ONCE MORE THE _CONSTITUTION_
SHE WAS A LONG TIME IDLE IN PORT--A TOUCHING TALE OF SENTIMENT--AWAY
AT LAST--CAPTAIN STEWART’S PRESENTIMENT--FOUND TWO OF THE ENEMY AS
HE HAD PREDICTED--A BATTLE WHERE THE YANKEE SHOWED MASTERY OF THE
SEAMAN’S ART--CAPTAIN STEWART SETTLED A DISPUTE--CAUGHT NAPPING
IN PORTO PRAYA--SWIFT WORK GETTING TO SEA--A MOST REMARKABLE
CHASE--THREE BRITISH FRIGATES IN CHASE OF TWO YANKEE CHOSE TO
FOLLOW THE SMALLER WHEN THE TWO SPLIT TACKS--ASTOUNDING EXHIBIT
OF BAD MARKSMANSHIP--A CAUSE OF SUICIDE--THE POEM THAT SAVED _OLD
IRONSIDES_.
For almost two years, and long and weary ones they were to the
ambitious officers connected with her, the famous old frigate
_Constitution_ lay idle in the port of Boston, while the ships of less
repute in the Navy were telling the world of the prowess of Yankee
seamen when fighting for freedom. She had been found in such a state of
decay on her return from her combat with the British frigate _Java_,
that it was necessary to haul her out and rebuild her.
More than half of her crew were transferred to the Great Lakes, and,
as has been told, some of them were on Lake Erie to help Perry win
lasting fame, while some saw Chauncey fill and back in the presence of
Sir James Yeo on Lake Ontario.
However, in December, 1813, she was ready for sea, and with a new
crew of well-selected men under Captain Charles Stewart, she sailed
on a little cruise that neither added to nor detracted from her fame.
Leaving Boston on the 30th of the month, she was for seventeen days at
sea without seeing a sail. On February 14th, however, on the coast of
Surinam, she overhauled the British war-schooner _Picton_, of sixteen
guns, which she captured together with a letter of marque that was in
convoy. It is perhaps worth noting that the difference between a letter
of marque and a privateer is this: while both are licensed to prey on
the enemy, the principal business of the letter of marque is to carry
cargo.
[Illustration: Charles Stewart.
_From a painting by Sully, at the Naval Academy, Annapolis._]
On working her way homeward the _Constitution_ fell in with the
thirty-six-gun British frigate _La Pique_, Captain Maitland, off Porto
Rico. Time had been, and that not so long before, when a British
frigate of that size would have come booming down on the _Constitution_
eager for a fight. But the results of a few such boomings had taken the
“uncircumspect gallantry” out of the British Admiralty if not out of
all the British commanders. Captain Maitland had written orders not to
engage a ship of the weight of the _Constitution_, and he up-helm and
ran for it. Night coming on, he escaped through Mona passage. James
says that the crew of _La Pique_ felt so very badly when they found
that they were to run instead of fight, that they positively refused to
take their evening’s allowance of grog.
The _Constitution_ arrived off Cape Ann on April 3, 1814, and
there found the two big British frigates _Junon_ and _Tenedos_ in
chase of her. By throwing over provisions and starting her water
the _Constitution_ reached the harbor of Marblehead. This port was
undefended by forts, and it is asserted by the British that Captain
Parker, of the _Tenedos_, wanted to go in and have a fight, but was
prevented by Captain Upton, of the _Junon_, who was the ranking
officer. In any event, they did not go in nor did they prevent the
_Constitution_ leaving Marblehead for Salem soon afterward. Then she
returned to Boston once more and there she remained until December 17,
1814, when she sailed out of Boston, still under command of Captain
Stewart, while the blockading ships were temporarily off port. And then
came the cruise in which, as Maclay says, “she achieved her greatest
triumph and performed her most brilliant service.”
[Illustration: The _Constitution’s_ Escape from the _Tenedos_ and
_Junon_.
