LOSS OF THE UNITED STATES BRIG-OF-WAR SOMERS.
[for Having Saved the Lives of Americans.]
SOMERS NAVIS AMERICANA. (The American vessel Somers.) The United States brig-of-war Somers knocked down at sea. Exergue: ANTE VERA CRUZ DEC. 10th 1846. (Off Vera Cruz, December 10th, 1846.) C. C. WRIGHT. F. (fecit).
PRO VITIS AMERICANORUM CONSERVATIS. (For having saved the lives of Americans.) Three men-of-war's boats, English, Spanish, and French, pulling for the Somers. Exergue: A vacant space for the name of the recipient. ENG. (engraved) BY C. C. WRIGHT.
I saw, in 1872, in the office of the chief clerk of the Navy Department, Washington, two small paintings of both sides of this medal. They were signed: Butterworth, pinxit.
Charles Cushing Wright was born in Maine in 1796. He was a bank note engraver and a die sinker, and made several medals, among others those voted to General Taylor for Buena Vista, to General Scott for Mexico, to Colonel Bliss by the State of New York, to General Taylor by the State of Louisiana, to the Volunteers in Mexico by the City of New York, and the Somers medal. He died in New York, June 7, 1854.
ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS.
Resolution of Congress Voting Medals to British, French, and Spanish Officers, etc.
Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled: That the President of the United States is hereby authorized and requested to cause suitable gold and silver medals to be prepared and presented to the officers and men belonging or attached to the French, British, and Spanish ships of war in the harbor of Vera Cruz, who so gallantly and at the imminent peril of their lives, aided in rescuing from a watery grave many of the officers and crew of the United States brig Somers.
Approved March 3d, 1847.
Lieutenant Semmes to Commodore M. C. Perry.
U. S. frigate Raritan,
Anton Lizardo, December 10, 1846.
To
Commodore M. C. Perry,
Second in command, Home Squadron.
Sir: It becomes my painful duty to inform you of the loss of the U.S. brig Somers, late under my command, and of the drowning of more than half of her crew. The details of this sad catastrophe are briefly as follows:
After having been forty-five days maintaining the blockade off Vera Cruz, I anchored on the evening of the 7th instant under Verde Island, where it had been my practice to take shelter from the N. W. gales, which blow with such frequency and violence along this coast at this season of the year. Soon after sunrise the next morning, a sail having been descried from the masthead, I immediately got under way, and commenced beating up between the Verde Island and Pascoros reefs. In a short time I was enabled, with my glass, to make out the strange sail to be a man of war, whereupon I hoisted my number, and had the satisfaction in fifteen or twenty minutes more to see the stranger show that of the "John Adams." The wind, which had been blowing from the W. N. W. when we got under way, gradually hauled to the northwest and settled for a while at N. N. E. The barometer having fallen the night previous to 29.80 in., and being still down, and the weather looking still unsettled, I was apprehensive of a gale. As soon, therefore, as the "John Adams" showed her number, I wore round and ran down towards Verde Island, with a view of coming to, and getting my vessel snug before the gale should come on. When I had nearly approached the anchorage, the look-out at the masthead cried "Sail ho!" a second time. On applying my glass to the direction indicated from aloft, I perceived this second sail to be a brig in the N. E., standing apparently for Vera Cruz (she did afterwards run between the inner Anegada and the Blanquilla). I immediately abandoned my intention of anchoring, as the gale had not yet set in, and hauling on a wind, under top-sails and courses, commenced to beat up the passage a second time, with the view of placing myself between the strange sail and the Port, to prevent the possibility of her running the blockade, if she should be so inclined. I made one tack towards the Pascoros reefs, and at the time of the catastrophe, was standing on the larboard tack, with the northern point of the Verde Island reef a couple of points on my lee bow. We were still under topsails, courses, jib and spanker, and the Brig did not appear too much pressed. I was myself standing on the lee arm-chest, having just passed over from the weather quarter, and, with my spy-glass in hand, was observing the reef on our lee bow to see whether it were possible to weather it, or in the event of our not being able to do this, to give timely notice to the officer of the deck to tack ship. I had not been long in this position before the officer of the deck, 2d Lieut. Jas. L. Parker, remarked to me that he thought it looked a little squally to windward. I immediately passed over to the weather side, and as it looked a little darker than it had done, I ordered him to haul up the mainsail, and brail up the spanker, and directed the helm to be put up. These orders were promptly obeyed. Lieut. Parker took the mainsail off her, and had got the spanker about half brailed up, when the squall struck us. It did not appear to be very riotous, nor was its approach accompanied by any foaming of the water, or other indications which usually mark the approach of heavy squalls. But the Brig being flying light, having scarcely any water or provisions, and but six tons of ballast on board, she was thrown over almost instantly, so far as to refuse to obey her helm, the pressure of the water on the lee bow rather inclining her to luff; seeing which, I directed the helm to be put down, hoping that I might luff and shake the wind out of her sails, until the force of the squall should be spent. The quartermaster at the helm had hardly time to obey this order, before the brig was on her beam ends, and the water pouring into every hatch and scuttle. Being now convinced that she must speedily go down unless