CHAPTER V. WAR ON THE OCEAN.
The President and the Little Belt—The President and the Belvidera—Hull's Race—The Constitution and the Guerriere—Effect of the Victory—The Wasp and the Frolic—The United States and the Macedonian—The Constitution and the Java—Nelson's Prediction.
While the year 1812 brought nothing but disaster to the land forces of the United States, on the ocean it was fruitful of victories that astonished the world. It is greatly to the credit of President Madison that he followed the advice of Captains Stewart and Bainbridge, in opposition to his entire Cabinet, to develop and use the navy, instead of laying it up. That was not only the wise but the appropriate thing to do. This was pre-eminently a sailors' war, entered upon chiefly for the purpose of protecting American seamen from impressment in a foreign service, and its ultimate result would be a settlement of the question whether American ships were to be at liberty to sail the high seas at all, or whether, as a poet of our day puts it, the Atlantic Ocean was to be considered merely John Bull's back yard. It was the wise thing to do, because, if a nation determines to go to war at all, it should do it in earnest; and the most effective war is made when the earliest and most persistent blows are directed at the enemy's vital part. Of all Great Britain's possessions that could be reached by balls or bayonets, her ships at sea were the most important to her. Canada might be overrun, or even conquered, and she would hardly feel its loss—or at least she could exist without it; but anything that weakened her navy and deranged her commerce would make every Englishman feel the penalties of war.
A slight foretaste of what American seamanship and gunnery might do had been afforded by an affair that took place a year before the war broke out. The American frigate President, of forty-four guns, with Commodore John Rodgers on board, was cruising off Sandy Hook in May, 1811, searching for an English frigate that had taken a sailor from an American brig, when she sighted a strange craft. In answer to her hail, the stranger fired a shotted gun, and the shot struck the mainmast. The President promptly returned the fire, and in a few minutes broadsides and musketry blazed out from both vessels. As soon as Rodgers perceived the inferiority of his antagonist, he ordered his gunners to cease firing; but no sooner were his guns silent than the stranger opened again. With another broadside or two the President completely crippled her, and then hailed and got an answer. As darkness now came on, Rodgers lay to for the night, keeping lights displayed, in case the stranger should need assistance. In the morning he sent an officer on board, who learned that she was the British ship Little Belt; that she was badly damaged, and had lost thirty-one men killed or wounded. But she declined receiving any assistance. On board the President one boy had been slightly wounded. Each vessel sailed for home, and each commander told his own story, the two accounts being widely different. The version here given is that of the American officers. According to the English captain, the President began the action by firing a broadside into the unoffending Little Belt. Each government accepted the statement of its own officers, and there the matter rested.
It was this same vessel, the President, that fought the first action of the war. With news of the declaration came orders to Commodore Rodgers, then in New York, to sail on a cruise against the enemy. Within one hour he was ready. The Hornet, of eighteen guns, Captain Lawrence, was ready at the same time, and the Essex, of thirty-two guns, Captain Porter, a few hours later.
Information had been received that a large fleet of English merchantmen had left Jamaica, under a strong convoy, for England, and on the 21st of June, Rodgers left the port of New York with his squadron, in search of them. He did not find them; but on the morning of the 23d a sail appeared in sight, which proved to be the British frigate Belvidera, and the President gave chase. About four o'clock in the afternoon the vessels were within gunshot, and Rodgers opened fire with his bow-guns, sighting and discharging the first one himself. The ball struck the rudder-coat of the Belvidera, and passed into the gun-room. The next shot struck the muzzle of one of her stern-chasers. The third killed two men and wounded five. At the fourth shot the gun burst, blowing up the forecastle deck, on which Rodgers was standing, and hurling him into the air. The explosion also killed or wounded sixteen men. This caused a lull in the action, and the Belvidera's men went back to their guns and returned the fire with considerable effect. The President soon began to forge ahead, when the Belvidera cut loose her anchors, stove her boats and threw them overboard, started fourteen tons of water, and thus lightened, managed to escape, and a few days afterward made the port of Halifax. The total loss of the President, killed and wounded, in this action, was twenty-two; that of the Belvidera, about half as many. An English privateer was captured by the Hornet on the 9th of July, and subsequently seven merchantmen, and an American vessel that had been captured by the enemy was retaken.
