If the frigate had got within gunshot it would soon have settled the question, for it could have sunk the Hyder Ali with a broadside. But it was not fast enough, and after a speedy run the victor and her prize drew up beside a Philadelphia wharf.
Never had the good people of the Quaker City gazed on such a sight as now met their eyes. Nothing had been done to remove the marks of battle. The ships came in as they had left the fight. Shattered bulwarks, ragged rents in the hulls, sails in tatters and drooping cordage told the story of the desperate battle.
And the decks presented a terrible picture. Blood was everywhere. On the General Monk were stretched the dead bodies of twenty men, while twenty-six wounded lay groaning below. The Hyder Ali had suffered much less, having but four killed and eleven wounded.
In all the Revolutionary War there have been few more brilliant actions; and his victory gave Joshua Barney a high standing among the naval commanders of the young Republic.
Shall we take up the story of the gallant Barney at a later date? Thirty years after his victory over the General Monk, there was war again between Americans and Britons, and Commodore Barney, now an old man, took an active part.
He started out in the early days of the war with no better vessel than the schooner Rossie, of fourteen guns and 120 men. He soon had lively times. The Rossie was a clipper, and he could run away from an enemy too strong to fight, though running away was not much to his taste.
In his first cruise he was out forty-five days, and in that time he captured fourteen vessels and 166 prisoners.
In a month's time he was at sea again. Now he got among British frigates and had to trust to the heels of his little craft. But in spite of the great ships that haunted the seas, new prizes fell into his hands, one being taken after an hour's fight. In all, the vessels and cargoes taken by him were worth nearly $3,000,000, though most of this wealth went to the bottom of the sea.
The next year (1813) he was made commodore of a fleet of gunboats in Chesapeake Bay. Here for a year he had very little to do. Then the British sailed up the Chesapeake, intending to capture Washington and Baltimore, Barney did not hesitate to attack them, and did considerable damage, though they were much too strong for his small fleet.
At length there came from the frightened people at Washington the order to burn his fleet, and, much against his will, he was forced to consign his gunboats to the flames. With his men, about four hundred in all, he joined the army assembled to defend the capital.