THE LUCK OF A YANKEE CRUISER
THERE WAS NEVER A MORE FORTUNATE VESSEL THAN THE CLIPPER-SCHOONER
_ENTERPRISE_--AS ORIGINALLY DESIGNED SHE WAS THE SWIFTEST AND
BEST ALL-AROUND NAVAL SHIP OF HER CLASS AFLOAT--MEN SHE MADE
FAMOUS IN THE WEST INDIES--A GLORIOUS CAREER IN THE WAR WITH THE
MEDITERRANEAN PIRATES--EVEN WHEN THE WISDOM OF THE NAVY DEPARTMENT
CHANGED HER TO A BRIG AND OVERLOADED HER WITH GUNS SO THAT SHE
“COULDN’T GET OUT OF HER OWN WAY,” HER LUCK DID NOT FAIL HER--HER
FIGHT WITH THE _BOXER_--EVEN A GOOD FRIGATE COULD NOT CATCH HER.
If the reader would like to learn the story of the luckiest American
naval ship let him look up the details of the career of the little
cruiser _Enterprise_, for of all the vessels that have carried the
gridiron flag on the salt seas, or on any other seas, not one has had
the credit of as many victories as she. Modelled with the finest lines
known in the ship-yards of her day, she was launched in the year 1800,
rigged as a schooner, armed with twelve six-pounders, and was then sent
under Lieutenant John Shaw to the West Indies in search of the French
privateers that were preying there on American commerce. In a brief
time she had taken eight of these privateers. Among them were included
_l’Agile_, a vessel of practically the same weight of metal and of
almost an equal crew, whose captain was noted as the most daring of
his kind in that region, and the _Flambeau_, a larger vessel mounting
twelve nine-pounders to the _Enterprise’s_ twelve sixes, and carrying
a crew of one hundred and ten to the _Enterprise’s_ eighty-three. And
that this Frenchman was both brave and persistent is amply shown by the
fact that he did not surrender until forty out of his one hundred and
ten men had been killed and wounded, leaving but seventy able to fight.
A year later she was in the Mediterranean under Lieutenant Andrew
Sterrett, and on August 1st she fell in with the Tripolitan polacre
_Tripoli_, a vessel of fourteen guns and eighty men. So stubborn was
the resistance of this pirate that he would not surrender until twenty
of his men had been killed and thirty wounded out of the crew of
eighty. The _Enterprise_ did not lose a man. It was the _Enterprise_
that captured the ketch _Mastico_, rechristened the _Intrepid_, with
which Decatur entered Tripoli Harbor and burned the _Philadelphia_. And
so the story runs.
When the War of 1812 was declared the _Enterprise_ was still in
commission, but “official wisdom” had changed her so wofully that only
an expert would have recognized in her the trim, fleet-winged schooner
of 1801. Her tall and raking masts had been taken out and the squat
rig of a brig substituted, while to make her still more top-heavy her
armament had been changed from twelve sixes to fourteen short eighteens
and two long nines. Her crew was increased by the addition of forty
men, so she “became too slow to run without becoming strong enough to
fight.” That she “managed to escape capture” was “owing chiefly to
good-luck” and the fact that “the British possessed a class of vessels
even worse than our own,” and these were usually the ones that the
_Enterprise_ happened to meet.
At the opening of the war the _Enterprise_ was placed as a coast-guard
between Cape Ann and the Bay of Fundy to drive off the British
privateers that came hunting Yankee merchant-coasters. The reader
of American history must keep in mind that to the whelming force of
their regular navy which the British brought against the Yankees in
this war, as well as in that of 1776, there was a force of English
privateers numbering hundreds and carrying tens of thousands of armed
men. In driving off privateers the _Enterprise_ was very successful,
for the reason that the British privateers were rarely armed to fight
a war-ship. At first she was under Master-Commandant Johnston Blakely,
but he was promoted to the command of one of the new sloops built under
the act of January 2, 1813 (the _Wasp_), and then Lieutenant William
Burrows took charge of her.
At this time she was making Portsmouth, New Hampshire, her port of
call, and on September 4, 1813, she sailed for Monhegan, where a number
of privateers had been seen. The next forenoon, while approaching
Penguin Point, not far from Portland, Maine, a brig was seen. There
were men aloft, loosing her sails, while others were seen at the
capstan getting up anchor. Only a man-of-war was likely to carry such a
crew as that, and no American man-of-war was in that region except the
_Enterprise_, and so Burrows cleared for action. At this time his crew
numbered one hundred and two men.
