The Great Republic by the Master Historians The Constitution and the Guerriere byBancroft, Hubert H.
[At the beginning of the war with England the navy of the United States numbered
but nine frigates and a few sloops of war, while Great Britain had a hundred
ships of the line, and more than a thousand vessels bearing her flag. Yet, weak
as was our navy, it was stronger than the British naval force then in American
waters, and there was reason to hope for some successes ere the latter could be
reinforced. No time was lost by the ardent commanders of the American ships of
war. Among other vessels, the forty-four-gun frigate Constitution put to sea,
and was soon after chased by a British squadron, from which she escaped with
great difficulty. The story of the victorious event which soon followed we
select from Headley's "Second War with England."]
On the 28th of July an order was sent from the Secretary of the Navy to Captain
Hull, at Boston, to deliver up the Constitution to Commodore Bainbridge and take
charge of the frigate Constellation. But, fortunately for him and the navy, just
before this order reached him he had again set sail, and was out on the deep,
where the anxieties of the department did not disturb him. Cruising eastward
along the coast, he captured ten small prizes near the mouth of the St. Lawrence
and burned them. In the middle of the month he recaptured an American
merchantman and sent her in, and then stood to the southward. On the 19th he
made a strange sail, one of the vessels that a few weeks before had pressed him
so hard in the chase. When the Constitution had run down to within three miles
of him, the Englishman laid his maintop-sail aback, and hung out three flags, to
show his willingness to engage. Captain Dacres, the commander, surprised at the
daring manner in which the stranger came down, turned to the captain of an
American merchantman whom he had captured a few days before, and asked him what
vessel he took that to be. The latter replied, as he handed back the glass to
Dacres, that he thought from her sails she was an American. "It cannot be
possible," said Dacres, "or he would not stand on so boldly." It was soon
evident, whoever the stranger might be, he was bent on mischief. Hull prepared
his vessel for action deliberately, and, after putting her under close fighting
canvas and sending down her royal yards, ordered the drums to beat to quarters.
It was now five o'clock, and, as the Constitution bore steadily down towards her
antagonist, the crew gave three cheers. The English vessel was well known, for
she had at one of her mast-heads a flag proudly flying, with the "Guerriere"
written in large characters upon it. When the Constitution arrived within long
gunshot, the Guerriere opened her fire, now wearing to bring her broadside to
bear, and again to prevent being raked by the American, which slowly but
steadily approached. The Englishman kept up a steady fire for nearly an hour, to
which the Constitution replied with only an occasional gun. The crew at length
became excited under this in-action. The officer below had twice come on deck to
report that men had been killed standing idly at their guns, and begged
permission to fire; but Hull still continued to receive the enemy's broadsides
in silence. The Guerriere, failing to cripple the Constitution, filled and moved
off with the wind free, showing that she was willing to receive her and finish
the conflict in a yard-arm to yard-arm combat. The Constitution then drew slowly
ahead, and the moment her bows began to lap the quarters of the Guerriere her
forward guns opened, and in a few minutes after the welcome orders were received
to pour in broadside after broadside as rapidly as possible. When she was fairly
abeam, the broadsides were fired with a rapidity and power that astounded the
enemy. As the old ship forged slowly ahead with her greater way, she seemed
moving in flame. The mizzen-mast of the enemy soon fell with a crash, while her
hull was riddled with shot and her decks slippery with gore. The carnage was so
awful that the blood from the wounded and mangled victims, as they were hurried
into the cockpit, poured over the ladder as if it had been dashed from a bucket.
As Hull passed his antagonist he wheeled short round her bows to prevent a
raking fire. But in doing this he came dead into the wind; his sails were taken
aback; the vessel stopped; then, getting sternway, the Guerriere came up, her
bows striking the former abeam. While in this position, the forward guns of the
enemy exploded almost against the sides of the Constitution, setting the cabin
on fire. This would have proved a serious event but for the presence of mind of
the fourth lieutenant, Beekman Verplanck Hoffman, who extinguished it. As soon
as the vessels got foul, both crews prepared to board. The first lieutenant,
Morris, in the midst of a terrific fire of musketry, attempted to lash the ships
together, which were thumping and grinding against each other with the heavy
sea, but fell, shot through the body. Mr. Alwyn, the master, and Lieutenant
Bush, of the marines, mounting the taffrail to leap on the enemy's decks, were
both shot down, the latter killed instantly with a bullet through the head.