relieved, I ordered the masts to be cut away. The officers and men, who, with few exceptions, had, by this time, gained the weather bulwarks of the vessel, immediately began to cut away the rigging. But as this was a forlorn hope, the brig filling very fast, and her masts and yards lying flat upon the surface of the sea, I placed no reliance whatever on their efforts. A few moments more, and I was convinced that, in spite of all our exertions, she must inevitably go down in a very short time. I accordingly turned my attention to the saving of as many lives as possible. The boats secured in the grips amidships, and the starboard-quarter boat, were already several feet under water, so that it was impossible to reach them, but we succeeded in disengaging the larboard-quarter boat from her davits, a small boat pulling five oars, and dropped her, fortunately, to leeward of the brig to prevent her being thrown upon the vessel's side, and crushed by the sea. I ordered Midshipman F. G. Clark to take charge of this boat, and with the purser, surgeon, and seventeen men, make for Verde Island, if possible, and after having landed all but the boat's crew, to return and save others. It was now blowing a strong gale, with a heavy sea running, and I deemed it imprudent to trust more men in so small a boat. Besides, I was anxious to shove her off, before the vessel should sink, lest there might be a rush for her, and no life at all should be saved. I cannot refrain from expressing, in this place, my admiration of the noble conduct of several of the men embarked in this boat, who implored the officers by name to take their places, saying they would willingly die by the wreck, if the officers would but save themselves. Of course, none of the generous fellows were permitted to come out, and they were all subsequently safely landed, as they deserved to be. Midshipman Clark fortunately succeeded in shoving off, and pulling some twenty paces from the brig before she went down. When she was on the point of sinking beneath us, and engulfing us in the waves, I gave the order: "Every man save himself who can." Whereupon there was a simultaneous plunge into the sea, of about sixty officers and men, each one trying to secure some frail object that had drifted from the wreck, for the purpose of sustaining himself in the awful struggle with the sea, which awaited him. Some reached a grating, some an oar, some a boat's mast, some a hen-coop, &c., but many poor fellows sprang into the sea to perish in a few minutes, not being able to find any object of support. Lieut. Parker and myself, being both swimmers, were fortunate enough to reach one of the arm-chest gratings, which afforded us partial support, but on which we should inevitably have been drowned, if we had not, when we had swam some twenty or thirty paces, secured an upper half port which came drifting by us. We lashed this with lanyards attached to it to our grating, and thenceforth got along much better. Midshipman Clark, after he had landed the officers and men under his charge at Verde Island, shoved off a second time, in obedience to the orders I had given him, at the imminent peril of his life, for the gale was now blowing with such violence, and the sea running so heavy, that it seemed impossible that so small a boat could live, and skirted the Verde Island to see if it were possible to rescue any of us from the waves. His efforts were rewarded with partial success, as he picked up Lieutenant Parker and myself and one of the seamen. As soon as I landed I sent Midshipman Clark out again, who ventured as far from the island as he thought his boat would live, but this time he returned unsuccessful, having been able to descry no floating object whatever. Lieutenant Claiborne saved himself on a small hatch about two feet square, used for covering the pump-well, and which he found floating near the wreck. He was thrown with great violence upon a reef near Sacrificios, but fortunately escaped without serious injury. As strange as it may appear to you, there could not have elapsed more than ten minutes between our being struck with the squall and the total disappearance of the "Somers." I feel that I would not be doing justice to the officers and men who were under my command on this melancholy occasion, if I were to close this report without bearing testimony to their uniform coolness and self-possession under the trying circumstance under which we were placed, the alacrity with which they obeyed my orders, and when all was over the generosity with which they behaved to each other in the water, where the struggle was one of life and death. I have thus concluded what I had to say in relation to the causes of the disaster, and our own exertions; but with heartfelt acknowledgments, it remains for me to inform you of the gallant and feeling manner in which all the foreign men-of-war lying at Sacrificios came to our rescue. They hoisted out and manned boats immediately, and at the hazard of their lives, put out towards the wreck. They were at first driven back by the violence of the wind and sea, but renewed their efforts upon the first lull, and had the unhoped for satisfaction of saving fourteen more of our unfortunate companions. To Captain Lambert, of the English frigate "Endymion;" Captain Frankland, of the English corvette "Alarm;" Commander Matson, of the English brig "Daring;" Captain Dubut, of the French brig "Mercure;" Captain de Labédoyère, of the French brig "Pylade;" and Captain Puente, of the Spanish corvette "Louisa Fernandez;" who all sent boats, and supplied us with clothing, and hospitably entertained us on board their ships, we owe a lasting debt of gratitude.
In conclusion, I respectfully request that at as early a date as convenient you will order a Court of Inquiry to investigate my conduct in this unfortunate affair.
R. Semmes, Lieutenant commanding.
1847.
Major General Winfield Scott. ℞. Vera Cruz. Cerro Gordo. Contreras, etc.