The mistakes were easily corrected, and the ship arrived in Hampton Roads without further incident. Commodore Barron, who first came aboard June 6, wrote[5] at once to the secretary, “that from the extreme cleanliness and order in which I found her I am convinced that Captain Gordon and his officers must have used great exertions. Captain Gordon speaks in high terms of his lieutenants. The state of the ship proves the justice of his encomiums.”
Nevertheless much remained to be done, and in spite of the secretary’s urgency the ship was still delayed in Hampton Roads. From June 6 to June 19, notwithstanding bad weather, the whole ship’s company were hard worked. The guns were taken on board and fitted; water was got in; spars and rigging had to be overhauled, and stores for four hundred men on a three-years cruise were shipped. June 19 the guns were all fitted, and the crew could for the first time be assigned to their stations at quarters. According to the custom of the service, the guns were charged with powder and shot. They had no locks, and were fired by the old-fashioned slow-match, or by loggerheads kept in the magazine and heated red-hot in the galley fire whenever need for them arose.
June 19 Captain Gordon considered the ship ready for sea, and wrote to the commodore on shore,[6] “We are unmoored and ready for weighing the first fair wind.” Both Captain Gordon and Commodore Barron were aware that the decks were more or less encumbered, and that the crew had not been exercised at the guns; but they were not warranted in detaining her on that account, especially since the guns could be better exercised at sea, and the ship was already four months behind time. Accordingly, June 21, Commodore Barron came on board, and at four o’clock in the afternoon the “Chesapeake” weighed anchor and stood down the Roads; at six o’clock she came to, dropped anchor, called all hands to quarters, and prepared to start for sea the next morning. From Lynnhaven Bay the “Leopard,” which had arrived from Halifax only a few hours before, could watch every movement of the American frigate.
At a quarter-past seven o’clock on the morning of June 22 the “Chesapeake” got under way with a fair breeze. Her ship’s company numbered three hundred and seventy-five men and boys, all told, but, as was not uncommon in leaving port, much sickness prevailed among the crew, and by the doctor’s order the sick seamen were allowed to lie in the sun and air on the upper deck. The gun-deck between the guns was encumbered with lumber of one sort or another; the cables were not yet stowed away; four of the guns did not fit quite perfectly to their carriages, and needed a few blows with a maul to drive the trunnions home, but this defect escaped the eye; in the magazine the gunner had reported the powder-horns, used in priming the guns, as filled, whereas only five were in fact filled. Otherwise the ship, except for the freshness of her crew, was in fair condition.
At nine o’clock, passing Lynnhaven Bay, the officers on deck noticed the “Bellona” and “Melampus” at anchor. The “Leopard” lay farther out, and the “Bellona” was observed to be signalling. A story had been circulated at Norfolk that the captain of the “Melampus” threatened to take his deserters out of the “Chesapeake;” but rumors of this sort roused so little attention that no one on board the American frigate gave special notice to the British squadron. The “Melampus” lay quietly at anchor. Had Barron been able to read the “Bellona’s” signals he would have suspected nothing, for they contained merely an order to the “Leopard” to weigh and reconnoitre in the southeast by east.[7] The British squadron was in the habit of keeping a cruiser outside to overhaul merchant-vessels; and when the “Leopard” stood out to sea, the officers of the “Chesapeake” naturally supposed that this was her errand.
At noon Cape Henry bore southwest by south, distant one or two miles. The day was fine; but the breeze then shifted to the south-southeast, and began to blow fresh. The change of wind brought the “Leopard” to windward. At about a quarter-past two the “Chesapeake” tacked in shore to wait for the pilot-boat which was to take off the pilot. The “Leopard” tacked also, about a mile distant. At the same time dinner was served at the commodore’s table, and Barron, Gordon, Captain Hall of the marines, Dr. Bullus and his wife sat down to it. Captain Gordon afterward testified that as they were dining Commodore Barron noticed the British frigate through the larboard forward port of the cabin, and made the remark “that her movements appeared suspicious, but she could have nothing to do with us.”[8] Barron positively denied ever having made the remark; but whether he said it or not, nothing more than a passing doubt occurred to him or to any other person on board. Gordon returned to his work; the crew began to stow away the cable; and at a quarter before three o’clock, the pilot-boat nearing, the “Chesapeake” again stood out to sea, the “Leopard” immediately following her tack.
At about half-past three o’clock, both ships being eight or ten miles southeast by east of Cape Henry, the “Leopard” came down before the wind, and rounding to, about half a cable’s length to windward, hailed, and said she had despatches for the commodore. Barron returned the hail and replied, “We will heave to and you can send your boat on board of us.” British ships-of-war on distant stations not infrequently sent despatches by the courtesy of American officers, and such a request implied no hostile purpose. British ships also arrogated a sort of right to the windward; and the “Leopard’s” manœuvre, although one which no commander except an Englishman would naturally have made, roused no peculiar attention. The “Leopard’s” ports were seen to be triced up; but the season was midsummer, the weather was fine and warm, and the frigate was in sight of her anchorage. Doubtless Barron ought not to have allowed a foreign ship-of-war to come alongside without calling his crew to quarters,—such was the general rule of the service; but the condition of the ship made it inconvenient to clear the guns, and the idea of an attack was so extravagant that, as Barron afterward said, he might as well have expected one when at anchor in Hampton Roads. After the event several officers, including Captain Gordon, affirmed that they felt suspicions; but they showed none at the time, and neither Gordon nor any one else suggested, either to the commodore or to each other, that it would be well to order the crew to quarters.
Barron went to his cabin to receive the British officer, whose boat came alongside. At a quarter before four o’clock Lieutenant Meade from the “Leopard” arrived on board, and was shown by Captain Gordon to the commodore’s cabin. He delivered the following note:—
“The captain of his Britannic Majesty’s ship ‘Leopard’ has the honor to enclose the captain of the United States ship ‘Chesapeake’ an order from the Honorable Vice-Admiral Berkeley, commander-in-chief of his Majesty’s ships on the North American station, respecting some deserters from the ships (therein mentioned) under his command, and supposed to be now serving as part of the crew of the ‘Chesapeake.’
“The captain of the ‘Leopard’ will not presume to say anything in addition to what the commander-in-chief has stated, more than to express a hope that every circumstance respecting them may be adjusted in a manner that the harmony subsisting between the two countries may remain undisturbed.”