Finding it impossible to board under such a tremendous fire, the sails of the
Constitution were filled, when the vessels slowly and reluctantly parted. As the
Constitution rolled away on the heavy swell, the foremast of the Guerriere fell
back against the mainmast, carrying that down in its descent, leaving the
frigate a helpless wreck, "wallowing in the trough of the sea." Hull, seeing
that his enemy was now completely in his power, ran off a little way to secure
his own masts and repair his rigging, which was badly cut up. In a short time he
returned, and, taking up a position where he could rake the wreck of the
Guerriere at every discharge, prepared to finish her. Captain Dacres had fought
his ship well, and, when every spar in her was down, gallantly nailed the jack
to the stump of the mizzen-mast. But further resistance was impossible, and to
have gone down with his flag flying, as one of the English journals declared he
ought to have done, would have been a foolish and criminal act. A few more
broadsides would have carried the brave crew to the bottom, and to allow his
vessel to roll idly in the trough of the sea, a mere target for the guns of the
American, would neither have added to his fame nor lessened the moral effect of
his defeat. He therefore reluctantly struck her flag, and Lieutenant Read was
sent on board to take possession..
[On boarding the vessel the crew were found to be in a state of disgusting
intoxication, Captain Dacres, on surrendering his ship, having told the men to
go below and get some refreshments, which they liberally interpreted as a free
permission to drink.]
This vessel, as well as all the English ships, presented another striking
contrast to the American. Impressment was so abhorred that British officers were
afraid of being shot down by their topmen during an engagement, and hence dared
not wear their uniforms, while ours went into action with their epaulettes on,
knowing that it added to their security, for every sailor would fight for his
commander as he would for a comrade.
Captain Hull kept hovering round his prize during the night; and at two o'clock
"Sail ho!" was sent aft by the watch, when the Constitution immediately beat to
quarters. The weary sailors tumbled up cheerfully at the summons, the vessel was
cleared for action, and there is no doubt that if another Guerriere had closed
with the Constitution she would have been roughly handled, crippled as the
latter was from her recent conflict.
After deliberating for an hour, the stranger stood off. In the morning the
Guerriere was reported to have four feet of water in the hold, and was so cut up
that it would be difficult to keep her afloat. The prisoners were, therefore,
all removed, and the vessel set on fire. The flames leaped up the broken masts,
ran along the bulwarks, and wrapped the noble wreck in a sheet of fire. As the
guns became heated, they went off one after another, firing their last salute to
the dying ship. At length the fire reached the magazine, when the blew up with a
tremendous explosion. A huge column of smoke arose and stood for a long time, as
if petrified in the calm atmosphere, and then slowly crumbled to pieces,
revealing only a few shattered planks to tell where that proud vessel had sunk.
The first English frigate that ever struck its flag to an American ship of war
had gone down to the bottom of the ocean, a gloomy omen of England's future. The
sea never rolled over a vessel whose fate so startled the world. It disappeared
forever, but it left its outline on the deep, never to be effaced till England
and America are no more.
The loss of the Constitution was seven killed and seven wounded, while that of
the Guerriere was fifteen killed and sixty-four wounded, a disparity that shows
with how much more precision the American had fired. It is impossible, at this
period, to give an adequate idea of the excitement this victory produced. In the
first place, it was fought three days after the surrender of General Hull, the
uncle of the gallant captain. The mortifying, stunning news of the disaster of
the Northwestern army met on the seaboard the thundering shout that went up from
a people delirious with delight over this naval victory. From one direction the
name of Hull came loaded with execrations, from the other overwhelmed with
blessings. But not only was the joy greater, arriving as the news did on the top
of disaster, but it took the nation by surprise. An American frigate had
fearlessly stood up in single combat on the deep with her proud foe, and, giving
gun for gun, torn the crown from the "mistress of the sea." The fact that the
Constitution had four guns more and a larger crew could not prevent it from
being practically an even-handed fight. The disparity of the crews was of no
consequence, for it was an affair of broadsides, while the vast difference in
the execution done proved that had the relative weight of metal and the muster-
roll been reversed the issue would have been the same..
[This victory was but the beginning of a striking series of naval conquests
which filled England with astonishment and dismay. On October 25 the frigate
United States met the English frigate Macedonian, and, after dismasting her and
cutting her hull to pieces, forced her to lower her flag. About the same time
the Wasp met the brig Frolic, of nearly her own strength, and captured her after
a desperate fight. On boarding the Frolic it was found that the terrible
"hulling" fire of the Americans had killed and wounded nearly one hundred of her
crew. On October 29 the Constitution, now under Commodore Bainbridge, met the
frigate Java, and forced her to lower her flag in a two hours' fight. In the
succeeding January the Hornet met the English brig-of-war Peacock, and sent her
to the bottom after a sharp battle.]
