The Battle Between the Constitution and the Java.—II.
(At half-past four o’clock, as the Constitution began to make sail.)
From an engraving by Havel, after a sketch by Lieutenant Buchanan.
It was not until an actual inspection of the wreck had been made that the real state of affairs on the Java could be realized by those on the Constitution. As Lieutenant Parker from the Constitution climbed on board he saw her decks strewn with the dead and wounded, while the living were busy with the grewsome task of dropping the dead over the rail. Captain Lambert, “her able and gallant commander,” had been mortally wounded soon after three o’clock. The command had then devolved on Lieutenant Chads, and to him was due the credit of the obstinate struggle after the foremast fell. And he did it, too, in spite of the fact that he was severely wounded. Like the fierce Lieutenant David Hope of the Macedonian, he was anxious to fight even after his ship was reduced to a helpless hulk. He had striven with desperate energy to refit his ship with a jury-rig while the Constitution was making repairs to her running rigging—had spread a sail to a part of the main-yard that was left in place and was working on a jury foremast when the Constitution returned. But labor was vain. The cool precision of the Yankee gunners had literally cut the ship to pieces. Her masts were down and her hull was a sieve.
The Java Surrendering to the Constitution.
From an old wood-cut.
The conventional comparison of the forces and losses of the two ships cannot be made in any way better than by quoting Roosevelt’s “The Naval War of 1812.” He says:
“Her loss (the Constitution’s) amounted to 8 seamen and 1 marine killed; the fifth lieutenant, John C. Alwyn, and 2 seamen, mortally; Commodore Bainbridge and 12 seamen, severely, and 7 seamen and 2 marines, slightly wounded; in all 12 killed and mortally wounded, and 22 wounded severely and slightly.... In this action both crews displayed equal gallantry and seamanship.... The manœuvering on both sides was excellent. Captain Lambert used the advantage which his ship possessed in her superior speed most skilfully, always endeavoring to run across his adversary’s bows and rake him when he had fore-reached, and it was only owing to the equal skill which his antagonist displayed that he was foiled, the length of the combat being due to the number of evolutions. The great superiority of the Americans was in their gunnery. The fire of the Java was both less rapid and less well directed than that of her antagonist; the difference of force against her was not heavy, being about as ten to nine, and was by no means enough to account for the almost five-fold greater loss she suffered.... The comparative force and loss: the Constitution measured 1,576 tons, threw 654 pounds of metal, carried 475 men, and lost 34. The Java measured 1,340 tons, threw 576 pounds of metal, carried 426 men, and lost 150.