_From an old wood-cut._]
The news that “the _Constitution_ is again cruising,” was quickly
learned on the blockading squadron on its return to the station, for
the British had spies a-plenty in all American ports, and especially
among the Federalist party in New England. The dread announcement
was sent by every passing British vessel in all directions, “and
thereafter British ships-of-the-line maintained a double lookout, and
their smaller frigates sailed in couples, while their sloops-of-war
stood away from every sail that bore the least resemblance to the
_Constitution_.”
On December 24th, off the Bermudas, the British merchant-ship _Lord
Nelson_ was taken. She sailed thence by the way of the Madeiras to the
Portuguese coast, and there “for several days cruised within sight
of the Rock of Lisbon.” Here, on February 18, 1815, Captain Stewart
went in chase of the big liner _Elizabeth_ without knowing what he was
after, but he left her to follow a smaller sail seen a little later,
and so fell in with a British merchant-ship, the _Susan_, which was
taken.
Meantime, the British liner arrived at Lisbon, where he learned that
the _Constitution_ was offshore. And as it happened, the British
frigate _Tiber_ was there and the _Tiber_ was commanded by the Captain
Dacres who had been so handsomely beaten in the _Guerrière_ by the
_Constitution_ under Hull. Straightway the two started in chase of the
Yankee, but they never had the satisfaction of overtaking her. For the
_Constitution_, with equal, if not greater, speed, was returning once
more down-wind toward the Madeiras.
A right curious story of this passage is told by Richard Watson Gilder
in “Hours at Home.” He says that, on February 19th, while a group of
lieutenants were standing on the quarter-deck of the _Constitution_
talking about the fact that they had met no enemy of equal force during
the cruise, and calling it ill-luck, they were approached by Captain
Stewart, who had overheard their talk. He said:
“I assure you, gentlemen, that before the sun again rises and sets, you
will be engaged in battle with the enemy, and it will not be with a
single ship.”
Captain Stewart was a man subject to presentiments. He believed in
them, and this one foreshadowed a combat such as he described and
within the time-limit.
By noon of the next day (February 20, 1815) the _Constitution_ had
arrived within one hundred and eighty miles of Madeira, which then
bore southwest-by-west. A light easterly breeze was drifting over the
water, and the sky was cloudy, when at 1 o’clock in the afternoon a
sail was seen a little on the port bow. Hauling the _Constitution_
up to the point, Captain Stewart made all sail in chase, and an hour
later discovered a second sail in company with, but beyond, the first.
By this time the first ship’s hull was above the horizon, and because
of false ports painted on her side she had somewhat of the look of a
fifty-gun ship. When this was suggested by a lieutenant to Captain
Stewart, however, he replied that she did not look as large as that,
and then added:
“Be this as it may, you know I promised you a fight before the setting
of to-day’s sun, and if we do not take it now that it is offered, we
can scarcely have another chance. We must flog them when we catch them,
whether she has one gun-deck or two!”
As it appeared later on, the first of these sails was the small
British frigate _Cyane_, Captain Thomas Gordon Falcon, and the second
the ship-rigged sloop-of-war _Levant_, Captain the Honorable George
Douglas. Both were standing to the north and east with the wind coming
in over the starboard bow, the smaller vessel being several miles away
astern and in the lee of the larger one.
As the _Constitution_, with her studding-sails bellying aloft, came
driving down the wind, the _Cyane_ began signalling to her consort, and
a little later (it was just after 4 o’clock) she up with her helm and,
wearing around, spread all her sails to join the _Levant_.
The very beautiful chase that followed was prolonged, rather than
shortened, by a freshening breeze, because under the pressure of its
wide-spread canvas the _Constitution’s_ main-royalmast broke off at the
eyes of the top-gallant rigging, and for maybe fifteen minutes there
was a lively time aloft in getting a new mast up and the canvas pulling
once more.
She had held her own with the _Cyane_, even while crippled, and when
all sail was once more spread the _Constitution_ quickly overhauled the
little British frigate and at 5 o’clock tried a few shots at her with
the bow-chasers, all of which, however, fell short.