Meantime the stranger fired four guns and set four British ensigns at
different points on her spars, and then she stood out to sea, plainly
eager for a fight with the _Enterprise_.
The stranger got under way at noon. A fresh breeze was blowing from the
southwest, and Lieutenant Burrows headed offshore to get a-plenty of
sea-room; and then to be prepared in case the stranger proved a faster
sailer and should overhaul him, while yet too near shore for a fair
fight, he ordered one of the stern ports enlarged from the mere window
that it was, to a port, of sufficient size to permit the use of one of
his long guns.
When the crew of the _Enterprise_ heard the orders for this work
passed, a distinct Yankee growl swept along the deck. Burrows had
been on board but three days and they did not know him--they thought
he meant to run instead of fight--and a midshipman was requested
by the men on the forecastle to go aft and say to the captain that
the men wanted to fight. The middie yielded so far as to tell the
executive officer, Lieutenant Edward Rutley McCall, what the men were
growling about, and he, knowing the men well, promptly quieted them by
explaining why the _Enterprise_ was apparently running away.
At 3 o’clock the desired offing was obtained, and then ensigns were set
on the _Enterprise_, the topmen ran aloft to furl the lighter sails;
came down again; manned the braces, and, tacking around, headed with
free sheets for the enemy that with her brave show of bunting was
coming on confident of victory. For twenty minutes thereafter the two
ships approached steadily, each holding her fire until within half
pistol-shot, when both cut loose almost at the same instant with a
broadside. It was a deadly fire on both sides, for men were struck on
the _Enterprise_ as well as on the enemy, and as it happened, those cut
down on the _Enterprise_ were working one of the quarter-deck guns.
The men had cheered on both ships as they fired and on both sides they
cheered as they began to reload their guns, Burrows joining in with
encouraging words. As the short-handed crew just under his eye grasped
the tackles to haul out the gun for the next round he ran to their aid,
grasped the tackle-fall with both hands, braced his foot against the
port-sill and threw his weight on the tackle with the men. And then
came a canister-shot from the enemy through the port, striking the
Yankee commander in the upper part of the leg by which he was braced,
and, glancing along the bone of the thigh, it buried itself in his
abdomen.
[Illustration: The _Enterprise_ and _Boxer_.
_From a wood-cut in the “Naval Monument.”_]
It was “a fearful wound,” but Burrows, despite his mortal agony,
refused to be carried below, “crying out that the colors must never be
struck.” However, Lieutenant McCall was obliged to take command, and
this was one of the few instances in history where a subordinate who
succeeded to the command of a ship because his superior was shot out
of it has done as well as his chief could have done. The fire on the
_Enterprise_ continued as vigorous and effective as before. Her sailing
proved, bad as it was, superior to that of the enemy, and on forging
ahead McCall eased her sheets, hauled down his foresail, ran down
across her bows, raked her with his port battery, and then luffing up
and backing his head-yards, he raked her again and again with the fresh
battery on the starboard side.
[Illustration: Diagram of the ENTERPRISE-BOXER BATTLE.
The wind was from the southwest.]
It is a story quickly told, but the enemy stood the fire, returning it
as best they might with such guns as would bear, until 3.45 P.M., when
an officer appeared on the top-gallant forecastle and shouted that
they had surrendered, but they could not haul down the colors because
all of them were nailed fast to the spars.
The next moment another officer, though of inferior grade, jumped up in
sight and, shaking his fists toward the _Enterprise_, shouted “no, no,
no!” and added “some pretty strong words of opprobrium.” However, his
superior ordered him down, while the Americans laughed heartily at the
scene the youngster had made.
Then men went aloft and with considerable labor ripped the ensigns from
the spars and brought them to the deck. It was now learned that the
beaten vessel was the British brig _Boxer_, Captain Samuel Blythe, and
that Blythe had ordered the flags nailed aloft, saying that they should
not be lowered while he lived; nor were they. At about the time that
Burrows was mortally hurt, Blythe was struck fair in the chest by an
eighteen-pound shot that almost cut him in two and killed him instantly.
