FOUGHT IN A HATTERAS GALE
WHEN THE SECOND YANKEE _WASP_ FELL IN WITH THE BRITISH _FROLIC_--THEY
TUMBLED ABOUT IN THE CROSS SEA IN A WAY THAT DESTROYED THE BRITISH
“AIM,” BUT THE YANKEES WATCHED THE ROLL OF THEIR SHIP, AND WHEN
THEY WERE DONE THEY HAD KILLED AND WOUNDED NINE-TENTHS OF THE
ENEMY’S CREW AND WRECKED HIS VESSEL--THE _FROLIC_ WAS A LARGER
SHIP, CARRIED MORE GUNS, AND HAD ALL THE MEN SHE COULD USE, “FINE,
ABLE-BODIED SEAMEN,” SURE ENOUGH!
Of glorious memory was the little Yankee sloop-of-war _Wasp_. Though
carrying the rig of a ship--square sails on three masts, she was of
the size of one of the smaller schooners that in these days cruise
along the United States coast. She measured, that is to say, four
hundred and fifty tons. But being built to a different model, she stood
somewhat higher out of water than the schooners do. Her guns included
sixteen short thirty-twos and two long twelves. Her commander in 1812
was Captain Jacob Jones, a Delaware sailor who had worked his way up,
beginning as a midshipman under Captain Barry.
[Illustration: Jacob Jones.
_From an engraving by Edwin of the portrait by Rembrandt Peale._]
On October 13, 1812, the _Wasp_ sailed from Philadelphia, bound
eastward to lie in wait in the track of British merchantmen in the
voyages from the West Indies. She had on board one hundred and
thirty-seven men, including marines, but two of her sailors were lost
overboard in a gale of wind on the 15th. They were at work on the jib
at the time. The _Wasp_ in plunging down a wave buried her bowsprit
under water, and when she rose out of it the bowsprit was broken off
and the men carried away.
For two days the gale blew hard, making an ugly sea, and then on the
night of the 17th moderated somewhat, although the wind was still
properly called a gale. That night at half-past eleven o’clock several
lights were seen, showing that a number of vessels were weathering the
storm together, and Captain Jones hauled to the wind, where he could
keep his eye on them. When daylight came he found there were six large
merchantmen under the convoy of a big brig. Although the brig was
plainly as large as the _Wasp_, and some of the merchant ships carried
guns, Captain Jones reefed down his topsails to fighting trim, sent
his topgallant-yards down on deck and squared away for the fleet. As
was afterwards learned the ships were a part of a fleet of fourteen
bound from British Honduras to England, and the brig was the _Frolic_,
Captain Thomas Whinyates. The fleet had been separated by the storm
and the _Frolic_ had sprung her main-yard. She was making repairs when
morning came, but as the Yankee bore down on the fleet the _Frolic_,
under a fore-and-aft mainsail, fore-topsail and a jib, bore up to meet
her.
So heavy was the gale and so short the canvas under which the ships
had to work, that it was not until after 11 o’clock that they got
within fighting distance, but when there, the Englishman hoisted a
Spanish flag. This little trick did not deceive the Yankee, however,
for he held his course, and very soon the two vessels were within sixty
yards of each other and were steadily drawing nearer, both running
almost before the wind, but not quite, the Yankee having a little the
better of it, being a little to windward.
For a brief time they ran so in silence, and then Captain Jones stepped
to the rail and hailed. For an answer the Englishman hauled down his
Spanish flag, hoisted his red cross of St. George, and as the one came
down and the other fluttered aloft, fired a broadside--fired it just as
a fierce flaw of wind struck his sails to heel him over.
The Yankees waited till their vessel began to roll from the crest of a
wave toward the enemy and then fired a broadside in return.
It was a battle off Cape Hatteras in the tail end of a Hatteras gale.
The ships rolled and pitched over the heavy cross seas, and wallowed
through the hollows. The crews, as they loaded their guns, saw the long
rammers pointed to the clouds at one roll, and saw them dip in the
spoondrift that rose to the port sills at the next. The muzzles of the
guns were even dipped into the smother of it at times. The spray from
the wave-crests in great masses splashed over the bulwarks. The smoke
from the guns was snatched away by the gale, leaving clear targets for
the gunners, who, from the excitement of it all, swabbed, and rammed,
and fired--who shouted as they hauled out their guns to aim, and
cheered as they fired their iron hail across the tossing seas. The roar
and whizz of the gale were whelmed in the thunder of the broadsides and
the scream of projectiles.
