Medal Awarded to William Bainbridge after the Capture of the Java by the Constitution.

After disposing of the hulk of the Java, Commodore Bainbridge landed his prisoners, as told, on parole at San Salvador (now called Bahia). He had sailed for the East Indies, but having failed to find the Essex, and having found that the Constitution was suffering from decay in some parts as well as from the serious injury to her mizzen-mast, he decided to return home. He sailed from Bahia on January 6, 1813 and reached Boston on February 27th. Scarce need it be said that the people were wildly enthusiastic once more in their rejoicing. There were processions and banquets. The Congress voted a gold medal to Bainbridge and silver medals to his lieutenants, and $50,000 to the crew.

The news of the defeat reached England on March 19, 1813. The London Times of the next day said regarding the victory of the Americans:

“This is an occurrence that calls for serious reflection—this and the fact stated in our paper of yesterday, that Lloyd’s List contains notices of upward of five hundred British vessels captured in seven months by the Americans. Five hundred merchantmen and three frigates! Can these statements be true? And can the English people hear them unmoved? Any one who would have predicted such a result of an American war this time last year would have been treated as a madman or a traitor. He would have been told, if his opponents had condescended to argue with him, that long ere seven months had elapsed the American flag would have been swept from the seas, the contemptible navy of the United States annihilated, and their marine arsenals rendered a heap of ruins. Yet down to this moment not a single American frigate has struck her flag.”

It is worth telling, to illustrate the character of Bainbridge, that, in 1796, he was returning from Europe in the merchant-ship Hope, of which he was the captain. One day the Hope was overhauled and boarded by a British warship, and the boarding officers compelled a muster of the crew. The mate’s name was McKinsey. He was an American, of course, but the lieutenant at once decided that he was a Scotchman. However, at the suggestion of Bainbridge, McKinsey entered a state-room, and with pistols successfully defied the lieutenant, who then carried off a common sailor. As the lieutenant left, Bainbridge declared that a man should be taken from the first British merchantman met, to replace the one taken. The lieutenant said Bainbridge would not dare to do so. Five days later the Hope fell in with a British brig, that had a larger crew and eight guns to the Hope’s four, and Bainbridge at once carried out his threat, in spite of a stout resistance. He was one of the greatest of American naval heroes.

CHAPTER IX
WHIPPED IN FOURTEEN MINUTES

THE REMARKABLE BATTLE BETWEEN THE YANKEE HORNET AND THE BRITISH PEACOCK—THE BRITISH SHIP WAS SO PRETTY SHE WAS KNOWN AS “THE YACHT,” BUT HER GUNNERS COULD NOT HIT THE BROADSIDE OF THE HORNET WHEN THE SHIPS WERE IN CONTACT—AS HER FLAG CAME DOWN A SIGNAL OF DISTRESS WENT UP, FOR SHE WAS SINKING—THE EFFORTS OF TWO CREWS COULD NOT SAVE HER—“A VESSEL MOORED FOR THE PURPOSE OF EXPERIMENT COULD NOT HAVE BEEN SUNK SOONER”—INFAMOUS TREATMENT OF AMERICAN SEAMEN REPAID BY THE GOLDEN RULE—CAPTAIN GREEN, OF THE BONNE CITOYENNE, DID NOT DARE MEET THE HORNET.

The battle between the Constitution’s consort Hornet and the British brig Peacock was the sixth of the war and a most remarkable illustration not only of the skill of the Yankee gunners but of their willing—their eager energy when fighting against the slave-drivers of the sea. It was fought off the mouth of the Demerara River, South America, on February 24, 1813.

The Hornet was what was called a sloop of war. She had been originally rigged as a brig and was sent to the Mediterranean in that fashion, but after the trouble with the African pirates was ended she returned home and together with the Wasp was changed into a three-masted instead of two-masted rig. She was armed with eighteen short thirty-twos and two long twelves.

Under the command of Master Commandant James Lawrence, she sailed from Boston, as already told, in company with the Constitution, bound on a cruise against British commerce in the East Indies, and the two came down to the coast of Brazil, where the Essex was expected to join them. On reaching Bahia (San Salvador) the British war-ship Bonne Citoyenne, Captain P. B. Greene, was found at anchor in the harbor. The Bonne Citoyenne was a ship of the same size as the Hornet and she carried exactly the same number of guns, her broadside guns being short thirty-twos, and her long guns nines. That is to say, if the Hornet’s shot were allowed to be of full weight (which to our disgrace they were not) the Hornet could throw just three pounds of metal more than the Bonne Citoyenne at a broadside. It is perhaps worth noting that the Bonne Citoyenne had fought for seven hours and captured “a French frigate of the largest class” in 1809.