Captain John Crane, 1800-1815

by Thomas Wallace Knox

She might be American, and she might be British; the possibilities were that she was British, as there was a British man-of-war on the coast at the time war was declared, and she was large enough to carry not fewer than forty guns. Very plainly, she would make short work of the Marguerite if we ventured within her reach.

The strange ship was right on the track we wished to follow, and under shortened sail, as though waiting for us. I signaled my prize that I wanted to speak her. We drew closer together, at the same time holding to our course, but ready to change as soon as we should find that the stranger was a British man-of-war.

I had no fear of being overhauled in the Marguerite, as she was a very fast sailer, and could show her heels to any English frigate afloat; but there was much doubt as to the ability of my prize to keep out of harm's way. Therefore I decided that while I would keep the schooner on for New York, it would be best to make sure of the safety of the prize by sending her elsewhere.

When she was within hailing distance, I gave orders for her to go around the eastern end of Long Island, and make for New York that way, or for one of the ports on the sound. "Go into Stonington or New London," I said, "if you must; but if you find it all safe to keep on through the Sound and reach New York by the East River, do so by all means. Make New York if you can; but if not, go into a port on the Sound and wait for orders."

The prize filled away to the eastward as soon as my commands had been received; I kept on in the direction of New York, gradually hauling away from the land in order to give the stranger a wide berth, and also to see if he would follow me.

He followed, or, rather, he changed his course, so as to bring him within range, and that was just what I intended he should not do. There was a good breeze blowing from the south-west. I ran to the south-east, so as to bring the wind just abeam, and in this way keep out of the way of the strange vessel, and also showed him what the Marguerite could do in the way of sailing. We put on all the canvas she could carry; and she lay over so that her gun ports on the lee side were awash very often.

We held on till darkness hid pursuer and pursued from each other. Just after nightfall the wind shifted to the south-east, and this gave me what I wanted for running to New York. So I changed my course, endeavoring, as nearly as I could calculate, to hit the entrance of the harbor about daybreak. What my pursuer would do I could only conjecture; in an emergency of this sort the best plan always is to think carefully what you would do under the circumstances, and following this plan, I reasoned about like this:—

"I am trying to cut off and capture a fast sailing schooner which is trying to get into New York. My ship is powerful enough to blow her out of the water in five minutes if it could only get in range of the schooner, but she can sail faster than I can, and it is no use to run after her. She'll probably try to run in under cover of the night. I'll go in as near as I can to the shore, and watch for her there."

Reasoning in this way I made up my mind that the frigate, or whatever else she was, would be lying off the coast of Long Island, near the entrance of the harbor. What I wanted was to get close in before the first streaks of day, else I might have to run under the guns of the Britisher while going inside.

The wind fell a little towards morning, and, what added to my annoyance, a mist spread over the water, so that it was impossible to see far in any direction. So I had to feel my way along; and as soon as we reached soundings I kept the lead going constantly. For the last two hours before daylight I felt entirely certain of my position. We were running along near the Jersey coast in the direction of Sandy Hook, and if no accident happened we would get inside before the enemy could discover us.