CHAPTER X
Thedepredations of the new French Republic had come to give an impetus to our new navy, and on April 27, 1798, $950,000 was appropriated for its increase, and a regular navy department created. Benjamin Stoddart, of Georgetown, in the District of Columbia, was the first secretary. War against France was formally declared, in so far as authorizing, on July 9, 1798, the capture of French ships, and authorizing the President to issue commissions for privateers. On the same day a marine corps of 881 of all ranks was established, to be commanded by a major. By July 16th the total force authorized then and previously was twelve frigates, twelve sloops-of-war from 20 to 24 guns, six smaller sloops, besides galleys and revenue cutters; a total of thirty.
The first ship to get to sea under the new organization was theGanges, a purchased Indiaman, which sailed under command of Captain Richard Dale on May 22, 1798, on a coastingcruise with orders to capture all French cruisers on our coast with hostile intent. TheConstellation, 38, Captain Truxton, andDelaware, 20, Captain Decatur, followed in June. The last made the first capture, a French privateer of 14 guns and 70 men. She was condemned and bought into the navy under the name ofRetaliation, with Lieutenant Bainbridge in command. TheUnited States, 44, Captain Barry, went to sea early in July, followed by theConstitution, 44, on the 20th, with four revenue brigs of from 10 to 14 guns each. There were at sea in all, in 1798, fifteen ships of the navy and eight revenue vessels, many of which latter were finally taken into the navy. It is worthy of note that one of these, thePickering, was Preble’s first command.
All of these vessels except theGeorge Washington,Merrimack, andGanges, theMontezuma,Baltimore, andDelaware, and theHerald,Richmond, andRetaliationwere built by the Government.[20]
One of the first affairs of the new navy was a notable case of impressment of British seamen from theBaltimore, acting as convoy to a numberof merchantmen. Meeting a powerful British squadron off Havana, Captain Phillips of theBaltimorewas informed by the British commodore of his intention to remove all British seamen from his ship. Phillips announced his intention of surrendering his ship rather than to submit to the outrage. Unfortunately there was a lawyer on board as passenger, and Phillips asked his judgment as to the legality of the British commander’s procedure. Had Phillips acted as he at first intended, viz.: to resist to the utmost, short of an engagement which would have been folly against three line-of-battle ships, he would have done well, but his legal friend found reasons for yielding, which was done. Five men were taken, and three ships of the convoy seized, for what actual reason Cooper, who gives this case in great detail, does not say. Phillips was handicapped by his inexperience as a naval officer, having been only just appointed into the navy from the merchant service. There were, too, dissentient opinions even among patriotic Americans of standing as to the justice of the British claims, many upholding the, then, British doctrine of inalienable allegiance. Even so considerable a person as Gouverneur Morris, one of the ablest men America has produced andof large diplomatic and political experience, maintained the view. It was the first of many cases which had so large a part in bringing on the War of 1812.
In November theRetaliationwas captured by a French squadron, and Bainbridge was a prisoner for the first, though not for the last, time in his career. By the good fortune of the release of his schooner as a cartel he was enabled to return home.
During 1799 we had twenty-eight vessels in active service. Most of the captains and many of the officers of lesser rank were men who had seen service during the Revolution, which, it must be remembered, had ended but sixteen years before; many of them of course were men with no experience of naval life, which differs from that of the merchant service much as does that of the raw militiaman from that of the seasoned soldier.
There was a squadron of ten ships under Commodore Barry, with his broad-pennant in theUnited States; a second of five under Captain Truxton in theConstellation; and a third of three under Captain Tingey. A number of French privateers were captured by each, but on February 8, 1799, theConstellationsighted near theisland of Nevis the French frigateL’Insurgente, of forty 12-pounders and 409 men, which, after a hot action of an hour, surrendered. TheConstellationcarried 38 guns, those on her main deck being 24-pounders, and a crew of only 309. She was, however, distinctly superior in weight of gunfire. Among her midshipmen was David Porter of future fame, who was to be the father of an even more famous son. TheInsurgentewas carried into St. Kitts under very difficult circumstances by Lieutenant Rodgers, later one of the navy’s worthies, and the progenitor of a famous family with now its sixth successive generation in the naval service.
It was now, in 1799, that Preble, promoted to be a captain and in command of theEssex, 32, carried the first American man-of-war east of the Cape of Good Hope. By the beginning of 1800 France was disposed to peace, and on November 3d theUnited Statessailed with the American envoys.
The victory of theConstellationhad warmed the American blood, and Congress in 1800 appropriated $2,482,593.90 for the naval service. This strictly naval war had now lasted a year and a half, and during 1800 we had thirty-five ships in the West Indies. Again theConstellation,and under the same captain, was the lucky ship. On February 1, 1800, she sighted off Guadaloupe a French frigate,La Vengeance, of 52 guns, which, deep with valuables which she was transporting to France, tried to avoid action. This, however, after a chase extending into the evening of the next day, was brought on, and lasted until 1:00A.M.of the 3d, when the French frigate hauled by the wind. In the endeavor to follow, theConstellation’smainmast, every shroud of which had been shot away, went by the board despite the efforts to repair damages, carrying with it midshipman Jarvis and the topmen aloft, all but one of whom were lost. TheConstellationhad fourteen men killed and twenty-five wounded, eleven of whom died later of their wounds. Her quarry got into Curaçao dismasted and in a sinking condition with fifty killed and one hundred and ten wounded. The engagement had lasted five hours within pistol shot.
These brilliant actions not only brought Truxton a gold medal from Congress and a great name, but greatly increased the popularity of the navy, service in which was now sought by the best young manhood of the country.
There were many other successes in this year which included the capture of nearly fifty privateers,for the detail of which there is no space; but one of these actions, the cutting out of a French privateer, theSandwich, in Puerto Plata, Santo Domingo, is notable as being brilliantly carried out by Isaac Hull, the first lieutenant of theConstitution, and who, as captain of the same ship twelve years later, was to capture theGuerrière.
The only other capture of special note was that of the French cruiserLe Berceau, “a singularly fine vessel of her class,” by theBoston, on October 12, 1800, which was returned to France under the treaty of peace which had already been signed on September 30th.
The year involved some sea losses. TheInsurgente, which had been taken into the service, sailed in July and was never again heard of; thePickeringsailed in August to a like fate.