Burrows happily lived until after the formal surrender. The sword of
the British commander was brought on board the _Enterprise_ and offered
to him. Grasping it with both hands, he said:
“I am satisfied. I die content.” A few minutes later he was dead.
The _Boxer_ having been carried into Portsmouth, she was there
inspected by Commodore Hull, and letters written by him to the
Secretary of the Navy and to Commodore Bainbridge give, with the
official report of Lieutenant McCall, all the accurate information we
have about the force of the _Boxer_ and the damage she sustained. As
to her guns, there is no dispute. She carried twelve short eighteens
and two long sixes, to the fourteen long eighteens and two long nines
on the _Enterprise_. The Americans, with short-weight shot, fired one
hundred and twenty-five pounds of metal to the British one hundred and
fourteen. Exactly what her crew numbered is not known. Commodore Hull
wrote to Commodore Bainbridge as follows on this subject:
“We find it impossible to get at the number of killed; no papers are
found by which we can ascertain it. I, however, counted upwards of
ninety hammocks, which were in her netting, with beds in them, besides
several beds without hammocks; and she has excellent accommodations
for all her officers below in staterooms; so that I have no doubt that
she had one hundred men on board. We know that she has several of the
_Rattler’s_ men on board.”
As everyone familiar with the old-time warship knows, only the
men before the mast and petty officers slept in hammocks. When
Commodore Hull estimated “that she had one hundred men on board,”
he unquestionably meant men before the mast and petty officers. In
corroboration of this is the fact that Captain Blythe was looking for
the _Enterprise_. He had sailed, only a few days before, from St.
Johns, “where great exertions were made by the Government officers,
as well as the magistrates of the place,” to man and equip her in a
perfect manner to fight the _Enterprise_. The victory of the British
frigate _Shannon_ over the Yankee _Chesapeake_ was then but two
months old, and Blythe was eager for the honors showered upon Broke.
That she sailed from St. Johns with plenty of men is a matter not to
be disputed. Moreover, a further reason for supposing that her crew
numbered at least one hundred men is found in the fact that James,
the oft-quoted British historian, says it numbered “sixty men and six
boys.” Recalling the fact that James said that the _Java_ had but three
hundred and seventy-seven men on board when her muster-roll showed four
hundred and twenty-six; that he systematically understates the British
force and overstates the American force in every instance where there
was any motive for doing so, and that Benton, the British historian,
distinctly says that the British naval authorities deliberately
understated British losses in many reports given to the public in those
days, it is simply fair to add fifty per cent. to the figures of James
in this account. However, it is asserted by the British that twelve
of their crew were on shore that morning, and that the four guns fired
when their flags were sent aloft and nailed to the mast were fired to
recall these twelve, who, however, failed to get on board. This is very
likely true. So from the one hundred and four, which all the American
accounts of that day say the _Boxer_ had, may be subtracted twelve,
leaving ninety-two as the crew of the _Boxer_.
All of this space seems to be worth giving to the subject only because
the British writers without exception twist like a flushed snipe
whenever they are started by a Yankee victory over the British, and
every well-informed American should have the facts at hand to bring
them down.
Of the _Boxer’s_ crew, the British admit that four were killed and
seventeen wounded. Lieutenant McCall in his report says that “from
information received from the officers of that vessel, it appears there
were between twenty and thirty-five killed.” The _Enterprise_ lost four
killed and eight wounded.
As to the damage done to the _Boxer_, it is worth while quoting the
words of Commodore Hull’s letter of September 10, 1813 (written by the
way, while Perry was winning glory on Lake Erie). He says:
“I, yesterday, visited the two brigs, and was astonished to see the
difference of injury sustained in the action.
“The _Enterprise_ has but one eighteen-pound shot in her hull, and
one in her main-mast, and one in her foremast; her sails are much cut
by grape-shot, and there are a great number of grape lodged in her
sides, but no injury done by them. The _Boxer_ has eighteen or twenty
eighteen-pound shot in her hull, most of them at the water’s edge, and
several stands of eighteen-pound grape stick in her side, and such a
quantity of small grape that I did not undertake to count them. Her
masts, sails, and spars are literally cut to pieces, several of her
guns dismounted, and unfit for service; her top-gallant forecastle
nearly taken off by the shot, her boats cut to pieces, and her quarters
injured in proportion.”