[Illustration: Diagram of the WASP-FROLIC BATTLE.]
They swabbed, and rammed, and fired in frantic haste under the red
cross--fired the moment the muzzles of the guns were hauled out through
the bulwarks. Under the “gridiron flag” they loaded in haste and
then calmly waited till the roll of the ship was right to make each
projectile do its appointed work. The Englishman fired three broadsides
by count to two of the Yankees, but scarce a projectile from the enemy
struck the Yankee’s hull.
Nevertheless some damage was done by British projectiles. Within
four minutes after the first broadside a shot struck the _Wasp’s_
maintopmast not far above the cap and over it went like a tree before
a hurricane. The yards fell across the fore braces and “rendered
the head-yards unmanageable.” Ten minutes later (11.46 A.M.) the
mizzen-topgallant-mast was shot off and “at twenty minutes from the
beginning of the action every brace and most of the rigging was shot
away” on the _Wasp_.
But both vessels were driving along before the wind. The impulse of the
gale upon their rigging was strong enough to give them steerage way.
But the cutting away of the two masts on the _Wasp_ left her in such
plight that the enemy had only to wear ship and haul to the wind on the
port tack to escape. Some kinds of sea-fighters would have done that
quickly, but not those of the Anglo-Saxon blood.
The Englishmen held their course and blazed away. The _Wasp_ having
been squared away by the falling of the mainmast, drew forward and
somewhat across the bow of the enemy, and the distance between them
lessened until at last the men who were loading two of the broadside
guns of the _Wasp_ felt their rammers strike the bluff of the enemy’s
bows as they reached out to swab their guns. A moment later the ships
came together with a crash, and then as they wallowed together in the
trough of the sea two of the _Wasp’s_ guns pointed fairly through the
bow ports of the enemy and along her gun-deck. At that instant the
order to fire was given and it was obeyed before the waves could shift
the position. The slaughter of that raking fire was terrible.
With the send of the next wave the _Wasp_ forged ahead until the
bowsprit of the enemy fouled in the mizzen rigging of the _Wasp_ and
the two ships were held together in an embrace that seemed likely
to tear both to pieces. The men of the _Wasp_ had wished to board
the instant the ships collided, but were then held back to fire a
broadside. Now they would be restrained no longer. Without waiting
for orders one, Jack Lang, a brawny fellow from New Brunswick, New
Jersey, took his cutlass in his teeth, and grasping the rigging about
the bowsprit of the enemy swung himself upon that spar. Captain Jones,
of the _Wasp_, who wished to fire another broadside, bawled to him to
come down but Jack had been impressed in the British service--he had a
score of his own to settle--and he did not obey. And a dozen or more of
his shipmates were hurrying from their guns to join him. The enthusiasm
of the men could scarcely be restrained and the Captain let them have
their way, giving the order to board.
[Illustration: The _Wasp_ Boarding the _Frolic_.
_From an old wood-cut._]
Lieutenant Biddle jumped on the bulwarks to lead the boarders, but
because of the surging of his ship he got his feet caught among the
hammocks. Little Midshipman Baker, who was entitled to second place,
being too small to jump to the top as Biddle had done, saw Biddle’s
coat-tails flopping in the gale and grabbed hold of them to help
himself up. He got part way up when another surge of the ship threw
both of them violently back to the deck.
All this time Jack Lang was alone on the enemy, but Biddle soon
regained the top of the bulwarks, and then, followed by others, crossed
over the enemy’s bowsprit. He found Jack Lang standing alone on the
topgallant forecastle and looking away aft over the enemy’s deck.
At the wheel on the quarter deck stood a grizzled quarter-master,
bleeding from a wound, but firm in staying at his post. Beyond him in a
group at the taffrail stood three officers, two of whom were wounded.
And that was all. Not another living man could be seen, though there
were dead enough strewn about the deck, and the water that came in
through the scuppers, deeply reddened by their blood, swashed to and
fro over them and up the painted bulwarks at every roll.
The flag of the enemy was still flying, but as Lieutenant Biddle and
his men started aft the three officers at the taffrail threw down their
swords in token of surrender, while one buried his face in his hands
and turned away. So Lieutenant Biddle himself hauled down the flag and
reported the surrender of the ship to Captain Jones.
