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THE GREAT NAVAL DINNER AT THE CITY HOTEL

Dinner to Naval Heroes

On Tuesday, December 29, 1812, a magnificent banquet was given by the corporation and citizens of New York at the City Hotel, then kept by Gibson, in honor of Captain Decatur, Captain Hull and Captain Jones, to celebrate their recent victories. The dinner was served at five o’clock in the afternoon and five hundred gentlemen sat down to table. It was a naval dinner and marine decorations prevailed. The large dining-room “was colonaded round with the masts of ships entwined with laurels and bearing the flags of all the world.” Each table had on it a ship in miniature flying the American flag. At the head of the room, at a long table raised about three feet above the others, sat the mayor of the city, DeWitt Clinton, the president of the feast, with Decatur upon his right and Hull upon his left. In front of this, in a space covered with green grass was a lake of real water, on which floated a miniature frigate. Across the end of the room, back of all, hung on the wall the large main sail of a ship. At the toast, “To our Navy,” the main-sail was furled, exposing to view two large transparent paintings, one representing the battles between the Constitution and the Guerriere, the United States and the Macedonian and the Wasp and the Frolic, and the other representing the American Eagle holding in his beak three civic crowns, on which were the following inscriptions: “Hull and the Guerriere”—“Jones and the Frolic”—“Decatur and the Macedonian,” which produced great enthusiasm among the guests. The dinner was a great success. At the very time it was being served, Commodore Bainbridge, in the Constitution, was engaged with the British frigate, Java, in a hot action, lasting nearly two hours, in which he silenced all her guns and made of her a riddled and dismantled hulk, not worth bringing to port. In this same banquet room, the decorations having been retained, the crew of the United States were entertained on Thursday, January 7, 1813, by the corporation. Alderman Vanderbilt delivered the address of welcome to the sailors, of whom there were about four hundred present. After dinner, by invitation, they attended the Park Theatre, where the drop-curtain had on it a painting representing the fight of the United States and the Macedonian.

Dinner to Captain Lawrence

On the 13th of May, 1813, by a vote of the common council, a dinner was given to Captain Lawrence, of the Hornet, and his gallant crew at Washington Hall. The seamen landed at Whitehall Slip about half-past two o’clock in the afternoon, attended by the band of the Eleventh Regiment and marched through Pearl Street, Wall Street and Broadway to Washington Hall. At half-past three o’clock the petty officers, seamen and marines sat down to a bountiful repast. Paintings representing the victories of Hull, Decatur, Jones and Bainbridge decorated the walls of the room, and over the chair of the boatswain of the Hornet, who was the presiding officer, was an elegant view by Holland of the action of the Hornet with the Peacock. The table was decorated with a great variety of flags and with emblems appropriate to the occasion. After the meats were removed a visit to the room was made by the common council, accompanied by Captain Lawrence. At the sight of their commander the sailors rose from their seats and heartily cheered him with three times three. Perfect order and decorum were preserved and the bottle, the toast and the song went round with hilarity and glee.