But in what direction were they to pursue? Absolutely nothing is recorded in the log of the British flagship as to what course the Constitution had taken. Here nautical sagacity, aided by the “wireless telegraphy” then so remarkably in use on the high seas, came to the aid of the British senior officer of the blockading force—Sir George Collier, of the 50-gun frigate Leander. Sir George sagely conjectured that the Flying Yankee would most likely take a southern course so as to escape the bitterly cold winter of New England. In those days there were no means for heating the cabins, wardroom, steerage or berth decks of ships, so a prolonged stay in the higher latitudes was a problem to be seriously considered. Selecting the 50-gun frigate Newcastle, Captain Lord George Stuart, and the 40-gun frigate Acasta, Captain Kerr, to accompany him, Sir George, on December 24th, made sail in a blind chase southward.
It seems that on the night of December 21st the famous American privateer, Prince de Neuchâtel, also escaped from Boston and made the same course the Constitution had taken. When only a day or so out she ran into the same storm that drove the English blockading ships into Cape Cod Bay.
On the morning of December 28, just as the gale was abating and only four days after the British squadron sailed, Sir George overtook the Prince de Neuchâtel and captured her; and from some of the Englishmen who were aboard the privateer learned somewhat of the proposed itinerary of the Constitution. With this first direct trace of his game, the British commander shaped his course across the Atlantic for the coast of Spain.
How eager the English were to capture the Constitution, above all other American frigates, may be seen in the record of a sailor who was in the Prince de Neuchâtel at the time. He says that after being taken aboard the Leander as a prisoner he noticed a large placard nailed to her mainmast, which read as follows:
REWARD.
“A reward of One Hundred pounds sterling to the man who shall first descry the American frigate Constitution, provided she can be brought to, and a smaller reward should they not be enabled to come up with her.”
This same sailor writes: “Every one [in the Leander] was eager in his inquiries about this far-famed frigate and most of the men appeared anxious to fall in with her, she being a constant theme of conversation, speculation and curiosity. There were, however, two seamen and a marine—one of whom had had his shin sadly shattered from one of her grape-shot—who were in the frigate Java when she was captured. These I have often heard say, in return to their shipmates’ boastings: ‘If you had seen as much of the Constitution as we have, you would give her a wide berth, for she throws her shot almighty careless, fires quick, aims low and is, altogether, an ugly customer.’”
Continuing on his trail of the much-coveted Yankee frigate, Sir George, on January 4, 1815,—seven days after sailing—while off the Western Isles, received another “wireless click” when he picked up a prize brig belonging to the American privateer Perry and from her master learned that the Perry had spoken the Constitution only a few days before, on a course that would indicate that she was making for the coast of Spain. As a matter of fact, this powerful British squadron was at that moment only a few hours’ sail from the Constitution.
Touching at the port of Fayal, January 13th, 1815, Sir George’s chase after Old Ironsides nearly terminated in disaster. A record left by one of the American prisoners in the Leander says: “We ran in with a southwest wind that had freshened to a stiff breeze till coming under the lee of the Peak of Pico, opposite to Fayal. This aided a little in breaking the wind and the heavy swell which came rolling in from the open sea beyond. Immediately to leeward was a rocky, perpendicular bluff of three hundred feet in height, which the sea was breaking against with the greatest fury.
“I had taken my perch upon the booms so as to have a chance of clearly seeing the working of the frigate, as well as the different objects of curiosity within my range.... The anchor was let go and the cable spun out to its entire length with the most fearful swiftness. But when all was out the frigate still went, stern-on, toward the bluff, as though the anchor was yet at the cathead. When she had drifted so as to be without the shelter of the Peak and exposed to the wind and heavy swell, both driving her on to inevitable destruction, unless suddenly checked in her course, none was so blind as not to see the peril, the almost instant annihilation with which the frigate was threatened, and in a twinkling it was known that the anchor had not taken hold, but was dragging.