Other men [writes Captain Mahan] have died in the hour of victory, but to no other has victory so singular and so signal stamped the fulfilment and completion of a great life’s work. “Finis coronat opus” has of no man been more true than of Nelson. Results momentous and stupendous were to flow from the annihilation of all sea power except that of Great Britain, which was Nelson’s great achievement; but his part was done when Trafalgar was fought, and his death in the moment of completed success has obtained for that superb victory an immortality of fame which even its own grandeur could scarcely have insured.
Other men [writes Captain Mahan] have died in the hour of victory, but to no other has victory so singular and so signal stamped the fulfilment and completion of a great life’s work. “Finis coronat opus” has of no man been more true than of Nelson. Results momentous and stupendous were to flow from the annihilation of all sea power except that of Great Britain, which was Nelson’s great achievement; but his part was done when Trafalgar was fought, and his death in the moment of completed success has obtained for that superb victory an immortality of fame which even its own grandeur could scarcely have insured.
No such fleet actions as this ever occurred in North American waters in the time of the “old navy,” though there was plenty of cruising and fighting up and down the coast and in the West Indies. The United States had made its new flag respected before the end of the eighteenth century, but it was done mainly in European waters, where that marvelous captain, Paul Jones, had been defying enemies to the point of rashness.
Paul Jones was the first man to hoist our national ensign (the rattlesnake flag) on an American ship, and again the first to hoist the stars and stripes, and was the ranking officer of the continental navy. He records that “in the Revolution he had twenty-three battles and solemn rencounters by sea; made seven descents in Britain and her colonies; took of her navy two ships of equal and two of far superior force,” and so on. It is true that he alone of his day steadfastly refused to acknowledge England’s supremacy of the seas; that the flag of the United States alone was never struck to Great Britain except under force of honorable combat; and that on the ships commanded by Paul Jones it was never struck at all!
Every Yankee school-boy knows of the terrible fight of the crazy old sloop-of-warBon Homme Richardagainst theSerapis, a new English 50-gun frigate in the North Sea, in which a sinking and burning and shot-riddled vessel, able after the first broadside to bring only three or four small guns into practice, conquered and captured her twice-greater antagonist. It is not a story one can tell in a few words, but it was a deed that is regarded in naval annals as among the most extraordinary in the history of the world, and it won for the new republic a credit in Europe that was of vast benefit to it and all its wandering citizens.
Great Britain, though humiliated, had not been seriously hurt by theloss of two or three ships out of her six hundred, and she still tried to enforce against the rising naval power on the west side of the Atlantic the subservience which she received along its eastern shores. It took the form of asserting her right to stop and board any American vessel, governmental or private, and seize and impress into her own service any British subject found serving in the crew. This always met with protest and resistance, and at last became so galling that in 1812 the United States declared war against Great Britain’s might rather than continue to submit to it.
Drawn from Life by S. DeKoster Decʳ.8 1800,Engraved by Jd. Stow.BARON NELSON OF THE NILE.
Drawn from Life by S. DeKoster Decʳ.8 1800,Engraved by Jd. Stow.
BARON NELSON OF THE NILE.
This might gradually overcame us, and British fleets sailed up and down our coasts unhindered, but not until the enemy had been surprised by many harder knocks than they anticipated, and had learned one thing for certain,—that while man for man the Yankees were equally good seamen and fighters, they were better ship-builders, and could teach lessons in that art which their enemies were not above learning: and finally we won by sheer force of victories at sea.
I have already spoken of the six frigates which were used in that war, as admittedly the best of their kind in the world. Except the unluckyChesapeake, which was rashly carried unprepared into the fatal action against theShannon, where Lawrence lost his life, but won undying fame in the memory of his countrymen by his “Don’t give up the ship,” all did glorious work. Thus, theUnited Statesunder Decatur reduced to a wreck off Madeira, and brought as a prize to New York, the British 44-gun frigateMacedonianin October, 1812, itself remaining almost uninjured,—a victory due to superior seamanship and gunnery.
The same skill, using a ship of superior sailing power, accounted largely for the splendid victory of the United States sloop-of-warWasp(18 guns), a week earlier, near Bermuda, in an encounter with the British sloopFrolic(19 guns), where in three quarters of an hour theFrolicwas totally dismasted and reduced to a rolling wreck, with ninety killed or wounded out of a crew of one hundred and ten, while theWasp’sloss was only ten. A British seventy-four then came up and captured both the victor and her prize; but eighteen months later a secondWasp, by reason of her better gunnery, cut to pieces at different times two other ships with comparativelysmall injury to herself. Nor could thePresidenthave given so good an account of herself in her unfortunate encounter with theBelvidera, and again when chased and finally captured by the squadron led by theEndymion, had not her sailing qualities and gunnery been of so high an order—qualities which also distinguished the American fleets on Lake Erie and Lake Champlain.
