The action began at 11:45. How Perry fought his ship unsupported by the Niagara until the Lawrence was a wreck and but 20 of his 100 men were left unhurt; how he fired himself the last heavy gun from his ship with the help of the purser and chaplain, and then jumped into a small boat, pulled by his brother and four seamen, boarded the Niagara, took personal command, and carried her to victory, make a story of courage and resource unsurpassed in any of the sea fights of history. Never did one man more personify a victory.
The British flag was struck at 3:00 P.M., after a most gallant struggle. Twenty-nine Americans were killed or mortally wounded and 94 wounded. The British lost 41 killed and 94 wounded. The moral effect throughout the country, which covered itself with bonfires and rejoicings, was almost equal to that of the victory of the Constitution. But besides this there was the great concrete result of the evacuation of Detroit and Michigan by the British and their occupancy by the Americans. To Perry’s victory and Chauncey’s success on Lake Ontario is due that we preserved our northwestern frontier in the coming peace.
The winter of 1813-1814 was passed on Lake Ontario by both antagonists in building ships for the next campaign. The largest put afloat at Sackett’s Harbor by the Americans, the arming and equipping of which was under enormous difficulties of transportation through the then almost roadless forest, was the Superior, of 62 guns; but the British built a much larger, the St. Lawrence, of 112 guns. But it was not until October 15th that she was in service, too late in the season to affect the situation. Had the war continued, the lakes would have been the scene of naval operations greater than any carried on by us upon the sea, aided curiously enough by the British blockade of our coast, which caused the transfer to the lakes of the crews of the blockaded frigates. We shall hear a little later of still another momentous battle on our inland waters. For the moment we turn again to the ocean.
It may be remembered that the Essex, under Captain David Porter, was to form part of Bainbridge’s command when the latter left Boston October 26, 1812, with the Hornet. Porter was then in Delaware River. He left on October 28th, but when he reached the rendezvous appointed his consorts had gone. On his way thither a British brig transport, the Nocton, was captured, with $55,000 in specie, which in the circumstances to come was to be a most valuable aid. The prize was sent with a crew of seventeen men to the United States, but was overhauled by a frigate and captured after passing Bermuda. Porter continued on to the second rendezvous off Cape Frio, where he arrived December 25th, four days before the capture of the Java. Porter remained on the Brazilian coast until near the end of January, 1813, when, hearing no news of his consorts, he started for the Pacific, where for a full year he was to cruise at will, capturing nearly every British whaler in that ocean, arming some, destroying others, and recapturing and protecting our own. British commerce was swept from what was then called the South Sea. The story of this cruise in which the captain of the Essex showed a surpassing boldness, energy, and resource is one of the most romantic in history.
After nearly a year of continuous success in crippling the enemy’s commerce, during which the Essex supported herself and armed her consorts entirely from her prizes, Porter was desirous of meeting a British man-of-war, and hearing of the dispatch of the frigate Phoebe, of 36 guns, to the Pacific, he went to Valparaiso to await her coming. But instead of one ship came two, the Cherub accompanying the former. This cruising in couples was the outcome of one of the most remarkable orders ever issued by the British Admiralty; its issuance was the highest compliment ever paid any navy. The order in full cannot be omitted, it read:
“My Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty having received intelligence that several American ships-of-war are now at sea, I have their lordships’ commands to acquaint you therewith, and that they do not conceive that any of his Majesty’s frigates should attempt to engage, single-handed, the larger class of American ships, which, though maybe called frigates, are of a size, complement, and weight of metal much beyond that class and more resembling line-of-battle ships.
“In the event of one of his Majesty’s frigates under your orders falling in with one of these ships, his captain should endeavor in the first instance to secure the retreat of his Majesty’s ship; but if he finds that he has an advantage in sailing, he should endeavor to manœuvre, and keeping company with her, without coming to action, in the hope of falling in with some other of his Majesty’s ships, with whose assistance the enemy might be attacked with a reasonable hope of success.
“It is their lordships’ further directions that you make this known as soon as possible to the several captains commanding his Majesty’s ships.”[37]
There is a delightfully ingenuous recognition of the alarm that had been inspired by our victories in the hope that we might be attacked by two together, “with a reasonable hope of success.” It was absurd to compare our frigates with line-of-battle ships. They were undoubtedly heavier than the usual frigate, though some then in the British navy were quite as powerful. But the fact that our ships were as good as any of their class and better than most was all the more to the credit of their designers. But the Constitution, one of our best, was “but very little more than one half the force of one of the smallest true liners England possessed!”[38]