The Hornet was a sloop-of-war. I have told you what that means. She had three masts, and carried square sails like a ship, but she was called a sloop on account of her size. She had eighteen short guns and two long ones. The short guns threw thirty-two pound and the long ones twelve pound balls.
Of course you have not forgotten the fight of the Constitution with the Java. When the Constitution went south to Brazil at that time the Hornet went with her, but they soon parted.
In one of the harbors of Brazil Captain Lawrence saw a British ship as big as the Hornet. He waited outside for her, but she would not come out. He had found a coward of a captain, and he locked him up in that harbor for two months.
Then he got tired and left. Soon after he came across the Peacock, a British man-of-war brig. The Peacock was as large as the Hornet and its captain was as full of fight as Captain Lawrence. He was the kind of man that our bold Lawrence was hunting for. When two men feel that way, a fight is usually not far off. That was the way now. Soon the guns were booming and the balls were flying.
But the fight was over before the men had time to warm up. The first guns were fired at 5.25 in the afternoon, and at 5.39 the British flag came down; so the battle lasted just fourteen minutes. Not many victories have been won so quickly as that.
But the Hornet acted in a very lively fashion while it lasted. Do you know how a hornet behaves when a mischievous boy throws a stone at its nest? Well, that is the way our Hornet did. Only one ball from the Peacock struck her, and hardly any of her men were hurt. But the Peacock was bored as full of holes as a pepper-box, and the water poured in faster than all hands could pump it out. In a very short time the unlucky Peacock filled and sank. So Captain Lawrence had only the honor of his victory; old ocean had swallowed up his prize.
But if Captain Lawrence got no prize money, he won great fame. He was looked on as another Hull or Decatur, and Congress made him captain of the frigate Chesapeake. That was in one way a bad thing for the gallant Lawrence, for it cost him his life. In another way it was a good thing, for it made him one of the most famous of American seamen.
I have told you the story of several victories of American ships. I must now tell you the story of one defeat. But I think you will say it was a defeat as glorious as a victory. For eight months the little navy of the young Republic had sailed on seas where British ships were nearly as thick as apples in an orchard. In that time it had not lost a ship, and had won more victories than England had done in twenty years. Now it was to meet with its first defeat.
When Captain Lawrence took command of the Chesapeake, that ship lay in the harbor of Boston. Outside this harbor was the British frigate Shannon, blockading the port.
Now you must know that the American people had grown very proud of their success on the sea. They had got to think that any little vessel could whip an English man-of-war. So the Bostonians grew eager for the Chesapeake to meet the Shannon. They were sure it would be brought in as a prize, and they wanted to hurrah over it.