WHIPPED IN FOURTEEN MINUTES
THE REMARKABLE BATTLE BETWEEN THE YANKEE _HORNET_ AND THE BRITISH
_PEACOCK_--THE BRITISH SHIP WAS SO PRETTY SHE WAS KNOWN AS “THE
YACHT,” BUT HER GUNNERS COULD NOT HIT THE BROADSIDE OF THE _HORNET_
WHEN THE SHIPS WERE IN CONTACT--AS HER FLAG CAME DOWN A SIGNAL OF
DISTRESS WENT UP, FOR SHE WAS SINKING--THE EFFORTS OF TWO CREWS
COULD NOT SAVE HER--“A VESSEL MOORED FOR THE PURPOSE OF EXPERIMENT
COULD NOT HAVE BEEN SUNK SOONER”--INFAMOUS TREATMENT OF AMERICAN
SEAMEN REPAID BY THE GOLDEN RULE--CAPTAIN GREEN, OF THE _BONNE
CITOYENNE_, DID NOT DARE MEET THE _HORNET_.
The battle between the _Constitution’s_ consort _Hornet_ and the
British brig _Peacock_ was the sixth of the war and a most remarkable
illustration not only of the skill of the Yankee gunners but of their
willing--their eager energy when fighting against the slave-drivers
of the sea. It was fought off the mouth of the Demerara River, South
America, on February 24, 1813.
The _Hornet_ was what was called a sloop of war. She had been
originally rigged as a brig and was sent to the Mediterranean in that
fashion, but after the trouble with the African pirates was ended
she returned home and together with the _Wasp_ was changed into a
three-masted instead of two-masted rig. She was armed with eighteen
short thirty-twos and two long twelves.
Under the command of Master Commandant James Lawrence, she sailed from
Boston, as already told, in company with the _Constitution_, bound on
a cruise against British commerce in the East Indies, and the two came
down to the coast of Brazil, where the _Essex_ was expected to join
them. On reaching Bahia (San Salvador) the British war-ship _Bonne
Citoyenne_, Captain P. B. Greene, was found at anchor in the harbor.
The _Bonne Citoyenne_ was a ship of the same size as the _Hornet_
and she carried exactly the same number of guns, her broadside guns
being short thirty-twos, and her long guns nines. That is to say, if
the _Hornet’s_ shot were allowed to be of full weight (which to our
disgrace they were not) the _Hornet_ could throw just three pounds of
metal more than the _Bonne Citoyenne_ at a broadside. It is perhaps
worth noting that the _Bonne Citoyenne_ had fought for seven hours and
captured “a French frigate of the largest class” in 1809.
Finding her a fair match for the _Hornet_, Captain Lawrence sent her a
challenge to go outside and have a fight. Such challenges were common
and popular in those days. Both Lawrence and Commodore Hull gave their
word of honor that the _Constitution_ would not interfere, but Captain
Greene declined.
It eventually became apparent that he was really a coward, for the
_Constitution_, after destroying the _Java_, sailed from Bahia for
home on January 6, 1813, leaving the _Hornet_ blockading the _Bonne
Citoyenne_. And the _Hornet_ maintained the blockade until the 24th,
when a British seventy-four, the _Montagu_, arrived and the _Hornet_
had to fly.
[Illustration: The _Hornet_ Blockading the _Bonne Citoyenne_.
_From an old wood-cut._]
One gets a curious illustration of the character of one British
historian in James’s account of this matter. He who constantly called
the Americans cowards denies that the _Hornet_ blockaded the _Bonne
Citoyenne_ single-handed, and yet tells, on page 277, that the
_Constitution_ sailed for home on January 6, leaving the _Hornet_ to
cruise alone off the harbor for nearly three weeks.
Meantime, on the day of the _Constitution-Java_ fight, the American
ship _William_, that the _Java_ had taken, tried to make port at Bahia,
and fell into the hands of Captain Lawrence who took out her prize crew
and sent her on her way under her own.
However, having been driven off at last by a line-of-battle ship sent
from Rio Janeiro for the express purpose of raising the blockade, the
_Hornet_ cruised to the north along the coast of South America, and
having rounded Cape St. Roque, continued to keep along shore. Several
prizes were made, one being a brig called the _Resolution_ with $23,000
coin on board, but no incident of greater note occurred until off the
mouth of Demerara River.
Here on February 24th a British war-brig called the _Espiègle_, Captain
John Taylor, was seen at anchor in the mouth of the river. As that was
British territory there was every incentive to attack her, and as she
carried eighteen thirty-twos she was a fair match. Captain Lawrence
therefore went hunting her, but while following the channel around
Caroband Bank he “at half past three P.M. discovered another sail on
our weather-quarter edging down for us. At twenty minutes past four
she hoisted English colors, at which we discovered her to be a large
man-of-war brig--beat to quarters, cleared ship for action, and kept
close by the wind in order, if possible, to get the weather-gauge.” So
runs the report of Captain Lawrence.