The British historian Allen in his account of this fight says, on page
438, vol. ii.: “The two vessels were much disproportioned in every
way. The _Boxer_ measured one hundred and eighty-one, the _Enterprise_
two hundred and forty-five tons. The one was a fine roomy vessel, well
manned and equipped, the _Boxer_ a mere gun-brig, unfit for any other
purpose than to protect a convoy of coasters from the attack of a
French lugger. The result, therefore, cannot cause any surprise.”
As a matter of fact, the _Boxer_ was larger than the _Enterprise_ by
thirty-five tons burden, and Allen’s comment is worth quoting to show
how a popular British historian misrepresented the little Yankee brig
that was built as a schooner to carry a dozen six-pounders.
It was as fair a match as one will commonly find described in history.
The _Boxer_ was a few tons larger in size, and her officers had had
experience in naval battles. The Americans had more guns and more
men, with officers who had not had the experience of the enemy. The
_Enterprise_ was old and the _Boxer_ new. But while the number of shot
which the Americans could throw at a broadside were in number eight to
the British seven, the number of times the British hull was struck was
eighteen to the one shot the American hull received.
The report of the British court that tried the survivors of the crew
for the loss of the _Boxer_ said that the defeat of the _Boxer_ was due
to “a superiority of force, principally in the number of men, as well
as to _a greater degree of skill in the direction of her fire_, and to
the destructive effects of the first broadside.”
To this may be added what the London _Times_ said, editorially, on
October 22, 1813:
“But what we regret to perceive stated is, that the _Boxer_ was
literally cut to pieces in sails, rigging, spars, and hull; whilst
the _Enterprise_ (her antagonist) was in a situation to commence a
similar action immediately afterward. The fact seems to be too clearly
established that the Americans have some superior mode of firing; and
we cannot be too anxiously employed in discerning to what circumstances
that superiority is owing.”
Both Captain Blythe and Captain Burrows were buried in Portland with
the highest honors known on such occasions. Certainly, the gallant
efforts of the British captain deserved all the honors that could be
paid. A gold medal was voted by Congress to the nearest male relative
of the dead American captain, and it is very likely still cherished as
an heirloom in some South Carolina household, for Burrows was a native
of that State. He was the son of Lieutenant-Colonel Burrows, previously
of the American Marine Corps. He was but twenty-seven years of age when
killed.
[Illustration: Medal Awarded to Edward R. McCall After the Battle
Between the _Enterprise_ and the _Boxer_.]
After the battle, Master-Commandant James Renshaw was appointed to
command the _Enterprise_. In company with the brig _Rattlesnake_ she
cruised off the southern coast of the nation, where she proved so slow
that the _Rattlesnake_, although not a fast vessel, was often compelled
to sail under top-sails only, while the _Enterprise_ carried full sail.
And yet on several occasions the _Enterprise_ escaped from British
frigates, and did so once though chased for seventy hours. If anything
had been needed to confirm the old sailormen in their belief in the
luck of the _Enterprise_ this prolonged race would have done it. When
the frigate appeared and gave chase the two Yankees separated, and the
frigate chose to follow the _Enterprise_. During the three days that
the frigate thereafter followed the ill-sparred American, the wind
proved exceedingly variable and baffling, but it was without exception
baffling in each change for the British ship. Time and again she almost
overhauled the little _Enterprise_, but on each occasion the Yankee was
favored by a shift of wind, or a calm where the row-boats could tow
her, and at the last she got a breeze that placed her a long way fair
to windward of the enemy, and before the frigate’s flapping sails were
filled with it the _Enterprise_ beat fairly out of sight and escaped
altogether. It is certain that she was handled with consummate skill,
just as Hull handled the _Constitution_, but then the _Constitution_
was lucky, too.
The _Rattlesnake_ was lucky for a time after separating from the
_Enterprise_ on this occasion, but was captured by the British frigate
_Leander_ later in the war.
The _Enterprise_, having reached Charleston in safety, was there
employed as harbor guard until the end of the war.
So it happened that in spite of the risks taken by the bravest of
sea-commanders during four different wars (she was in the second
Mediterranean war), this the luckiest of ships known to the American
register, perished at last in an honored old age, worn out in the
service of the nation.