had so successfully
followed her, by means of the first “marine wireless,” across the
Atlantic—that ten years afterward, on being reminded of the incident, he
committed suicide.
SKETCHES OF WILLIAM DUNLAP, THOMAS P. JOHNSON AND THOMAS SHARP,
DISTINGUISHED IRISH AMERICANS DURING REVOLUTIONARY TIMES.
BY JAMES L. O’NEILL OF ELIZABETH, N. J., A MEMBER OF THE EXECUTIVE
COUNCIL.
The following short series of articles relate to distinguished people of
our race who played prominent parts in the stirring scenes during the
Revolution, and whose memoirs are full of interesting anecdotes and
descriptions of those times.
William Dunlap, son of Samuel Dunlap, who was a native of Ireland,
Thomas P. Johnson, one of the prominent members of the New Jersey Bar
100 years ago, and others are referred to. Mr. Dunlap himself, in his
memoirs, gives a graphic description of Revolutionary scenes in New
Jersey. Another of the articles is a history by Thomas Sharp, a member
of the Society of Friends, of Newton, Gloucester County, N. J. The brief
history is here quoted exactly as compiled by the ancient author, and
its quaint language, with its disregard for spelling and construction,
is interesting. Thatcher, a military writer of that time, gives a
characteristic anecdote of Washington, which is here appended.
REVOLUTIONARY TIMES IN PERTH AMBOY.
Perth Amboy, N. J., was the home of Governor Franklin, who was made a
prisoner by the Colonials in the Revolution, and sent to Connecticut for
safe-keeping.
William Dunlap, painter and author, was also a native of Perth Amboy,
and a graphic description of “olden times” is contained in his own
memoirs in his “History of the Arts of Design.” He says:
“I was born in the city of Perth Amboy and province of New Jersey. My
father, Samuel Dunlap, was a native of the north of Ireland and son of a
merchant of Londonderry. In youth he was devoted to the army and bore
the colors of the Forty-seventh Regiment, ‘Wolfe’s Own,’ on the Plains
of Abraham. He was borne wounded from the field on which his commander
triumphed and died. After the French war, Dunlap, then a lieutenant in
the Forty-Seventh, and stationed at Perth Amboy, married Margaret
Sargent, of that place, and retired from the army to the quiet of a
country town and country store. The 19th of February, 1766, is
registered as the date of my birth, and being an only child, the
anniversary of the important day was duly celebrated by my indulgent
parents. Of education I had none, in the usual sense of the word, owing
to circumstances I shall mention, and much of that which is to the child
most essential was bad.
“Holding negroes in slavery was, in those days, the common practice, and
the voices of those who protested against the custom were not heeded.
Every house in my native place where any servants were to be seen
swarmed with black slaves. My father’s kitchen had several families of
them, of all ages and all born in the family except one, who was called
a new negro, and who had his face tattooed. His language was scarcely
intelligible, though he had been long in the country, and was an old
man. These blacks indulged me, of course, and I sought the kitchen as
the place to find playmates and amusements suited to my taste. Thus in
the mirth and games of the negroes, and the variety of visitors of the
black race who frequented the place, my desires were shaped. This may be
considered my first school, and, indeed, such was the education of many
a boy in the states where the practice of slavery continued. The infant
was taught to tyrannize, the boy was taught to despise labor, the mind
of the child was contaminated by hearing and seeing that which, perhaps,
was not understood at the time but which remained in the memory. These
kitchen associations were increased during a part of the Revolution by
soldiers, who found their mess fare improved by visiting the negroes,
and by servants of officers billeted in the house.
“Perth Amboy being now in the possession of the British, my father
returned with his family to his home, and I saw in my native town,
particularly after the battles of Princeton and Trenton, all the
discomforts of a crowded camp and garrison. An army which had recently
passed in triumph from the sea to the banks of the Delaware, and chosen
its winter quarters at pleasure, was now driven in, crowded upon a shore
washed by the Atlantic, and defended by the guns of the ships which had
borne it thence.
“I have elsewhere compared the scenes I now witnessed to the dramatic
scenes of Wallenstein’s Lager. Here was centered in addition to the
soldiery cantoned at the place all those drawn in from the Delaware,
Princeton and Brunswick, together with the flower of the army, English,
Scotch, and German, which had been brought in from Rhode Island. Here
was to be seen a party of the Forty-Second Highlanders in national
costume, and there a regiment of Hessians, their dress and arms a wide
contrast to the first. The slaves of Anspach and Waldeck were there, the
first somber as night, the second gaudy as noonday. Here dashed by a
party of the Seventeenth dragoons, and there scampered a party of
Yagers. The trim, neat and graceful English Grenadier, the careless and
half-savage Highlander, with his flowing robes and naked knees, and the
stiff German, could hardly be taken as members of one army. Here might
be seen soldiers driving in cattle, and others guarding wagons loaded
with household furniture instead of the hay and oats they had been sent
for.
“The landing of the grenadiers and light infantry from the ships which
transported the troops from Rhode Island; their proud march into the
hostile neighborhood, to gather the produce of the farmer for the
garrison; the sound of the musketry, which soon rolled back upon us; the
return of the disabled veterans who could retrace their steps; and the
heavy march of the discomfited troops, with their wagons of groaning
wounded, in the evening, are all impressed on my mind as pictures of the
horrors and the soul-stirring events of war.
“These scenes and others more disgusting—the flogging of English men and
thumping and caning of German—which even my tender years could not
prevent me from seeing all around, and the increased disorder among my
fathers’ negroes, from mingling with the servants of officers, these
were my sources of instruction in the winter of 1776–1777.”
[Illustration:
JAMES H. DEVLIN. Jr.,
Of Boston, Mass.
President of the Boston Charitable Irish Society, now in its 172d
Year.
]
THOMAS P. JOHNSON, NOTED LAWYER ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO.
Among the distinguished men who have adorned the New Jersey bar few, in
their day, were held in higher repute for eloquence and extensive legal
knowledge, and especially for intellectual vigor and versatility of
talent, than Thomas P. Johnson.
He was born about the year 1761. His parents were Friends. His father,
William Johnson, a native of Ireland, emigrated to this country about
1747. He married Ruth Potts, of Trenton. Thomas was their second child.
When he was quite small the family removed to Charleston, S. C., where
the father established a flourishing boarding-school and gained much
repute by his lectures on various branches of Natural Philosophy. His
fondness for such studies seemed to have been inherited by the son, who
even in his later years continued to turn his attention to them. The
father died in the South, after a residence of some years there. The
mother, with five children, returned to her native state, and with the
aid of her brother opened a store in Trenton. There Thomas was placed an
apprentice to a carpenter[3] and joiner. After following this business
some time he was compelled, by a rupture of a blood vessel in the lungs,
to abandon it. He then engaged in teaching in Hunterdom County and
afterwards in Bucks County, Pa.—later then in Philadelphia. For this
profession he had rare qualifications. Few men had such powers of
communication; few could so simplify truth, and throw an interest around
it to captivate the youthful mind.
Footnote 3:
The annexed anecdote was communicated to the compiler by a resident of
Trenton: At one of the neighboring courts a dispute arose between
Johnson and his opponent respecting a point of law, during which the
latter remarked in a taunting, derisive manner, “That he was not to be
taught law by a carpenter.” “May it please your honors,” replied Mr.
Johnson, “the gentleman has been pleased to allude to my having been a
carpenter. True, I was a carpenter. I am proud of it. So was our Lord
and Saviour. And I could yet, given a block of wood, a mallet and a
chisel, hew something that would very much resemble that gentleman’s
head. True, I could not put in brains, but it would have more
manners.”