Information had been received that a large fleet of English merchantmen had left Jamaica, under a strong convoy, for England, and on the 21st of June, Rodgers left the port of New York with his squadron, in search of them. He did not find them; but on the morning of the 23d a sail appeared in sight, which proved to be the British frigate Belvidera, and the President gave chase. About four o'clock in the afternoon the vessels were within gunshot, and Rodgers opened fire with his bow-guns, sighting and discharging the first one himself. The ball struck the rudder-coat of the Belvidera, and passed into the gun-room. The next shot struck the muzzle of one of her stern-chasers. The third killed two men and wounded five. At the fourth shot the gun burst, blowing up the forecastle deck, on which Rodgers was standing, and hurling him into the air. The explosion also killed or wounded sixteen men. This caused a lull in the action, and the Belvidera's men went back to their guns and returned the fire with considerable effect. The President soon began to forge ahead, when the Belvidera cut loose her anchors, stove her boats and threw them overboard, started fourteen tons of water, and thus lightened, managed to escape, and a few days afterward made the port of Halifax. The total loss of the President, killed and wounded, in this action, was twenty-two; that of the Belvidera, about half as many. An English privateer was captured by the Hornet on the 9th of July, and subsequently seven merchantmen, and an American vessel that had been captured by the enemy was retaken.
When the Belvidera carried into Halifax the news of the declaration of war, and that the American cruisers were out, a squadron of five vessels, under Captain Vere Broke in the Shannon, was sent out to destroy Rodgers. They did not find him, but they captured several American merchantmen off the port of New York, and also took, after a smart chase, the little brig-of-war Nautilus.
The Essex, which had left port a little later than the President and Hornet, took several prizes, one of them being a transport filled with soldiers. She was chased by the Alert, of twenty guns, and fired upon. The Essex was armed with carronades, guns not intended for work at long distances. Waiting till the enemy had come pretty near, she suddenly opened her broadside, and in eight minutes the Alert struck her colors.
The great war-game on the ocean began in earnest when Captain Isaac Hull sailed from the Chesapeake in July, in the Constitution, a frigate of forty-four guns. On the 17th he came in sight of five vessels, which proved to be Broke's squadron, and the next day he was surrounded by them. As the wind was very light, he resorted to "kedging" to keep out of reach of them. This consisted in sending a boat ahead for perhaps half a mile, with a kedge anchor and lines. The kedge was then dropped, and the lines carried back to the ship. These being fastened to the windlass, the crew, by turning it and winding them up, pulled the vessel up to the anchor. While this was being done, the boat was going ahead with another kedge and lines, to repeat the operation and make it continuous. The flagship of the British squadron was pretty close in chase when the American frigate was thus seen to be walking away from it. The enemy soon found out how the mysterious movement was made, and resorted to the same expedient. But it was not possible to approach very near by this means, as it would have brought his boat under the fire of the American's stern-guns. Captain Hull had cut away some of the woodwork and run two twenty-four pounders out at his cabin windows, and also mounted a long gun on his spar deck as a stern-chaser. Whenever there was a little wind, every vessel set every stitch of canvas she could carry, and all the nicest arts of seamanship were resorted to to gain the slightest advantage. Eleven ships were in sight most of the time, all participating in the contest. An American merchantman appeared to windward, and the British vessels, not wishing to leave the chase, displayed an American ensign to decoy her within reach of their guns. Thereupon the Constitution hoisted an English flag, to warn her off. This exciting race was kept up for three days. In the evening of the second day, it was evident that a heavy squall was coming up. Just before it struck the Constitution, all the light canvas was furled, and the ship was brought under short sail in a few minutes. When the pursuing vessels observed this, they began at once to let go and haul down without waiting for the wind. Presently the squall came, and with it a rainstorm that hid the vessels from one another. As soon as this happened, the Constitution sheeted home and hoisted her fore and main topgallant sails, and while her pursuers were steering in different directions to avoid the force of the squall, and believed her to be borne down by the pressure of the wind, she was sailing straight away from them at the rate of eleven knots an hour. When the squall was over, the nearest vessel of the British squadron was seen to be a long way astern, and to have fallen off two points to leeward, while the slowest ones were so far behind as to be almost out of sight. The chase was kept up during the night, but in the morning was found to be so hopeless that it was abandoned.
This contest, though a mere race, attended with no fighting, no damage of any kind, and only a negative result, is famous in the annals of the ocean. It was a fine instance of that superior seamanship which stood the American sailor in good stead throughout the war, and contributed quite as much as his valor to the brilliant victories that rendered Great Britain no longer the mistress of the seas.
Hull made sail for Boston, and after a short stay in that port sailed again on the 2d of August. He cruised along eastward as far as the Gulf of St. Lawrence, where he captured and burned two small prizes, and then stood southward. In the afternoon of the 19th a sail was descried from the masthead, and the Constitution at once gave chase. Within an hour and a half she was near enough to the stranger to see that she was a frigate; and a little later she laid her maintopsail aback and waited for the Constitution, evidently anxious for a contest.
Hull immediately put his vessel in complete trim for a fight, cleared for action, and beat to quarters. At five o'clock the English frigate, which proved to be the Guerriere, of thirty-eight guns, Captain Dacres, hoisted three ensigns and opened fire. The Constitution approached cautiously, so as to avoid being raked, firing occasionally, but reserving most of her guns for close action.
After an hour of this, the Guerriere indicated her readiness for a square fight, yard-arm to yard-arm, and the Constitution set her sails to draw alongside. The fire from both ships became gradually heavier, and in ten minutes the mizzen-mast of the Guerriere was shot away. The Constitution then passed slowly ahead, keeping up a constant fire, her guns being double shotted with grape and round shot, and attempted to get a position across the bows of the enemy and rake her. But in trying to avoid being herself raked while gaining this position, she luffed short, and fell foul of her enemy. At this moment the cabin of the Constitution took fire from the flash of the Guerriere's guns, and for a while it looked as if she would fare hardly. But by the energy and skill of Lieutenant B. V. Hoffman, who commanded in the cabin, the fire was extinguished, confusion prevented, and a gun of the Guerriere that might have repeated the mischief disabled.
The instant the vessels came together, each attempted to board the other; but a close and deadly fire of musketry prevented. On the American side, Lieutenant Morris, Master Alwyn, and Mr. Bush, Lieutenant of Marines, sprang to the taffrail to lead their men, when they were all shot down. Finding it impossible to board, the Constitution filled her sails and shot ahead, and a moment later the Guerriere's foremast fell, and carried the mainmast, with it. This reduced her to a wreck, and as a heavy sea was on she was helpless. The Constitution hauled off a short distance, repaired damages, and at seven o'clock wore round and took a position for raking. An ensign that had been hoisted on the stump of the mizzen-mast was at once hauled down in token of surrender, and the prize was won. A lieutenant sent on board returned with the news that she was one of the squadron that had so lately chased the Constitution.
The victor kept near her prize through the night, and at daylight the officer in charge reported that the Guerriere had four feet of water in the hold and was in danger of sinking. Captain Hull therefore transferred the prisoners to his own vessel, recalled the prize crew, and set the wreck on fire. In fifteen minutes the flames reached the magazine, and the hulk that still remained of the proud English frigate was blown to pieces.