[Illustration: _From an original water color, by H. Rich at the Naval
Academy, Annapolis._]
When the Americans came to examine their prize they were astonished at
the result of their gunnery. The lower deck was simply covered over
with wounded men. The _Frolic_ had carried a crew of one hundred and
ten all told, and less than twenty of them remained unwounded. Captain
Whinyates and Lieutenant Frederick B. Wintle were among the wounded,
and another lieutenant and the master were among the killed. Whinyates
and Wintle were so badly wounded that they were obliged to lean on
the taffrail for support when the _Frolic_ was boarded. Only their
pluck kept them from going below. The masts of the _Frolic_ were so
badly cut that the mainmast broke off at the deck soon after the two
vessels drifted apart, and the foremast twelve feet above the deck. Her
hull was full of holes.
[Illustration: James Biddle.
_From an engraving by Gimbrede of the portrait by Wood._]
Because of the tremendous destruction wrought--because nine-tenths
of the enemy’s crew had been counted among the casualties, the time
required for this destruction is the most interesting fact of the
battle. The first broadside was fired at 11.32 A.M. Lieutenant Biddle
hauled down the enemy’s flag at 12.15. Just forty-three minutes had
elapsed, and the _Frolic_ was a wreck, with barely enough men left
unhurt to navigate a sound merchantman of her size into port. And that
was done while both ships were rolling and plunging about in a cross
sea!
It is particularly interesting to compare the _Wasp_ with the _Frolic_.
The facts are that the _Wasp_ measured 450 tons and the _Frolic_
467. The _Wasp_ could fire nine guns, throwing 250 pounds of metal
at a broadside, and the _Frolic_, ten guns throwing 274 pounds. This
is the lowest British estimate of her guns. Captain Jones after
looking carefully over his prize reported officially that she carried
twenty-two guns, throwing 292 pounds of metal. Jones had no reason
for misrepresenting the matter in his report. Captain Whinyates makes
no mention of guns in his. The _Wasp_ carried 135 men, and Allen, the
British historian, says they were “fine, able-bodied seamen.” It is
quite certain that they were as fine as any afloat. But to assert that
they were all experienced seamen is to tell a falsehood. They were an
ordinary Yankee crew.
The _Frolic_ carried 110 men and Allen says they were “worn down by
long service in a tropical climate.” No one need dispute this, even if
they did fire three broadsides to the Yankee’s two. The _Wasp_ had but
five men killed and five wounded, nearly all of whom were struck while
aloft. They tumbled from the tops and rigging like squirrels shot from
the limbs of a tree.
To sum it up, the two ships were as nearly equal in force as any two
ships meeting at sea were likely to be in those days. The British ship
was somewhat the more powerful, for she had “all the men we could use,”
as Captain Whinyates put it; and she carried more guns and threw more
metal than the American.
The fact is this victory made such a deep impression upon the minds
of the British officials that they were led to a most extraordinary
proceeding in order to modify the effect it was likely to have upon the
British public as a whole, and consequently upon the fortunes of the
political party then in power in Parliament. The report of the fight
was garbled before it was given out to the press. The account given
out said that “the _Wasp_ measured 434 tons and the _Frolic_ 384,” so
“the tonnage of the _Wasp_ gave her an immense advantage” in the heavy
sea-way. Allen, the British historian, prints the garbled reports of
the battle in the work already quoted, although the official registers
of ships would have given him the facts. Allen, however, but follows
James in this matter.
[Illustration: Medal Awarded to Jacob Jones, after the Capture of the
_Frolic_ by the _Wasp_.]
Having placed a prize crew on the _Frolic_, Captain Jones began the
work of repairing the damage done aloft with a view of overhauling
some of the merchantmen that had formed the convoy. As he began this
work a sail was seen rising above the horizon to windward and the crew
made haste with the work, at first, for they thought it might be one
of the convoy. But when the sails were fairly in view they gave over
the task, for it appeared that the ship was a big man-o’-war. A little
later still they learned that it was the _Poictiers_, a seventy-four,
commanded by Captain John Poer Beresford. The victory over the _Frolic_
was to be of no value to the United States save through its moral
influence. Both the _Frolic_ and the _Wasp_ were carried to Bermuda,
and it was there that the garbled report of the fight was written.
The _Wasp_ was taken into the British navy under the same name, but she
was lost at sea without having accomplished anything.
What the first American _Wasp_ did has already been related in the
story of the naval actions of the Revolution.
Captain Jones and his crew, having soon been exchanged, returned home,
where they were received with the honors due to “fine, able-bodied
seamen” who had thrashed an enemy in such thorough fashion. The
Congress voted $25,000 to them as a reward, and Captain Jones was soon
placed in command of the frigate _Macedonian_, which was captured from
the enemy, as will be told in the next chapter.