So the _Cyane_ arrived unhurt alongside of her consort, the _Levant_,
where both determined to fight the Yankee frigate, and stripped down
to fighting canvas. A moment later they seemed to have thought it
advisable to put off the combat until night should come, in order to
get the advantage of manœuvring in the dark, and they once more up-helm
and made sail. But they soon saw that the _Constitution_ was upon
them--that no delay was possible--and coming back to the starboard
tack, with sails rap full, they formed in line, the little frigate
_Cyane_ about two hundred yards astern of the _Levant_, and so awaited
the _Constitution_.
[Illustration: DIAGRAM OF THE BATTLE OF THE CONSTITUTION WITH CYANE and
LEVANT.]
The _Constitution_ had come ploughing down with the wind over her port
quarter. As she arrived opposite the two ships she stripped off her
canvas, as a fighter his shirt, and wearing around she ranged up on the
starboard tack to windward of the two Britishers, and at 6.10 o’clock,
with the _Cyane_ two hundred and fifty yards away on the port quarter,
and the _Levant_ as far away on the port bow, opened fire on both. The
plucky seamen of the British ships replied instantly, and for fifteen
minutes every gun on all three ships that could be brought to bear was
worked with the fiercest energy. The huge cloud of smoke that arose
from the Yankee guns completely fogged in the enemy, but the enemy’s
fire had notably slackened away, and Captain Stewart ordered his men to
cease firing in order that he might see where the enemy lay.
As the smoke drifted down-wind, the spars of the sloop _Levant_ were
disclosed right abeam. The _Constitution_ had forged ahead in the
fifteen minutes’ firing, and she had the _Levant_ directly under her
guns. But because the _Constitution_ had forged ahead, the _Cyane_ had
obtained a little more sea-room, as well as immunity from the fire of
the _Constitution_, and she was just beginning to luff up across the
_Constitution’s_ stern when the thinning smoke revealed her.
An opportunity for a most beautiful display of Yankee seamanship
had come. Firing a staggering blow from double-shotted guns at the
_Levant_ off his lee beam, Captain Stewart threw the sails on the
_Constitution’s_ main and mizzen masts flat aback, and then bracing
in the foresails till they just fluttered in the breeze, he drove her
stern on, back across the bow of the luffing English frigate, and
raking her fore and aft, compelled her to fill away. Then after partly
filling his sails, to keep the _Constitution_ beside the enemy, he
fired such deadly broadsides into her that the men were driven from
her guns, and her fire almost ceased. As a right good song says:
Then a lifting rift in the mist showed up
The stout _Cyane_ close-hauled
To swing in our wake and our quarter rake,
And a boasting Briton bawled:
“Starboard or larboard we’ve got him fast
Where his heels won’t take him through;
Let him luff or wear, he’ll find us there--
Ho, Yankee! Which will you do?”
We did not luff and we did not wear,
But braced our top-sails back,
Till the sternway drew in fair and true
Broadsides athwart her track.
Athwart her track and across her bows
We raked her fore and aft,
And out of the fight and into the night
Drifted the beaten craft.
But at 6.35 o’clock a new complication had arisen. The _Levant_,
lying ahead of her consort, _Cyane_, and out of the fire of the
_Constitution_, began to luff up where she could rake the Yankee.
But the wakeful Captain Stewart had his eyes on her, and as she
sailed up to cross the _Constitution’s_ bows he rapidly filled the
_Constitution’s_ sails, put his helm up, bluffed the _Cyane_ down to
leeward, and, running forward, crossed under the stern of the _Levant_
and gave her two raking broadsides in swift succession.
For the moment the _Levant_ had had enough, and sheeting home her
top-gallant sails, she sped away from the giant Yankee.