The enemy was the British man-of-war brig _Peacock_, Captain William
Peake.
When the British brig was discovered the _Hornet_ was in less than
twenty-four feet of water, and although she stood off shore somewhat to
weather the enemy, the contest that followed was over good anchorage
ground from beginning to end. From 4.20 P.M. until 5.10 the two vessels
jockeyed for position, as yachtsmen would say, and then, seeing he had
won the position, Captain Lawrence brought the _Hornet_ around from the
port to the starboard tack and headed across the bows of the enemy, who
was still on the port tack. As the sails filled he flung the American
ensign to the breeze.
Silently but swiftly the two ships approached each other, sailing
almost in opposite directions for fifteen anxious minutes, and then at
5.25 o’clock “within half pistol shot,” both ships opened fire, not
with all their guns in one thunderous discharge, but gun after gun in
swift succession, as each one could be brought to bear--gun after gun
until ten on each had boomed.
From the Englishman ten shots flew high over the _Hornet’s_ deck. One
of them killed a man in the mizzentop and another slightly wounded two
men in the maintop. From the Yankee ten round shot were driven straight
into the _Peacock’s_ hull.
[Illustration: Diagram of the HORNET-PEACOCK BATTLE.]
In a moment the two ships had passed each other. The _Peacock_ at once
wore around before the wind to come to it on the other tack, while the
_Hornet_ squared away across the _Peacock’s_ stern, and in a jiffy the
Yankee’s bow was against the enemy’s quarter and the Yankee gunners
were shooting her literally full of holes. At this moment Captain Peake
of the _Peacock_ was killed. The Yankee gunners worked so swiftly that
the guns got heated and some of the men dipped up the water of the sea
in buckets to pour on the guns to keep them cool. The enemy were unable
to face the murderous blast and hauled down the flag at 5.39 o’clock.
The action had lasted from the first gun-fire until the flag came down
but fourteen minutes.
Captain Lawrence’s report said fifteen minutes. In explanation of the
difference Lawrence said his clerk got it down as fifteen by mistake,
and the time was so short at most that it was not worth while making an
alteration in the log. “I thought that was short enough,” said Lawrence.
Immediately after hauling down their flag the _Peacock’s_ mainmast
fell, and the enemy hoisted signals of distress. The crew of the
_Hornet_, under Lieutenant J. T. Shubrick, made haste to get out all
their boats and board the _Peacock_. Both ships came to anchor and
the Yankees found the water pouring through the big holes the shot of
the _Hornet_ had made in the _Peacock_. The crew were unable to save
her. For a few minutes everybody labored to plug the holes and work
the pumps and even at bailing with buckets. But the ship was mortally
wounded--the inflowing water was drowning her--and the men abandoned
the pumps to save the wounded. Four Englishmen jumped into a boat at
the stern and sneaked ashore in the night that was fast coming down.
The wounded were all saved, but within a brief time the water rose to
the port sills, flowed gently in across the deck and down she sank in
the smooth sea. “A vessel moored for the purpose of experiment could
not have been sunk sooner.”
[Illustration: John T. Shubrick.
_From an engraving by Gimbrede._]
As she sank, four of the men on deck scampered up the fore-rigging.
The big launch lying on the booms amidships was lifted clear by the
rising water, and into this scrambled the rest of the men on deck. The
ship was sinking so easily that there was no vortex to draw them down.
She found bottom in thirty-three feet of water, and the men in the
fore-rigging were saved. But three Americans and nine Englishmen who
were below were lost.
After taking the men from the rigging the launch was paddled over to
the _Hornet_, and it was learned then, that three of the _Peacock’s_
crew were impressed Americans, one of them being a relative of the wife
of Captain Lawrence.
[Illustration: The _Hornet_ Sinking the _Peacock_.
_From an old wood-cut._]
One of these men was Richard Thompson, of New Paltz, Ulster County,
New York. He testified under oath that he was taken from an American
merchant-ship in 1810 by the _Peacock’s_ press-gang. Thereafter he
was not allowed to write to his friends. When he and his two American
shipmates heard of the War of 1812, they asked Captain Peake to
treat them as prisoners of war. For this they were put in irons for
twenty-four hours, then taken on deck, stripped naked, “tied and
whipped, each one dozen and a half lashes, and put to duty.” As the
action with the _Hornet_ came on they again asked to be excused from
fighting against their flag, but Captain Peake drove them back to the
guns, and ordered the marines to keep an especial watch on them, and
shoot them at the first sign of flinching. And so one was killed by the
fire of his countrymen.
Hitherto nothing has been said of the treatment which British
prisoners, taken in this war, received at the hands of the Americans.