THE “FROLIC” REDUCED TO A WRECK BY THE FIRST “WASP” (1812).
THE “FROLIC” REDUCED TO A WRECK BY THE FIRST “WASP” (1812).
But the honors of that brilliant naval war belonged chiefly, after all, to theConstitution—“Old Ironsides,” as the people loved to call her,—which is enshrined in the history and hearts of the United States as Nelson’sVictoryis in those of Great Britain.
TheConstitutionwas the finest, perhaps, of the United States frigates, and a favorite ship with commanders, yet her fame began with her success in running away, Broke’s British squadron chasing her three nights and two days, only to lose her after all. The winds were so light that she sent out her boats to help the sails urge her forward. It was only a few days after that (August 19, 1812) that Commodore Isaac Hull, cruising in search of the British vesselGuerrière(the same that had been captured from the French in the battle of the Nile, and again dismasted at Trafalgar), overhauled her off the coast of Newfoundland. The London newspapers had not only been sneering at theConstitutionas “a bundle of pine boards sailing under a bit of striped bunting,” but Captain Dacres had sent a boastfulchallenge to Hull to meet him and see what would happen. The vessels, though nominally of different rate, were actually in close equality, and both crews were eager for a fair fight. It was already well along in the afternoon, and the sea was rough, but Hull would not reply to the enemy’s fire until he was within pistol-shot, then his broadside opened.
“Fifteen minutes after the contest began,” to quote Lossing’s lively account, “the mizzenmast of theGuerrièrewas shot away, her mainyard was in slings, and her hull, spars, sails, and rigging were torn to pieces. By a skilful movement, theConstitutionnow fell foul of her foe, her bowsprit running into the larboard quarter of her antagonist. The cabin of theConstitutionwas set on fire by the explosion of the forward guns of theGuerrière, but the flames were soon extinguished. Both parties attempted to board, while the roar of the great guns was terrific. The sea was rolling heavily, and would not permit a safe passage from one vessel to the other. At length theConstitutionbecame disentangled, and shot ahead of theGuerrière, when the mainmast of the latter, shattered into weakness, fell into the sea. TheGuerrière, shivered and shorn, rolled like a log in the trough of the billows. Hull sent his compliments to Captain Dacres, and inquired whether he had struck his flag. Dacres, who was a ‘jolly tar,’ looking up and down at the stumps of his masts, coolly and dryly replied: ‘Well, I don’t know. Our mizzenmast is gone, our mainmast is gone,—upon the whole you may say wehavestruck our flag.’”
“Fifteen minutes after the contest began,” to quote Lossing’s lively account, “the mizzenmast of theGuerrièrewas shot away, her mainyard was in slings, and her hull, spars, sails, and rigging were torn to pieces. By a skilful movement, theConstitutionnow fell foul of her foe, her bowsprit running into the larboard quarter of her antagonist. The cabin of theConstitutionwas set on fire by the explosion of the forward guns of theGuerrière, but the flames were soon extinguished. Both parties attempted to board, while the roar of the great guns was terrific. The sea was rolling heavily, and would not permit a safe passage from one vessel to the other. At length theConstitutionbecame disentangled, and shot ahead of theGuerrière, when the mainmast of the latter, shattered into weakness, fell into the sea. TheGuerrière, shivered and shorn, rolled like a log in the trough of the billows. Hull sent his compliments to Captain Dacres, and inquired whether he had struck his flag. Dacres, who was a ‘jolly tar,’ looking up and down at the stumps of his masts, coolly and dryly replied: ‘Well, I don’t know. Our mizzenmast is gone, our mainmast is gone,—upon the whole you may say wehavestruck our flag.’”
Too completely wrecked to be of any further use, the historic old ship was set on fire and blown up, and so ended her pride and her story. Hull lost only fourteen men killed and wounded, while the British lost seventy, dead, and all the survivors prisoners. This calamity, on the heels of similar successes elsewhere for the “bit of striped bunting,” spread consternation throughout Great Britain not only, but in the other European monarchies, for it presaged the rise of a new power to be reckoned with, where novel and superior instruments and methods of warfare opposed uncalculated forces to the old régime.
