When the British brig was discovered the Hornet was in less than twenty-four feet of water, and although she stood off shore somewhat to weather the enemy, the contest that followed was over good anchorage ground from beginning to end. From 4.20 P.M. until 5.10 the two vessels jockeyed for position, as yachtsmen would say, and then, seeing he had won the position, Captain Lawrence brought the Hornet around from the port to the starboard tack and headed across the bows of the enemy, who was still on the port tack. As the sails filled he flung the American ensign to the breeze.
Silently but swiftly the two ships approached each other, sailing almost in opposite directions for fifteen anxious minutes, and then at 5.25 o’clock “within half pistol shot,” both ships opened fire, not with all their guns in one thunderous discharge, but gun after gun in swift succession, as each one could be brought to bear—gun after gun until ten on each had boomed.
From the Englishman ten shots flew high over the Hornet’s deck. One of them killed a man in the mizzentop and another slightly wounded two men in the maintop. From the Yankee ten round shot were driven straight into the Peacock’s hull.
Diagram of the HORNET-PEACOCK BATTLE.
In a moment the two ships had passed each other. The Peacock at once wore around before the wind to come to it on the other tack, while the Hornet squared away across the Peacock’s stern, and in a jiffy the Yankee’s bow was against the enemy’s quarter and the Yankee gunners were shooting her literally full of holes. At this moment Captain Peake of the Peacock was killed. The Yankee gunners worked so swiftly that the guns got heated and some of the men dipped up the water of the sea in buckets to pour on the guns to keep them cool. The enemy were unable to face the murderous blast and hauled down the flag at 5.39 o’clock. The action had lasted from the first gun-fire until the flag came down but fourteen minutes.
Captain Lawrence’s report said fifteen minutes. In explanation of the difference Lawrence said his clerk got it down as fifteen by mistake, and the time was so short at most that it was not worth while making an alteration in the log. “I thought that was short enough,” said Lawrence.
Immediately after hauling down their flag the Peacock’s mainmast fell, and the enemy hoisted signals of distress. The crew of the Hornet, under Lieutenant J. T. Shubrick, made haste to get out all their boats and board the Peacock. Both ships came to anchor and the Yankees found the water pouring through the big holes the shot of the Hornet had made in the Peacock. The crew were unable to save her. For a few minutes everybody labored to plug the holes and work the pumps and even at bailing with buckets. But the ship was mortally wounded—the inflowing water was drowning her—and the men abandoned the pumps to save the wounded. Four Englishmen jumped into a boat at the stern and sneaked ashore in the night that was fast coming down. The wounded were all saved, but within a brief time the water rose to the port sills, flowed gently in across the deck and down she sank in the smooth sea. “A vessel moored for the purpose of experiment could not have been sunk sooner.”
John T. Shubrick.