At that the little frigate _Cyane_ began to wear around before the
wind as if to escape also, but the Yankee wore around after her with
greater speed, and crossing her stern from starboard to port, raked
her much as the _Levant_ had been raked. At that the _Cyane_ came
farther around and fired her port battery into the starboard bow of the
_Constitution_, but when, at exactly 6.50 o’clock, the _Constitution_
ranged up beside her, she hauled down her flag. It was just forty
minutes since the action at close range began. Second Lieutenant B. V.
Hoffman, of the _Constitution_, was at once sent to take charge of the
_Cyane_.
This much accomplished, the _Constitution_ stood up-wind in chase of
the _Levant_, that had made sail to get out of the fight, and soon saw
her coming “very gallantly back to find out his friend’s condition.”
Here, indeed, was the “uncircumspect gallantry” of which Sir Howard
Douglas speaks. For the _Levant_ met the _Constitution_ at 8.50
o’clock, just two hours after the _Cyane_ had surrendered. Captain the
Honorable George Douglas should have known that the little frigate
_Cyane_ could have had no hope in the fight alone with the giant
Yankee--that he himself would have still less in returning. It was
a foolhardy movement, yet one that necessarily appeals for sympathy
to the fighting men of both nations. The _Levant_ luffed to pass to
windward of the _Constitution_, failed, passed to leeward, and the two
exchanged broadsides. Then the _Levant_ spread everything to escape,
but the _Constitution_ wore around in chase, and by 9.30 was sending
shot from her bow-chasers into the fleeing Englishman. At that the
_Levant_ also hauled down her flag.
[Illustration:
_Levant._
_Constitution._
_Cyane._
Action of the _Constitution_ with the _Cyane_ and _Levant_.
_From an aquatint by Strickland._]
As the _Levant’s_ flag came down, John Lancey, of Cape Ann, one of the
_Constitution’s_ men, was dying under the surgeon’s hands. The surgeon
had told him that death was near, and the man replied:
“Yes, sir, I know it. But I only want to hear that the other ship has
struck.”
A moment later the Yankees on deck began to cheer, and, hearing them,
Lancey raised his head, waved an arm that had been partly shot away,
gave three feeble cheers, and fell back dead.
Another tale of the battle says that after the British captains were in
the _Constitution’s_ cabin a midshipman came in to ask Captain Stewart
if the men could have their evening grog. As the time for serving it
had passed before the battle began, Captain Stewart asked if they had
not had it already, and the midshipman replied, to the astonishment of
the Englishmen:
“No, sir. It was mixed ready for serving just before the battle began,
but the older sailors of the crew said they didn’t want any ‘Dutch
courage’ on board and capsized the grog-tub in the lee scuppers.”
Later still the two Englishmen, according to Gilder, got into a heated
dispute, each blaming the other for making manœuvres that lost the
battle, but Stewart stopped the quarrel. He said:
“Gentlemen, there is no use in getting warm about it; it would have
been all the same whatever you might have done. If you doubt that, I
will put you all on board again and you can try it over.”
As to the relative force, Allen says that the _Cyane_ was of a class
known as “donkey frigates,” and that she carried twenty-two short
thirty-twos on the main deck and eight short eighteens and two nines
on quarter-deck and forecastle. Lieutenant Hoffman, who took charge
of her, says she had two more short eighteens. This is no doubt the
truth of the matter. It is agreed that the _Levant_ carried eighteen
short thirty-twos, two long nines, and a short twelve that could be
worked on either side. The two together carried a crew of three hundred
and twenty, of whom thirty-nine were boys, according to Allen. The
combined crews could fire a broadside of seven hundred and fifty-four
pounds to the _Constitution’s_ six hundred and forty-four pounds net
weight. Without mentioning the _Constitution’s_ number of men, which
was at most four hundred and fifty-six, we can concede what Allen
claims, the “immense superiority” of the Yankee. For not only were the
long twenty-fours of the _Constitution_ far and away better than the
short thirty-twos of the British ships, just as the long guns of the
_Phœbe_ and _Cherub_ were superior to the short guns of the _Essex_
at Valparaiso: the crew of the _Constitution_ had been trained very
much better than any ordinary British crew. More important still, the
force of the _Constitution_ was concentrated in a single ship under
the command of one able man. The force of the British was divided
between two ships and could not be so well handled. When the British
Court of Inquiry at Halifax “applauded” the British officers “for the
gallant defence each had made,” it did something which an American
writer finds pleasure in placing before American readers. But when,
as Allen relates, “the Court also expressed to the remaining crew of
the _Cyane_, in the strongest terms, the sense entertained of their
determined loyalty in resisting the temptations held out by the enemy
to draw them from their allegiance, which they retained also under
circumstances of almost unprecedented severity exercised toward them
whilst on board the _Constitution_,” it placed on its records a
falsehood. The charge was false on its face, for the lowest count of
the crew of the _Constitution_, after the battle, as printed in any
American work, gives her four hundred and forty-four men, of whom
ten, at most, were wounded more or less. After manning her prizes she
still had an ample crew to work the ship and man another prize or two.
