Captain John Crane, 1800-1815

by Thomas Wallace Knox

"They didn't do it in the regular form of a declaration," said Haines; "but they sent out war-ships as fast as they could get them ready, with orders to capture French ships, and at the same time they passed a law for raising a land-force to defend our seaports. A good many French privateers were fitted out to capture American ships, and American privateers to capture French ships. As fast as we could get our war-ships ready we sent them out, and the fighting very soon became lively. The frigates United States, Constitution, and Constellation were the first to get to sea, and the Constellation captured a French cruiser a few days after she sailed. She was the first vessel captured in the war, and, in fact, the first ever captured by the navy of the United States.

"There's a funny thing about that cruiser," continued Haines, and I listened attentively to hear what he was saying; "she was called Le Croyable, that's what I think it was, and carried fourteen guns; she was taken into port, where she was condemned by a prize-court, and added to the United States navy. They named her the Retaliation, and sent her out with two other small ships to cruise in the West Indies.

"One day they sighted two ships that they thought were British, and sailed up within shooting distance. They discovered their mistake when it was too late; what they had thought to be English ships turned out to be Frenchmen, and big ones too. The French ships captured the Retaliation, and the other two started to sail away. One of the big French ships started after them, and she was one of the fastest sailers in the world.

"Captain Bainbridge of the Retaliation had been taken on board the other French ship as a prisoner. When he got there the French captain asked him the strength of the two ships that were running away. He promptly answered, 'Twenty-eight twelve-pounders, and twenty nine-pounders,' which was more than double what their armament really was. The French captain immediately signaled to the other Frenchman to give up the chase and come back. As the one who signaled was the senior officer the other one was obliged to obey his orders, which he did very reluctantly, as he had got near enough to the American ships to see that they were very much inferior to him, and he was pretty certain to capture them."

"Didn't they punish Captain Bainbridge for telling such a falsehood?" I asked.

"No, not at all," said Haines; "you know the old saying, 'All's fair in love and war;' they used a few hard words about him, and then the French captain complimented him on the success of his deception and asked him to take a glass of wine. The trick was by no means a new one, either on sea or on land.

"There was another hard-fought battle in February, 1800," continued Haines, "between Commodore Truxton's ship, the Constellation, thirty-eight guns, and a French ship called the Vengeance, of fifty-two guns. It began at eight o'clock in the evening and lasted till one in the morning. The ships sailed along side by side all that time, and kept firing broadsides into each other. The rigging of the Constellation was so cut away that her mainmast fell overboard, and just before that happened the French ship sheered off and disappeared in the darkness. The Constellation had fourteen men killed and twenty-five wounded, while the Vengeance had fifty killed and one hundred and ten wounded. Her captain said that he had lowered his flag twice during the engagement, endeavoring to surrender, but the American hadn't discovered it."

Haines further told me that from the beginning to the end of the war about fifty ships, large and small, were captured by American privateers. The frigates and other war-ships made a good many captures; and, on the other hand, the French ships took a considerable number of American craft.

Just as he told me this, there was a commotion outside of the room where we were, and the same officer whom I have mentioned as wearing so much uniform appeared at our door, accompanying the keeper of the jail. The keeper unlocked the door, and opened it, and then we were called into the corridor of our prison. The officer questioned us as to whether we belonged to the crew of the Washington, and we promptly answered that we did.