This, and the endeavouring to destroy our men-of-war by torpedoes,—the blowing up of Lieut. Geddes, and the barge’s crew of H.M. Ship Ramilies (74), by means of gun locks fixed in barrels of powder, with lines made fast to casks of flour, biscuits, or other “notions,” as Jonathan used to call them,—were among the causes which led to our system of warfare.
Small vessels, called coasters, were laden in this manner:—the upper part of the hold consisted of an assortment of all kinds, and the under filled with casks of gunpowder; they were then placed directly in the way of our ships at anchor off their harbours, their crews taking to a boat and making their escape on shore when they observed our’s near them in chase. A vessel of this kind was taken by the boat of the Ramilies (74), off New London, commanded by that most intelligent and excellent officer, Sir Thomas Hardy, who, suspecting from the manner she was thrown in his way that all was not right, had her anchored two good cables’ length from his ship, and kept her there two or three hours before he would allow any person to go on board, thinking that by that time any mechanism invented for so diabolical a purpose would explode. After the above period poor Lieut. Geddes, whom I knew well, volunteered to go with the barge’s crew to examine the cargo very carefully; Sir Thomas Hardy still felt doubtful, but was at length induced by the repeated solicitations of Geddes to allow him to go, but with particular injunctions to be careful. It is supposed that in hoisting up a cask of flour or biscuits they pulled the line that was made fast from it to the barrel of powder, the explosion immediately took place, when a lieutenant, midshipman, and barge’s crew, sixteen in number, some of the best men in the ship, were blown to atoms.
This fatal and melancholy catastrophe probably saved many of our gallant countrymen, as well as some of our men-of-war, by acting as a warning, and putting us on our guard against this most dastardly method of carrying on the war.
The Americans had observed that several of our ships, the moment they captured a coasting vessel, hauled her alongside to take out her cargo, which frequently consisted of flour, biscuits, or other useful articles. They, therefore, fitted out several explosion vessels on the above plan, hoping thereby to blow up some of our seventy-four gun ships or frigates, and very probably they would have succeeded with any other except the Ramilies, but her wary captain, fortunately suspecting some trick would be attempted, never suffered them to come sufficiently near.
These circumstances combined brought about our visit to Washington. The above is the real state of the case: it requires no comments, and every just man must say they were rightly served.[O]
On the 10th November, I was ordered up to Sharp’s Islands, near Baltimore, to cover the Dragon’s tender and boats, that were sent to capture the steam packet that went occasionally from thence to French Town, but they arrived too late, she having crossed before they arrived. However, they took several schooners and sloops, and the packet from Baltimore to Elk Town.
On the 15th of December, Rear-Admiral Cockburn rejoined the squadron from Bermuda, and gave us orders to proceed in company with the Dragon (74), and Regulus (44), and a schooner, to the coast of South Carolina. Having completed our provisions from a transport brought by the admiral, we left the Chesapeake on the 18th of December, which none of the squadron very much regretted, for the heavy north gales and cold weather made our boat operations in the Chesapeake anything but agreeable.