or, subtracting as usual 7 per cent. for light weight of metal, 210 lbs. The Pelican's crew consisted of but 116 men, according to the British account, though the American reports make it much larger. The Argus had started from New York with 137 men, but having manned and sent in several prizes, her crew amounted, as near as can be ascertained, to 104. Mr. Low in his "Naval History," published just after the event, makes it but 99. James makes it 121; as he placed the crew of the Enterprise at 125, when it was really 102; that of the Hornet at 162, instead of 135; of the Peacock at 185, instead of 166; of the Nautilus at 106 instead of 95, etc., etc., it is safe to presume that he has overestimated it by at least 20, which brings the number pretty near to the American accounts. The Pelican lost but two men killed and five wounded. Captain Maples had a narrow escape, a spent grape-shot striking him in the chest with some force, and then falling on the deck. One shot had passed through the boatswain's and one through the carpenter's cabin; her sides were filled with grape-shot, and her rigging and sails much injured; her foremast, main-top-mast, and royal masts were slightly wounded, and two of her carronades dismounted.
The injuries of the Argus have already been detailed; her hull and lower masts were also tolerably well cut up. Of her crew, Captain Allen, two midshipmen, the carpenter, and six seamen were killed or mortally wounded; her first lieutenant and 13 seamen severely and slightly wounded: total, 10 killed and 14 wounded.
In reckoning the comparative force, I include the Englishman's six-pound stern-chaser, which could not be fired in broadside with the rest of the guns, because I include the Argus' 12-pound bow-chaser, which also could not be fired in broadside, as it was crowded into the bridle-port. James, of course, carefully includes the latter, though leaving out the former.
[Illustration: Argus vs. Pelican: an engraving published in
London in 1817. (Courtesy Beverley R. Robinson Collection, U.S.
Naval Academy Museum)]
COMPARISON.
Comparative
No. Weight Comparative Loss
Tons. Guns. Metal. Men. Loss. Force. Inflicted.
Argus 298 10 210 104 24 .82 .29
Pelican 467 11 280 116 7 1.00 1.00
[Illustration of ARGUS and PELICAN action from 6.00 A.M. to 6.45]
Of all the single-ship actions fought in the war this is the least creditable to the Americans. The odds in force, it is true, were against the Argus, about in the proportion of 10 to 8, but this is neither enough to account for the loss inflicted being as 10 to 3, nor for her surrendering when she had been so little ill used. It was not even as if her antagonist had been an unusually fine vessel of her class. The Pelican did not do as well as either the Frolic previously, or the Reindeer afterward, though perhaps rather better than the Avon, Penguin, or Peacock. With a comparatively unmanageable antagonist, in smooth water, she ought to have sunk her in three quarters of an hour. But the Pelican's not having done particularly well merely makes the conduct of the Americans look worse; it is just the reverse of the Chesapeake's case, where, paying the highest credit to the British, we still thought the fight no discredit to us. Here we can indulge no such reflection. The officers did well, but the crew did not. Cooper says: "The enemy was so much heavier that it may be doubted whether the Argus would have captured her antagonist under any ordinary circumstances." This I doubt; such a crew as the Wasp's or Hornet's probably would have been successful. The trouble with the guns of the Argus was not so much that they were too small, as that they did not hit; and this seems all the more incomprehensible when it is remembered that Captain Allen is the very man to whom Commodore Decatur, in his official letter, attributed the skilful gun-practice of the crew of the frigate United States. Cooper says that the powder was bad; and it has also been said that the men of the Argus were over-fatigued and were drunk, in which case they ought not to have been brought into action. Besides unskilfulness, there is another very serious count against the crew. Had the Pelican been some distance from the Argus, and in a position where she could pour in her fire with perfect impunity to herself, when the surrender took place, it would have been more justifiable. But, on the contrary, the vessels were touching, and the British boarded just as the colors were hauled down; it was certainly very disgraceful that the Americans did not rally to repel them, for they had still four fifths of their number absolutely untouched. They certainly ought to have succeeded, for boarding is a difficult and dangerous experiment; and if they had repulsed their antagonists they might in turn have carried the Pelican. So that, in summing up the merits of this action, it is fair to say that both sides showed skilful seamanship and unskilful gunnery; that the British fought bravely and that the Americans did not.
It is somewhat interesting to compare this fight, where a weaker American sloop was taken by a stronger British one, with two or three others, where both the comparative force and the result were reversed. Comparing it, therefore, with the actions between the Hornet and Peacock (British), the Wasp and Avon, and the Peacock (American) and Epervier, we get four actions, in one of which, the first-named, the British were victorious, and in the other three the Americans.
Comparative Comparative Loss Per cent.
Force. Inflicted. Loss.