When the Belvidera carried into Halifax the news of the declaration of war, and that the American cruisers were out, a squadron of five vessels, under Captain Vere Broke in the Shannon, was sent out to destroy Rodgers. They did not find him, but they captured several American merchantmen off the port of New York, and also took, after a smart chase, the little brig-of-war Nautilus.
The Essex, which had left port a little later than the President and Hornet, took several prizes, one of them being a transport filled with soldiers. She was chased by the Alert, of twenty guns, and fired upon. The Essex was armed with carronades, guns not intended for work at long distances. Waiting till the enemy had come pretty near, she suddenly opened her broadside, and in eight minutes the Alert struck her colors.
The great war-game on the ocean began in earnest when Captain Isaac Hull sailed from the Chesapeake in July, in the Constitution, a frigate of forty-four guns. On the 17th he came in sight of five vessels, which proved to be Broke's squadron, and the next day he was surrounded by them. As the wind was very light, he resorted to "kedging" to keep out of reach of them. This consisted in sending a boat ahead for perhaps half a mile, with a kedge anchor and lines. The kedge was then dropped, and the lines carried back to the ship. These being fastened to the windlass, the crew, by turning it and winding them up, pulled the vessel up to the anchor. While this was being done, the boat was going ahead with another kedge and lines, to repeat the operation and make it continuous. The flagship of the British squadron was pretty close in chase when the American frigate was thus seen to be walking away from it. The enemy soon found out how the mysterious movement was made, and resorted to the same expedient. But it was not possible to approach very near by this means, as it would have brought his boat under the fire of the American's stern-guns. Captain Hull had cut away some of the woodwork and run two twenty-four pounders out at his cabin windows, and also mounted a long gun on his spar deck as a stern-chaser. Whenever there was a little wind, every vessel set every stitch of canvas she could carry, and all the nicest arts of seamanship were resorted to to gain the slightest advantage. Eleven ships were in sight most of the time, all participating in the contest. An American merchantman appeared to windward, and the British vessels, not wishing to leave the chase, displayed an American ensign to decoy her within reach of their guns. Thereupon the Constitution hoisted an English flag, to warn her off. This exciting race was kept up for three days. In the evening of the second day, it was evident that a heavy squall was coming up. Just before it struck the Constitution, all the light canvas was furled, and the ship was brought under short sail in a few minutes. When the pursuing vessels observed this, they began at once to let go and haul down without waiting for the wind. Presently the squall came, and with it a rainstorm that hid the vessels from one another. As soon as this happened, the Constitution sheeted home and hoisted her fore and main topgallant sails, and while her pursuers were steering in different directions to avoid the force of the squall, and believed her to be borne down by the pressure of the wind, she was sailing straight away from them at the rate of eleven knots an hour. When the squall was over, the nearest vessel of the British squadron was seen to be a long way astern, and to have fallen off two points to leeward, while the slowest ones were so far behind as to be almost out of sight. The chase was kept up during the night, but in the morning was found to be so hopeless that it was abandoned.
This contest, though a mere race, attended with no fighting, no damage of any kind, and only a negative result, is famous in the annals of the ocean. It was a fine instance of that superior seamanship which stood the American sailor in good stead throughout the war, and contributed quite as much as his valor to the brilliant victories that rendered Great Britain no longer the mistress of the seas.
Hull made sail for Boston, and after a short stay in that port sailed again on the 2d of August. He cruised along eastward as far as the Gulf of St. Lawrence, where he captured and burned two small prizes, and then stood southward. In the afternoon of the 19th a sail was descried from the masthead, and the Constitution at once gave chase. Within an hour and a half she was near enough to the stranger to see that she was a frigate; and a little later she laid her maintopsail aback and waited for the Constitution, evidently anxious for a contest.