Because the Yankee sailors were treated like men, were well-fed and
well-paid, the Yankee frigates in this war, with the exception of the
black-listed _Chesapeake_, were fully manned. There was no occasion for
recruiting among the British prisoners. Moreover, when this falsehood
was first published, the officers of the _Constitution_ denied under
oath the charge, and said further, that, instead of trying to seduce
the British crews, many of the British seamen volunteered to ship
on board the _Constitution_ but were in no case permitted to do so,
because “the loss of the _Chesapeake_ had taught us the danger of
having renegades aboard.”
[Illustration: Medal Awarded to Charles Stewart after the Battle of the
_Constitution_ with the _Cyane_ and _Levant_.]
The _Constitution_ lost six killed and nine more or less wounded. The
donkey frigate _Cyane_ lost twelve killed and twenty-six wounded out
of her crew of one hundred and eighty; the _Levant_ lost seven killed
and sixteen wounded out of one hundred and forty. The British gunners
did about as poorly as usual in their Navy of that day. The Yankee
gunners did rather worse than usual. They were at close range long
enough to sink both of the enemy’s ships had they done as well as the
_Hornet’s_ crew did with the British _Peacock_, or the _Wasp_ with the
British _Avon_. The battle was, and is, famous not for its gunnery, but
for the magnificent manner in which Captain Stewart handled his ship.
Other captains--Hull and Bainbridge, for instance--had handled her
when a single enemy turned and twisted and fore-reached, but Stewart
backed and filled and reached and wore to meet the manœuvres of two
ships that, commanded by the ablest of British seamen, strove to cross
and rake him. And not only did he meet their movements--not only did
he avoid a raking himself, but he raked each of them repeatedly. No
better seamanship was ever displayed.
By hard work after the battle, the Yankee seamen got all three ships in
sailing order before 2 o’clock next morning, and they sailed to Porto
Praya, in the island of St. Jago, Cape de Verde, where they arrived on
March 10, 1815. Here a merchant brig was employed as a cartel to carry
the prisoners. The next day came on with a thick fog lying low over
the water while the air above the top-gallant yards was comparatively
clear. The Americans were busy at 12.05 o’clock (noon) transferring the
prisoners, when a large sail was seen from the deck standing into the
harbor. There was plainly no lookout aloft, and Captain Stewart was
well-nigh caught napping.
Stewart, however, was cool enough for the emergency, and had all
hands called to their quarters to go out and meet the new ship, but
when this was done two other huge sails were seen and it became
evident that three large frigates were coming into the harbor. As
was eventually learned, they were the fifty-gun frigate _Newcastle_,
Captain Lord George Stewart; the fifty-gun frigate _Leander_, Captain
Sir Ralph Collier, K.C.B., and the forty-gun _Acasta_, Captain
Robert Kerr, ships that should have been blockading Boston when the
_Constitution_ escaped. Either of the larger ships was an overmatch
for the _Constitution_. It was a neutral port, but the British regard
for neutrality had been shown at Valparaiso and Fayal, and there was
nothing to do but to run for liberty.