The thrill of exultation that passed over the land at the announcement of the
first naval victory was alloyed by the reflection that it was but an isolated
instance, and hence could hardly justify a belief in our naval superiority. But
as frigate after frigate and ship after ship struck, all doubt vanished, and the
nation was intoxicated with delight. The successive disasters that befell our
land-forces along the Canada line could not check the outburst of enthusiasm on
every side. As the news of one victory succeeding another was borne along the
great channels of communication, long shouts of triumph rolled after it, and the
navy, from being unknown and uncared for, rose at once to be the bulwark and
pride of the nation. All faces were turned to the ocean to catch the first echo
of those resistless broadsides that proudly asserted and made good the claim to
"free trade and sailors' rights." Where we had been insulted and wronged the
most, there we were chastising the offender with blows that astounded the world.
If the American government had been amazed at the failure of its deep-laid
schemes against Canada, it was no less so at the unexpected triumphs at sea.
Saved from the deepest condemnation by the navy, which it had neglected, forced
to fall back on its very blunders for encouragement, it could say, with Hamlet,-
-
"Let us know,
Our indiscretion sometimes serves us well
When our deep plots do pall."
But our astonishment at these successive and brilliant victories could scarcely
exceed that of the Old World. The British navy had been so long accustomed to
victory that a single-handed contest of any English frigate with that of any
other nation had ceased to be a matter of solicitude to her. The maritime
nations of Europe had, one after another, yielded to her sway, till her flag in
every sea on the globe extorted the respect and fear which the declaration "I am
a Roman citizen" did in the proudest days of the Empire. Her invincibility on
the ocean was a foregone conclusion. The victories of Napoleon stopped with the
shore: even his "star" paled on the deep. His extraordinary efforts and energies
could not tear from the British navy the proud title it had worn so long. His
fleets, one after another, had gone down before the might of British broadsides,
and the sublime sea-fights of Aboukir and Trafalgar were only corroborations of
what had long been established. If this was the common feeling of the Continent,
it is no wonder that "the English were stunned as by the shock of an
earthquake." The first victory surprised them, but did not disturb their
confidence. They began to discuss the causes of the unlooked-for event with
becoming dignity, but before the argument was concluded another and another
defeat came like successive thunder-claps, till discussion gave way to alarm.
The thoughtful men of England were too wise to pretend that disasters occurring
in such numbers and wonderful regularity could be the result of accident, and
feared they beheld the little black cloud which the prophet saw rising over the
sea, portending an approaching storm. If in so short a time a maritime force of
only a few frigates and sloops of war could strike such deadly blows and destroy
the prestige of English invincibility, what could not be done when the navy
should approximate her own in strength!..
The war-vessels at length grew timorous, and lost all their desire to meet an
American ship of equal rank. It was declared that our frigates were built like
seventy-fours, and therefore English frigates were justified in declining a
battle when offered. The awful havoc made by our fire affected the seamen also,
and whenever they saw the stars and stripes flaunting from the mast-head of an
approaching vessel they felt that no ordinary battle was before them. English
crews had never been so cut up since the existence of her navy. In the terrific
battle of the Nile, Nelson lost less than three out of one hundred, and in his
attack on Copenhagen, less than four out of every hundred. In Admiral Duncan's
famous action off Camperdown, the proportion was about the same as that of the
Nile. In 1793 the French navy was in its glory, and the victories obtained over
its single ships by English vessels were considered unparalleled. Yet in
fourteen single engagements, considered the most remarkable, and in which the
ships, with one exception, ranged from thirty-six guns to fifty-two, the average
of killed and wounded was only seventeen per ship, while in four encounters with
American vessels, the Constitution, United States, and Wasp, the average was a
hundred and eleven to each vessel.
[This remarkable difference is ascribed to the fact that the Americans had
devised an improvement in gunnery which was as yet unknown to the English. Their
guns were sighted, and could be fired with remarkable accuracy of aim. "While we
can fire cannon with as sure an aim as musketry, or almost rifles, striking
twice out of every three shots, they must fire at random, without sight of their
object or regard to the undulations of the sea, shooting over our heads, seldom
hulling us or even hitting our decks." Such being the case, the striking success
of the Americans in these encounters is in great measure accounted for. But,
whatever the cause, the "mistress of the seas" felt herself obliged to yield the
crown of victory to an antagonist whom she had long affected to despise, while
Europe beheld with astonishment the victorious career of the feeble navy of the
New World.]