Hull immediately put his vessel in complete trim for a fight, cleared for action, and beat to quarters. At five o'clock the English frigate, which proved to be the Guerriere, of thirty-eight guns, Captain Dacres, hoisted three ensigns and opened fire. The Constitution approached cautiously, so as to avoid being raked, firing occasionally, but reserving most of her guns for close action.
After an hour of this, the Guerriere indicated her readiness for a square fight, yard-arm to yard-arm, and the Constitution set her sails to draw alongside. The fire from both ships became gradually heavier, and in ten minutes the mizzen-mast of the Guerriere was shot away. The Constitution then passed slowly ahead, keeping up a constant fire, her guns being double shotted with grape and round shot, and attempted to get a position across the bows of the enemy and rake her. But in trying to avoid being herself raked while gaining this position, she luffed short, and fell foul of her enemy. At this moment the cabin of the Constitution took fire from the flash of the Guerriere's guns, and for a while it looked as if she would fare hardly. But by the energy and skill of Lieutenant B. V. Hoffman, who commanded in the cabin, the fire was extinguished, confusion prevented, and a gun of the Guerriere that might have repeated the mischief disabled.
The instant the vessels came together, each attempted to board the other; but a close and deadly fire of musketry prevented. On the American side, Lieutenant Morris, Master Alwyn, and Mr. Bush, Lieutenant of Marines, sprang to the taffrail to lead their men, when they were all shot down. Finding it impossible to board, the Constitution filled her sails and shot ahead, and a moment later the Guerriere's foremast fell, and carried the mainmast, with it. This reduced her to a wreck, and as a heavy sea was on she was helpless. The Constitution hauled off a short distance, repaired damages, and at seven o'clock wore round and took a position for raking. An ensign that had been hoisted on the stump of the mizzen-mast was at once hauled down in token of surrender, and the prize was won. A lieutenant sent on board returned with the news that she was one of the squadron that had so lately chased the Constitution.
The victor kept near her prize through the night, and at daylight the officer in charge reported that the Guerriere had four feet of water in the hold and was in danger of sinking. Captain Hull therefore transferred the prisoners to his own vessel, recalled the prize crew, and set the wreck on fire. In fifteen minutes the flames reached the magazine, and the hulk that still remained of the proud English frigate was blown to pieces.
In this battle the Constitution lost seven men killed and seven wounded. Her rigging suffered considerably, but her hull was only very slightly damaged. The Guerriere lost seventy-nine men killed or wounded. The location of this battle may be found by drawing a line directly east from the point of Cape Cod, and another directly south from Cape Race; the point of intersection will be very near the battle-ground. It is a little south of the track of steamers between New York and Liverpool.
The news of this victory was a startling revelation, on both sides of the Atlantic. In expressing their contempt for the American navy, the English journals had especially ridiculed the Constitution, as "a bunch of pine boards, under a bit of striped bunting." This bunch of boards had now outsailed a squadron of eleven British war-vessels, and in a fight of half an hour had reduced one of their frigates to a wreck and made her strike her colors. It was true that the American ship was slightly superior in number of men and guns; but this would not account for the superiority of seamanship, the better gun-practice, and the enormous difference in losses. Captain Dacres, who was afterward put on trial for losing his ship, asserted that he had sent away a considerable number of his men in prizes; that he had several Americans in his crew who refused to fight against their countrymen, and that he permitted them to go below. But all allowances that could be made did not change the essential character of the victory. Only a short time before, the London Courier had said, "There is not a frigate in the American navy able to cope with the Guerriere."