This conviction was enforced upon Europe anew only four months later by theConstitutionovertaking and crushing in West Indian waters the 38-gun frigateJava, which also was burned to the water’s edge, because the wreck was not worth saving; and again the British loss was many times greater than the American. Captain William Bainbridge, who had distinguished himself in the Mediterranean, was her commander.
THE “CONSTITUTION” CHASED BY CAPTAIN BROKE’S SQUADRONThe ports on the upper deck aft were roughly cut to meet the emergency. The sailors in the rigging threw water from buckets upon the sails to make them hold better the faint breeze, and below hose pipe was used to the same purpose. During the three days’ chase boats were sent out to tow, and kedge-anchors were used to warp the ship forward.
THE “CONSTITUTION” CHASED BY CAPTAIN BROKE’S SQUADRONThe ports on the upper deck aft were roughly cut to meet the emergency. The sailors in the rigging threw water from buckets upon the sails to make them hold better the faint breeze, and below hose pipe was used to the same purpose. During the three days’ chase boats were sent out to tow, and kedge-anchors were used to warp the ship forward.
Various successes marked her career for the next two years, until, under the command of Captain Charles Stewart, she had her memorable adventure off Madeira, in which she engaged with the two British shipsCyane, thirty-six guns, andLevant, eighteen guns, and captured both, with a loss of only three men killed and twelve wounded. Stewart set sail with his prizes and prisoners for Porto Praya, whence he purposed sending his prisoners to New York in a captured merchantman. Reaching there on March 10th, he was next day busy at these arrangements, when the topsails of several men-of-war were seen entering the harbor through the prevailing fog. Having no trust that, if these were British, their commanders wouldrespect the courtesies of a weak neutral port, Stewart felt that his only chance was to try to run away in the fog, and made immediate preparations to do so, sending word to theLevantandCyaneto follow. Being discovered by the strangers—three large British frigates—at the outlet of the harbor, their escape immediately became a question of seamanship and sailing. Here the Americans showed their superiority, and effectually dodging both the ships and the cannon-balls of the pursuers, theLevantgot back under the protection of the guns of the fort at Porto Praya, while theConstitutionandLevantfairly outsailed the frigates and escaped.
In 1830 brave Old Ironsides was condemned as worn out, and ordered to be sold. But, as a similar sad fate overtaking the “FightingTemeraire” had been made the occasion of an immortal painting by Turner, and so, perhaps, had caused Nelson’s still more famous battle-shipVictoryto be preserved in the harbor of Portsmouth as a shrine of naval inspiration, so the obloquy that menaced theConstitutionnow fired the heart of a young poet to write a passionate appeal to patriotism. Who does not know Dr. Holmes’s ringing stanzas?—
Oh, better that her shattered hulkShould sink beneath the wave;Her thunders shook the mighty deep,And there should be her grave.Nail to the mast her holy flag,Set every threadbare sail,And give her to the God of Storms,The lightning and the gale!
Oh, better that her shattered hulkShould sink beneath the wave;Her thunders shook the mighty deep,And there should be her grave.Nail to the mast her holy flag,Set every threadbare sail,And give her to the God of Storms,The lightning and the gale!
Oh, better that her shattered hulkShould sink beneath the wave;Her thunders shook the mighty deep,And there should be her grave.Nail to the mast her holy flag,Set every threadbare sail,And give her to the God of Storms,The lightning and the gale!
Oh, better that her shattered hulk
Should sink beneath the wave;
Her thunders shook the mighty deep,
And there should be her grave.
Nail to the mast her holy flag,
Set every threadbare sail,
And give her to the God of Storms,
The lightning and the gale!
HOMEWARD BOUND.
HOMEWARD BOUND.
The country caught the spirit, and such a cry of protest went up that the vandalism was stayed, and Old Ironsides was again repaired—hardly anything but her ornaments was now left of the original structure—and took several cruises, one of which was in carrying wheat to famine-stricken Ireland. Later she was used as a school-ship, but finally became worthless even for that, and in 1895 the question arose whether she should be broken up at the Brooklyn navy-yard or towed around to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and there laid up in a line with theMacedonianand a few other ancient hulks that were rotting quietly away in honorable age, and have now wholly disappeared. Sentiment dictated the latter course, and, with a crew aboard, prepared to take to their boats at a moment’s notice, the leaking and crazy old warrior, stately even yet, and sadly saluted by every fort and vessel she passed, crept around to her last berth at Kittery Point. She is the last and the most glorious representative of the “old navy.”
TYPES OF BATTLE-SHIPS—1890 AND 1800.
TYPES OF BATTLE-SHIPS—1890 AND 1800.