At noon the schooner was closing fast on the Packet, and at 12.30 P.M. she fired three guns. Captain Blewitt, thinking that the enemy would shortly close, ordered the gunners to reserve their fire until it could be delivered with more effect; but the Privateer had no intention of coming to meet the broadside at short range, and Captain Blewitt, seeing that she hung back, bore up, gave her his stern guns, and then, hauling across the schooner’s bows, raked her with his starboard guns, and wore again with the intention of closing, pouring in the fire of his larboard guns as they came to bear. Thus, while the “Duke of Montrose” had received only a single broadside, every gun that she carried had been fired into the Privateer at short range, and the execution must have been deadly. At 1.45 P.M. the schooner ran down and endeavoured to grapple the Packet, but the fire of the Cornish gunners was too well-directed, and she sheered off again to a safer distance. Half-an-hour later she ceased firing and tacked to the eastward, whereupon Captain Blewitt tacked to the westward and resumed his voyage in the best of spirits.
Unhappily his elation was short-lived, for on the following morning Commodore Rogers in the United States frigate “President” passed that way. Resistance against such a force as the “President” possessed was out of the question. The mails were sunk, and the “Duke of Montrose” surrendered.
Commodore Rogers treated his prisoners with very honourable forbearance and liberality. He would not permit them to be plundered of the least trifle, and informed Captain Blewitt that he proposed to send him, with all his crew and passengers, back to England in their own ship, on condition that they would enter into a contract to send the Packet back to America with an equal number of American prisoners in England. This agreement, drawn up in the most binding terms, was subscribed “upon our sacred honour” by all the persons concerned; and the “Duke of Montrose,” having on board a single American officer, arrived at Falmouth towards the end of June. It then appeared that in the view of the British Government the agreement was contrary to law; and as it had been notified to the American Government that exchanges of prisoners on the high seas would not be recognized as valid, the whole transaction was declared void; the “Duke of Montrose” was restored to the Post-Office, the officers and crew were told that they might resume their duties without being exchanged, and the American officer was sent back to his own country empty-handed.
The story is not a pleasant one; and while the action of the Government may have been strictly warranted by the notification made to the United States, yet the transaction smacks overmuch of the methods of a sharp attorney, and one cannot but regret that the generous confidence of Commodore Rogers was not met in the same spirit.
It is impossible to describe, even with the fulness of the official records, every action which took place during this war; and yet where all were gallant there is some injustice in making a selection. One would willingly linger over the story of how Captain Elphinstone in the “Manchester” fought the “York Town” through a whole day, and did not surrender till his last round of ammunition had been fired; of how Captain White in the “Princess Charlotte” beat off an unknown American vessel in three separate actions extending over four days, during the whole of which time the enemy kept in company; or of Captain Caddy’s plucky conduct when the “Governor Tompkins,” a Privateer of ten long 9–pounders, a long 24–pounder on a traverse, and ninety-nine men, captured his Packet, the “Mary Anne,” after a fight in which the latter was reduced to a mere wreck.
These fine stories must be summarized; but one fight which occurred about this time takes rank among the greater actions of the Falmouth Service, and deserves a fuller description.
The “Express,” Captain John Quick, sailed from Rio de Janeiro on March 23rd, 1813, having on board, in addition to the mails and despatches, about £20,000 in specie. There seems to have been something in the smell of specie which attracted Privateers, for the “Express,” which had made her outward voyage without sighting any suspicious vessel, encountered near the Cape Verde Islands the “Anaconda,” an American Privateer, carrying sixteen long 9–pounders, and a hundred and twenty men. This formidable adversary chased the “Express,” and, after a long pursuit, brought her to action.
Unfortunately no account has been preserved of the details of the fight. We are told that it lasted for an hour at close quarters, and it is clear that the cannonade during that hour must have been very fierce, for the record says that “the Packet’s sails were cut in pieces fore and aft, the main and foremast very badly wounded, the main-topmast shot away, the fore-topsail yard shot away, the foreyard badly wounded, the main and forestay shot away, the main and fore-rigging very badly cut, the braces fore and aft and the topsail-sheets shot away, all the rigging fore and aft in a most shattered condition, four of the starboard guns dismounted (the ‘Express’ carried only eight), several shot between wind and water, three feet and a half of water in the hold, and the Packet actually sinking.” To such a condition had Captain Quick’s ship been reduced before he judged it consistent with his honour to surrender. And this in face of a Post-Office regulation, never yet repealed, which instructed him that “the idea of resistance, except against Privateers of the smallest class, must be abandoned.” So far from abandoning resistance, this gallant captain fought his ship till she was sinking under him, and would certainly have gone down carrying her brave defenders with her had the surrender been delayed a few minutes longer.
Such is the spirit in which the Falmouth men fought their losing battles, earning glory if they could not reach success.