Captain Hull, who was now in his thirty-eighth year, had entered the navy at the age of twentythree, and had gained distinction in the war with Tripoli. When he landed in Boston with his prisoners, nearly the whole population of the town turned out to greet him. Flags and streamers were displayed on every hand, decorated arches spanned the streets, and a banquet was spread for him and his crew. He made a sort of triumphal progress to New York and Philadelphia, where similar honors were paid him, and handsome swords and snuffboxes presented to him. Congress voted him a gold medal, to each of his commissioned officers a silver medal, and fifty thousand dollars to the crew as prize money.
In his official report the Captain said: "It gives me great pleasure to say that, from the smallest boy in the ship to the oldest seaman, not a look of fear was seen. They all went into action giving three cheers, and requesting to be laid close alongside the enemy." The London Times said: "It is not merely that an English frigate has been taken, after what we are free to confess may be called a brave resistance, but that it has been taken by a new enemy, an enemy unaccustomed to such triumphs, and likely to be rendered insolent and confident by them. He must be a weak politician who does not see how important the first triumph is, in giving a tone and character to the war. Never before in the history of the world did an English frigate strike to an American; and though we cannot say that Captain Dacres, under all circumstances, is punishable for this act, yet we do say there are commanders in the English navy who would a thousand times have rather gone down with their colors flying than have set their brother officers so fatal an example."
The next naval contest, in the order of time, was that of the Wasp and the Frolic, one of the bloodiest of the war. The Wasp, an American sloop-of-war, of eighteen guns, commanded by Captain Jacob Jones, was a very fast sailer, and had gone to Europe with despatches, when the war broke out. On her return she was refitted with all haste and sent out on a cruise. In the night of October 17th, about five hundred miles off Cape Hatteras, she sighted a fleet of six English merchantmen under convoy of the Frolic, a brig, of twenty-two guns, Captain Whinyates. Four of the merchantmen were armed.
The next morning, the sea being somewhat rough, the Wasp was put under short canvas and got into fighting trim, and then bore down upon the Frolic, which kept herself between her convoy and the enemy. She also was under short canvas, and her main-yard was on deck. About half past eleven o'clock the Wasp came up close on the starboard side of the Frolic, and broadsides were exchanged at the distance of only sixty yards. The fire of the Englishman was the more rapid, but that of the American was the more deliberate and effective. In a little over four minutes the Wasp's maintopmast was shot off and with the maintopsail-yard fell across the braces, rendering the head-yards unmanageable. A few minutes later her gaff and mizzen-topgallant-mast were shot down; and before the action was over, every brace and most of the rigging was carried away. The shot of the Wasp was directed mainly at her enemy's hull, and the firing on both sides was kept up with great spirit, little or no attempt being made to manoeuvre, and the vessels gradually approaching each other. At last they were so near that the American gunners touched the side of the Frolic with their rammers, her bowsprit passed over the Wasp's quarterdeck, and the latter was brought directly across the Englishman's bows, in position for raking. Captain Jones ordered a broadside; and when it was fired, the muzzles of two of the guns were actually in the bow ports of the Frolic, and the discharge swept her from stem to stern.
As no sign of submission had come from the enemy, Captain Jones was about to repeat the raking, but was prevented by the impetuosity of his crew. A sailor named John Lang, who had once been impressed on a British man-of-war, hot for revenge, sprang upon the bowsprit of the Frolic, cutlass in hand, and was followed by Lieutenant Biddle and an impromptu boarding-party. They met no opposition. Two or three officers, wounded and bleeding, were standing on the after-part of the deck; there was a cool-headed old seaman at the wheel; and dead and wounded sailors were lying about in all directions. The officers threw down their swords, and Lieutenant Biddle sprang into the rigging and hauled down the British flag. The battle had lasted forty-three minutes. On board the Wasp, five men had been killed and five wounded. The loss on the Frolic has never been ascertained, it was at least seventy-five. Captain Whinyates, in his official report, said that not twenty of his men escaped injury.
