ILLUSTRATIONS.
| Page | |
| Brig, head on | [Titlepage] |
| "The cutlass breaks at the hilt." | [Frontispiece] |
| "Bold and hardy men who had followed the sea since they | |
| were boys." | [16] |
| "He sent Colonel Glover and Mr. Palfrey in hot haste to | |
| raise the minute-men." | [21] |
| Nicholas Biddle. | [30] |
| He touched at a small town in Ireland for supplies. | [40] |
| The "Drake" surrenders to the "Ranger." | [47] |
| "The sloop was swallowed up in the seething waters." | [73] |
| Heaving the lead on board the frigate. | [81] |
| "Everywhere the ship-yards were busy." | [91] |
| David Porter. | [95] |
| "It was twilight before he came up with her." | [99] |
| Thomas Truxtun,—from medal voted by Congress. | [102] |
| "Crowding on the rail with their scimitars." | [109] |
| Commodore Edward Preble. | [114] |
| "He cut away the anchors, ... but still the ship hung fast." | [117] |
| "The lights could be seen glittering in the houses." | [127] |
| "The 'Philadelphia' lights them on their way." | [131] |
| Stephen Decatur. | [135] |
| "Among these was one sixty-four, the 'Africa.'" | [161] |
| "A squall of wind and rain passed over us." | [167] |
| Captain Isaac Hull. | [171] |
| "She lay a helpless wreck in the trough of the sea." | [173] |
| "Jack Lang, a brave American blue-jacket, leaped first." | [179] |
| "The ships were steering to the eastward on parallel courses." | [189] |
| James Lawrence. | [197] |
| "Along the shore, upon every hill-top and headland, people | |
| had gathered." | [203] |
| "When the 'Essex' arrived off the island she lay to." | [213] |
| Approaching the Galapagos Islands. | [222] |
| "'We surrender,' and down came the flag." | [225] |
| "Mostly carronades." | [239] |
| "A squall struck her and carried away her main-topmast." | [241] |
| Oliver Hazard Perry. | [247] |
| "A single gun boomed from Barclay's ship." | [255] |
| "Calling away his boat, he rowed under the enemy's fire." | [259] |
| "The 'Pelican' was guided to her by the smoke of the burning | |
| merchantmen." | [265] |
| Captain Lewis Warrington. | [270] |
| "One round shot entered her aftermost port." | [277] |
| "On the stocks, and nearly finished, the fine frigate 'Confiance.'" | [283] |
| Captain Charles Stewart. | [296] |
| "Accompanied by Abdallah the dragoman, I left the canal." | [313] |
THE BOYS OF 1812,
AND
OTHER NAVAL HEROES.
CHAPTER I.
THE BEGINNINGS OF THE NAVY.
Simply to defend themselves against the tyrannical encroachments of the mother country was all that the thirteen colonies had in view when, in 1775, they took up arms against Great Britain. At this time the people hoped, and many of them expected, that by making a determined resistance they would induce the King and Parliament to treat them with fairness, and to give them their rights as English citizens. It was only gradually, during the summer and autumn of the first year,—after the battle had been fought at Bunker Hill, and after Washington had been for some time in command of the army which was laying siege to Boston, that they began to feel that they could make a new nation by themselves, and that independence was a thing that was worth fighting for, even though it cost a long and bloody struggle, in which all of them would pass through bitter suffering and many would give up their very lives.