Signalling to his prizes to follow, Captain Stewart cut his cable,
and so well-trained were the American officers and men that within
ten minutes from the time the first ship of the enemy was seen, the
_Constitution_ and her two prizes were standing out of the harbor
together. Though less spectacular than the manœuvres in the battle, the
celerity, skill, and unanimity with which the Americans executed this
movement show their seamanship quite as plainly.
As the American ships sailed through the fog the guns in the battery
on shore began to roar. A number of prisoners who had been on shore on
the business of fitting the cartel for sea had taken possession of the
Portuguese forts and were firing signal-guns to attract the attention
of the British ships. But the British ships were coming from the
south--they were beating up against a good northeast breeze, and the
Yankee and her prizes hugged the east side of the port and slipped out
very well to windward of the enemy.
Until clear of the north point of the harbor the Yankees sailed under
nothing higher than their top-sails; not even their higher yards
were across, and so it happened that they escaped the eyes of the
British lookouts. But when the point was cleared, top-gallant sail and
royal-yards were crossed and the sails instantly spread to the breeze,
to the astonishment of the lookouts perched above the fog-bank on the
British ships. To them it was as if the Yankee sails had grown by magic
up into the air and were sailing unsupported on the top of a cloud.
But if magical to the lookouts, it was sober business for the
commanders below, who, by a series of “blunders” (James says so), had
happened on the retreat of the ship they had failed to hold in Boston,
and a race began such as had rarely stirred the souls of those engaged.
Once clear of land the _Constitution_ cut adrift two boats that were
towing astern. She was only a mile or so to windward of the enemy,
and as the point was cleared, all six of the ships were on the port
tack lying close up to the wind. The _Constitution’s_ log says that
at 12.50 o’clock she was holding her own with the _Newcastle_ and
_Leander_, on her lee quarter, while the _Acasta_, about dead astern,
was dropping out of the race. And the log of the Acasta notes that the
_Constitution_ was gaining on her while she herself gained on the two
prizes.
At 1.10 Captain Stewart ordered the _Cyane_ to tack, and Lieutenant
Hoffman, in command, obeyed. The _Cyane_ was rapidly dropping into
the clutches of the enemy before that, but now she sailed away
and escaped altogether, the three British ships holding after the
_Constitution_ and _Levant_.
[Illustration: Charles Stewart
(and the Battle of the _Constitution_ with the _Cyane_ and _Levant_).
_From a lithograph at the Naval Academy, Annapolis._]
Thirty-five minutes after the _Cyane_ had tacked away, the _Newcastle_,
the leading British ship, opened fire on the _Constitution_. The ships
were close enough for the officers, standing on the hammock-nettings,
to see each other, but the shots all fell short, so firing ceased and
the ships stood along in the close-hauled race until 3 o’clock, when
the _Levant_ had lagged close enough to the enemy to be in real danger.
So Captain Stewart signalled her to tack, as the _Cyane_ had done,
whereat, to the astonishment of the Yankees, all three of the British
frigates tacked after her, and the _Constitution_ sailed away free.
The explanation made by the British writers regarding this
remarkable episode is that the commanders of both the _Newcastle_
and the _Leander_ supposed that the little _Levant_ was either
the “_President_, _Congress_, or _Macedonian_.” It is difficult
for an unbiassed mind to see how this helps them any. Suppose it
had been the big Yankee frigate _President_ instead of a little
low-decked-sloop-of-war? How did it happen that two frigates, each of
which was of greater force than the Yankee _President_ and another that
was of but little less force, were needed to capture “the waggon?”