The two vessels were separated, and in a few minutes both masts of the Frolic fell. Arrangements were made for sending her into Charleston with a prize crew, while the Wasp should repair damages and continue her cruise. But before this plan could even be fairly entered upon, the British ship-of-the-line Poictiers, carrying seventy-four guns, hove in sight, and speedily made prize of both vessels and took them to Bermuda.
On the same day when this action took place. Commodore Stephen Decatur, cruising in the frigate United States, captured the British packet Swallow, which had on board a large quantity of specie. He continued his cruise eastward, and only a week later (October 25th), at a point about midway between the Azores and the Cape Verd Islands, sighted a large vessel to windward, which proved to be the English frigate Macedonian, carrying forty-nine guns, Captain Carden. She was somewhat smaller than the United States, and had fewer men. Decatur made up to the stranger; but she had the advantage of the wind, and for some time managed to keep out of reach. At length, after considerable manoeuvring, the distance was shortened, and both vessels opened fire with their long guns. The gunnery of the American was superior, and while sustaining little injury herself she inflicted serious damage upon her antagonist. At the end of half an hour, the distance had been still more diminished, so that the carronades were brought into use. A carronade is a short gun, throwing a comparatively large ball with not very great velocity. The size of the ball and its slower motion cause it to splinter and tear a ragged hole in the side of a ship, where a smaller shot with a greater velocity would pass through and make a smooth round hole, which could easily be plugged up again. As the Macedonian became disabled, she fell off to leeward, while the United States passed ahead and to windward, and then tacked and came up under her lee. The firing, which had been entirely with artillery, now ceased on both sides. The Macedonian's mizzen-mast was gone, her main and foretopmasts carried away, her main-yard cut in two, and her ensign had disappeared. The United States hailed her, and was answered that she had struck her colors. She had received a hundred shot in her hull, most of them in the waist. She went into the action with three hundred men, of whom she lost thirty-six killed and sixty-eight wounded. On board were seven impressed American sailors, two of whom were killed. On the United States five men were killed and seven wounded. Her rigging was considerably cut, but otherwise she received very little injury.
Decatur took his prize to New York, going in by way of Long Island Sound, where he arrived on New Year's day, 1813. He was received with a great ovation, and there were banquets, orations; and public rejoicings unlimited. Congress, following the precedent set in the case of Hull, voted a gold medal to the commander, and a silver one to each of his commissioned officers.
A member of the British Parliament, making a speech concerning this affair, said he "lamented that, with the navy of Great Britain against that of America, which consisted of only four frigates and two sloops, two of our finest frigates were now in their possession, captured by only two of theirs. This was a reverse which English officers and English sailors had not before been used to, and from such a contemptible navy as that of America had always been held, no one could suppose such an event could have taken place."
And the London Independent Whig was constrained to say: "A powerful and rival nation is now rapidly rising in the west, whose remonstrances we have hitherto derided, but whose resentment we shall soon be taught to feel; who for our follies or our crimes seems destined to retaliate on us the miseries we have inflicted on defenceless and oppressed states, to share with us the fertile products of the ocean, and snatch from our feeble and decrepit hands the imperial trident of the main."
But the cup of English humiliation was not yet full. The Americans had another able commander, with a stanch ship and a fearless crew, who now came in for his turn. This was Commodore William Bainbridge, who sailed from Boston late in October, on board the Constitution, the same vessel with which Hull had conquered the Guerriere. In company with her sailed the brig Hornet, of eighteen guns, commanded by Captain James Lawrence.
They cruised southward, and in December the Hornet was left at San Salvador, or Bahia, Brazil, to blockade an English brig that was on the point of sailing with a large amount of specie on board. Lawrence had sent in a challenge to fight the two brigs, on even terms, just outside the harbor, but the English captain declined.
