Naval Actions of the War of 1812

by James Barnes

On February 17th President Madison ratified the Treaty of Ghent, and hostilities practically ceased, although, of course, not knowing this fact, Captain Stewart, in command of the Constitution, captured the Cyane and the Levant, two British sloops of war. And on the 23d of March, on a foreign station, the gallant Captain Biddle, in command of the Hornet, captured and sank the Penguin.

But even so long past the time when the news might have been expected to be about the world, on April 27th, 1815, off the Island of San Salvador, the sloop of war Hornet had the last hostile experience with the English of that eventful period. The little sloop was sailing in company with the Peacock, and together they made a pair of fighters that were not afraid of anything that carried in the neighborhood of their weight of metal.

In a letter from Biddle, the senior captain, to Stephen Decatur appears the following: “The Peacock and this ship, having continued off Tristan d’Acunha the number of days directed by you in your letter of instruction, proceeded in company to the eastward on the twelfth day of April, bound to the second place of rendezvous. Nothing of any importance occurred until the twenty-second day of April at 7 A.M., in latitude 38° 30´ and longitude 33´ east. The wind was from northeast by north and light through the day, and by sundown we had neared the chase considerably. It was calm during the day, and at daylight on the 28th he [Warrington of the Peacock] was not in sight. A breeze springing from the northwest, we crowded steering sails on both sides, and the chase was made out standing to the northward upon a wind. At 2.45 P.M. the Peacock was about six miles ahead of this ship, and, observing that she appeared to be suspicious of the chase, I took in starboard steering-sails and hauled up for the Peacock. I was still, however, of opinion that the chase was an Indiaman, though, indeed, the atmosphere was quite smoky and indistinct, and I concluded she was very large. Captain Warrington was waiting for me to join him, that we might get together alongside of her. At 3.22 P.M. the Peacock made the signal that the chase was a ship of the line and an enemy. I took in immediately all steering-sails and hauled upon the wind, the enemy being then upon our lee quarter, distant about eight miles. By sundown I had perceived that the enemy sailed remarkably fast and was very weatherly.”

This letter was dated from San Salvador, June 10th, 1815.

It had been very calm on the morning of the 28th when the great ship had been sighted which, as Biddle has recorded, every one took to be a large East-Indiaman. As the Peacock was in advance and to the windward of the stranger, it was feared by the crew of the Hornet that she would be first to place herself alongside and secure the rich prize. According to the private journal of one of the officers on the Hornet, they had already begun in their imagination to divide the contents of the vessel they expected to capture among them. If she came from the Indies, the sailors declared that they would carpet the berth-deck with costly rugs; while if she hailed from England and was on an outward voyage, the officers revelled in the idea of what her larder might contain; the probable value of her cargo was estimated carefully.

The Hornet was crowding on all sail in order to draw up before the Peacock should have had the best of the picking. Captain Biddle was on deck with his glass in hand watching the Peacock, when suddenly he saw her swing about (she was well to windward), and fly a signal telling that the big vessel was a ship of the line. The Peacock was a faster sailer than the Hornet, as the latter sat deep in the water, and, owing to the weight of metal she carried, was slow in stays. But it was evident, by six o’clock in the evening, three hours after Warrington had signalled Biddle to beware of approaching nearer, that the big fellow had turned the tables and was evidently the pursuer, with the intention of running down the Hornet. Every minute the sails rose higher and higher above the horizon until the great hull was in plain view. She weathered the little Hornet, and it was seen that at the rate of progress the two were making the seventy-four would be within gunshot sometime during the night.

Immediately the wedges of the lower masts were loosened, and at nine o’clock orders were given to lighten ship as much as possible. The sheet-anchor was cut away and hove overboard, and all of the cable followed it. Then the spare rigging and spars were put over the side, and before ten o’clock they scuttled the wardroom-deck and hove overboard about fifty tons of the kentledge.

It was a bright night, with all the stars shining, and there was no use disguising the matter: the Hornet was continually dropping back. The seventy-four fired a gun and signalled, but Biddle did not respond. Like Hull, who brought the Constitution successfully away from a superior force, by pluck and attention to duty, knowledge and seamanship, he determined to leave nothing untried that would tend to increase the rate of his vessel’s sailing.

At two in the morning the Hornet tacked to the southward and westward, and immediately the enemy astern did likewise. At daylight the line-of-battle ship was within gunshot on the Hornet’s lee quarter. At seven in the morning the English colors were displayed at the peak of the Britisher, and a rear-admiral’s flag was flown at his mizzen-topgallant mast-head. At the same time he began firing from his bow guns—it must be assumed more as an imperious order for the Hornet to show her colors and heave to than with an idea of crippling her, for the shot overreached her about a mile.

Biddle paid no attention at all, but having ascertained that the lightening of his ship made her much faster, he went at it again, cutting away the remaining anchors, and letting every foot of cable go overboard. Then he broke up the launch and left the débris in the wake. Even the provisions were broken into, and barrels of salt-horse and bread thrown out upon the waters. Then more kentledge followed, and, tapping the magazines, he threw over all but a dozen or so of round shot. Then over went the capstan, which was no easy job, and they began on the guns; one after another they plashed overboard. All this time the Cornwallis, the great seventy-four, kept up a continual firing, to which no reply was made. In fact, for four hours the English gunners displayed the worst marksmanship on record, for their shot continually went ahead of and all around the Hornet without once striking her, although several passed between her masts.