We cannot know what was in the minds of these British captains, but
we do know that the British Admiralty had warned the captains of
British frigates to take a reef in their “uncircumspect gallantry,”
so to speak. They were, as the captain of the _Phœbe_ said when after
the _Essex_, to capture the Yankee frigates with the least possible
danger to themselves. They were to take no risks. Granting that these
two British captains really made an honest mistake in supposing a
little sloop was a big Yankee frigate--granting it, although James
called Rodgers a coward for making, as James says he did, a similar
mistake--they abandoned the ship which they fully believed to be a
frigate to chase _a manifestly smaller ship_, a ship that we may grant
they imagined was the “_Congress_ or _Macedonian_.”
It is very likely presumptuous for a landsman to tell what lesson
is taught by any event at sea, but if the action of these three big
British frigates shows anything, it shows the tremendous influence
for evil which such orders as that of the British Admiralty are sure
to have. Nothing more impressive is to be found in Mahan’s learned
work on the influence of the sea power than what he says about the
demoralization that followed, among the French naval officers, when a
very similar order was issued by the French Marine Department. For the
head of a navy department to warn the captains of the naval ships to
be prudent--to in any way mention to them any such word as prudence--is
to give a shield to those who are by nature cowards, and a blow in the
face to those who are by nature brave and ambitious and enterprising.
The most serious blunder made by any American in authority during the
War of 1812 was made by the Secretary of the Navy when he sent an
order to Boston for the _Constitution_ to remain in port after her
escape from Broke’s squadron. Had not Captain Hull, with an enterprise
and daring that will never be sufficiently praised, taken her to sea
without waiting for further orders, these stories of American victories
afloat would never have been written, and the war would have ended--who
can say how it would have ended?
It remained for the British Admiralty to make the blunder which our
Secretary tried to make--and so the _Constitution_ escaped from the
British squadron off the Cape de Verde, and the great British squadron
chased the little _Levant_ back into the neutral port.
There, when the _Levant_ had anchored, they surrounded her, and
assisted by the escaped prisoners who had captured and manned the
Portuguese battery on shore, they fired broadside after broadside at
her. They were at a range of their own choosing. They were in the
harbor where the water was a dead-flat level, and they continued their
fire for fifteen minutes without a single shot striking her hull.
At the end of that time the Yankee lieutenant (Ballard) who commanded
the little sloop, thinking that they might eventually hit her and hurt
somebody, hauled down his flag.
Sir George Collier, who commanded the British squadron in this chase,
committed suicide ten years later because his utter failure was thrown
into his face at a public gathering.
The _Cyane_ reached New York on April 10th, and the _Constitution_
returned to Boston in May, to learn that the war was really ended when
the battle took place. The Congress awarded a gold medal and a sword to
Captain Stewart, and silver medals to the other officers under him for
“gallantry, good-conduct, and services in the capture of the British
vessels-of-war, the _Cyane_ and _Levant_, and a brave and skilful
combat.”
The fighting days of the _Constitution_--the _Old Ironsides_--the most
famous ship of the American Navy--were done. The hastening decay of
idleness eventually seized upon her timbers, and it was announced that
she was to be broken up. But Oliver Wendell Holmes, of blessed memory,
wrote a poem and she was spared. Generations of naval cadets have since
learned the art of war and cultivated their natural love of the flag
upon her decks, and now, although a hundred years have passed since the
flag was first raised above her quarter-deck, her name still appears
upon the naval register, and there it shall remain so long as one of
her timbers will support another. And this is the poem that saved her:
OLD IRONSIDES.
Ay, tear her tattered ensign down!
Long has it waved on high,
And many an eye has danced to see
That banner in the sky;
Beneath it rung the battle shout,
And burst the cannon’s roar;
The meteor of the ocean air
Shall sweep the clouds no more!
Her deck, once red with heroes’ blood,
Where knelt the vanquished foe,
When winds were hurrying o’er the flood
And waves were white below,
No more shall feel the victor’s tread,
Or know the conquered knee;
The harpies of the shore shall pluck
The eagle of the sea!
O better that her shattered hulk
Should sink beneath the wave;
Her thunders shook the mighty deep,
And there should be her grave;
Nail to the mast her holy flag,
Set every threadbare sail,
And give her to the god of storms,
The lightning and the gale.