The Constitution continued her cruise, and on the 29th, off the Brazilian coast, sighted the English frigate Java, carrying thirty-eight guns, Captain Lambert. Bainbridge tacked and drew the stranger off the land, which was not more than thirty miles distant, and when far enough away stood toward him. The enemy seemed quite as anxious for a contest, and about two o'clock it began. The firing was heavy and continuous. The Java had the advantage of the wind, and attempted to cross the Constitution's bow, to rake her. But the latter wore, and avoided it. This manoeuvre was repeated several times, and at length the Constitution, though her wheel had been shot away, making it difficult to manage the steering-gear, succeeded in getting the coveted position, and raked her antagonist.
The Java, which had been badly damaged, ran down Upon the Constitution with the intention of boarding. But her jibboom became entangled in the Constitution's mizzen-rigging, and she was held there and raked mercilessly. At this time her bowsprit and foremast were shot away.
The two vessels now separated, and after considerable manoeuvring came together again, yard-arm and yard-arm, and reopened their broadsides. Now the Java's mizzen-mast tumbled, and her main-mast was the only stick left standing. The Constitution then hauled off, and spent an hour in repairing damages, at the end of which time she wore round and stood across her antagonist's bow, when the English colors were struck.
The action had lasted an hour and fifty-five minutes. The Constitution had lost nine men killed and twenty-five wounded, Commodore Bainbridge being slightly wounded. The loss on board the Java was variously stated; the lowest estimate made it twenty-two killed and one hundred and one wounded. Bainbridge said that sixty were killed. Captain Lambert was mortally wounded. The whole number on board was four hundred, including General Hislop and his staff and other officers, who were on their way to the East Indies.
The Java was a complete wreck, and after a day or two it was determined to blow her up, which was done after all the prisoners and wounded had been carefully removed. She might have been towed into Bahia; but Brazil was friendly to Great Britain, and Bainbridge did not want to trust his prize in a Brazilian harbor. He, however, landed his prisoners there, and paroled them.
The Constitution—which received the name of "Old Ironsides," on account of escaping serious damage in this action—arrived at Boston in February. Here the same welcome that had been given to Hull and Decatur was extended to Bainbridge. The cities of New York and Albany gave him gold snuff-boxes, Philadelphia gave him a service of silver, and Congress voted the usual medals, with fifty thousand dollars of prize money for the crew.
In the first six months of the war, the little American navy, for which Congress had done nothing, and from which nothing had been expected, had six encounters with English cruisers, and in every one was victorious. These defeats were a sore trouble to English naval historians, who have ever since been laboring to explain them away. They have invented all sorts of ingenious theories to account for them; but it has never occurred to them to adopt the simple explanation that they were defeats, brought about by superior seamanship and gunnery, backed up by the consciousness of a just cause, on the part of the Americans. The favorite explanation has been, that the American so-called frigates were seventy-four-gun ships in disguise; that the English crews were all green hands, and their numbers were not full at that. A few years later, General Scott met at a dinner in London a young British naval officer, who superciliously inquired, "whether the Americans continued to build line-of-battle ships, and to call them frigates."
"We have borrowed a great many excellent things from the mother country," answered Scott, "and some that discredit both parties. Among the latter is the practice in question. Thus when you took from France the Guerrière, she mounted forty-nine guns, and you instantly rated her on your list a thirty-six-gun frigate; but when we captured her from you, we found on board the same number, forty-nine guns!"
During this same half year, nearly three hundred British merchantmen had been captured and brought into American ports. In this work the little navy had been assisted by a large number of privateers, which had sailed from our ports, under letters of marque, and had not only helped themselves to the rich spoils of British commerce, but had occasionally fought with armed cruisers.
These disasters were no more than had been predicted by Lord Nelson, the greatest of English admirals. After watching the evolutions of an American squadron commanded by Commodore Richard Dale, in the bay of Gibraltar, he is reported to have said to an American gentleman who was on board his flagship that "there was in those transatlantic ships a nucleus of trouble for the maritime power of Great Britain. We have nothing to fear from anything on this side of the Atlantic; but the manner in which those ships are handled makes me think that there may be a time when we shall have trouble from the other."