It was, and is not necessary, for an American to speak of the humanity
of his countrymen when dealing with prisoners of war. But because of
the infamous treatment which the three Americans had received on the
_Peacock_, it must be told that the crew of the _Hornet_, out of their
own money, provided every sailor from the _Peacock_ with two shirts, a
blue jacket and a pair of trousers. They did this because the _Peacock_
had gone down so suddenly the men could not save their clothes. Further
than this, the five surviving officers on reaching New York wrote a
letter dated March 27, 1813, to Lawrence, and had it published in the
papers in which they said:
“We, the surviving officers of his Britannic Majesty’s brig _Peacock_,
beg leave to return you our grateful acknowledgments for the kind
attention and hospitality we experienced during the time we remained on
board the United States sloop _Hornet_. So much was done to alleviate
the distressing and uncomfortable situation in which we were placed
when received on board the sloop you command, that we cannot better
express our feelings, than by saying, we ceased to consider ourselves
prisoners, and everything that friendship could dictate was adopted
by you and the officers of the _Hornet_, to remedy the inconveniences
we should otherwise have experienced from the unavoidable loss of the
whole of our property and clothes.”
And while this subject is in hand it may be worth while to make one
more quotation from England’s naval historian, James. In volume vi.
page 136, he says: “The manner in which the _Java’s_ men were treated
by the American _officers_ reflects upon the latter the highest
disgrace; the moment the prisoners were brought on board they were
handcuffed. Admitting that to have been justifiable as a measure of
precaution, what right had the poor fellows to be pillaged of almost
everything they possessed.” And this was written although James had
seen and read the letters of General Hyslop testifying to the extreme
pains taken by Commodore Bainbridge to see that no private property was
taken by any of the victors from the vanquished--indeed, that silver
plate that was lawful prize was left to its original owners.
The number of killed on the _Hornet_ by the enemy was one man, and
but two were wounded. However, two men were hurt by the accidental
explosion of a cartridge of whom one died. The _Peacock_ lost eight
killed and thirty wounded--that is to say as a result of the Yankee’s
fire the British lost thirteen times as many as the Yankees lost from
theirs. The most significant fact of this battle was this, that but one
of the British shot struck the _Hornet’s_ hull, and that one glanced
off the bow, merely indenting the plank, while the _Peacock_ was, as
told, shot under the water in fourteen minutes. The English historians
lay stress on the fact that the _Hornet_ had thirty-twos to the
_Peacock’s_ twenty-fours, just as they laid stress on the twenty-fours
of the _United States_ and the _Constitution_ as against the eighteens
carried by the British frigates they whipped. But the candid student
of history will observe that the _Hornet’s_ hull was scratched only by
a single shot. The _United States_ received but three shot in her hull
during the fight with the _Macedonian_. The hull of the _Constitution_
was scarcely touched in the fight with the _Guerrière_, and so runs the
whole record. Suppose the _Peacock_ had had sixty-four pounders instead
of twenty-fours. Of what avail would they have been when her gunners
could not hit the broadside of a ship “within half pistol-shot” range?
The conventional comparison of the ships shows that the _Hornet_
measured 480 tons, carried ten guns, throwing 270 pounds of metal in
a broadside, and had a crew of 135, of whom three were killed and
wounded. The _Peacock_ measured 477 tons, carried ten guns, throwing
210 pounds of metal at a broadside, and was worked by 122 men, of whom
thirty-eight were killed and wounded.
Captain Peake was exceedingly proud of his ship. James says that “the
_Peacock_ had long been the admiration of her numerous visitors for the
tasteful arrangement of her deck, and had obtained in consequence the
name of ‘the yacht.’ The breechings of the carronades were covered with
white canvas ... and nothing could exceed in brilliancy the polish upon
the traversing bars and elevating screws.”
In polish the _Hornet_ was not to be compared with her.
Having sunk the _Peacock_, and cared for her crew, Captain Lawrence
set to work to fit his ship for another fight. The _Espiègle_ was in
plain view during the action, being but six miles away, and it was
natural to look for her. By 9 o’clock the _Hornet_ was ready for her,
but she did not come. The _Hornet’s_ crew had for some time been on a
short allowance of water. With the prisoners from the _Peacock_ (112),
the prize crew of the American ship _Hunter_ which the _Peacock_ had
captured (11), the crew of the British brig _Resolution_ (16), and the
_Hornet’s_ own crew (138 including eight sick in bed), there were 277
men on the _Hornet_. These figures are worth quoting for the reason
that the British historians, including Allen (revised edition printed
in 1890) say that the _Hornet_ had a crew of 163.
[Illustration: Medal Awarded to James Lawrence, after the Capture of
the _Peacock_ by the _Hornet_.]
On the morning of February 25, 1813, Captain Lawrence put all hands on
a half-ration of water and squared away for home. He reached Martha’s
Vineyard on March 19th, and sailed thence to New York, through the
Sound. He was received with the enthusiasm that had been accorded to
Hull, Decatur, and Bainbridge, and later a gold medal was voted by
the Congress to his nearest male relative, and silver medals to the
officers who had fought under him. Meantime, he was promoted to the
command of the _Chesapeake_, a most unfortunate promotion, for it cost
him his life.