Part 14
Although his first visit was of but short duration, he appears to have become greatly prepossessed in favor of America. These feelings he fostered under circumstances which made them keen and enduring, being so intimately connected with his first impressions of a naval life. His master, finding his affairs embarrassed, was induced to cancel the indentures of Jones, who now found himself at liberty to think and act as he pleased; but his fixed determination was the sea. He fortunately obtained the appointment of third mate of the ship King George, of Whitehaven, a vessel engaged in the slave trade. After making one voyage, he shipped as chief mate on board the brigantine Two Friends, of Kingston, Jamaica, engaged in the same traffic.
We have reason to believe that, after his second voyage in this brutalizing and unmanly traffic, he became disgusted and took a passage from the West Indies to Scotland in the John, of Kirkcudbright.
The slave trade was then tolerated by Great Britain, and the cruel and infamous manner in which its unfortunate victims were treated, evidently exercised a strong influence upon the mind of the inexperienced young seaman, and it probably tended, in after life, to make him inconsiderate of justice as well as regardless of the sufferings of others. Nevertheless, it is fair to infer, that the exhibition of these horrors, at which his feelings revolted, strengthened his love for that liberty for which he afterwards fought, and for that land which knew how to vindicate the cause of liberty. On the passage to Scotland, in the _John_, the master and mate both died of the yellow fever, and Jones took the command of the vessel, and brought her safely into port. For this service the owners placed him on board the same vessel as master and super-cargo. He then made two prosperous voyages to the West Indies, at the end of which, he was honorably discharged on account of the dissolution of the firm to which the vessel belonged. At this period the trade to the Isle of Man was principally contraband, and offered great facilities for making money. Our adventurous young hero, now in his twenty-third year, active, ambitious and self-confident, ready to steer his way through life as circumstances might serve, earnestly embarked in this trade, which, by a large portion of society was held not to be criminal, but simply illegal. After having been engaged in this trade for some time, in 1773 he was called to Virginia at the death of his brother William, who died without heirs. Jones took possession of the property, formally abandoned the sea, and declared his intention of devoting himself to agriculture. This intention he really commenced to carry into effect, but the quiet domestic life of the planter soon became irksome; and when the American Revolution broke out, his liberty-loving, and chivalric soul could no longer bear the ignoble life of a farmer, and he eagerly embraced the cause of the rebellious provinces. He immediately offered his services to Congress; they were accepted, and he received a commission in the navy as lieutenant.
No man appeared better qualified for the part he had to perform. Nature had made him a hero, and circumstances had prepared him to command men, as well as to give direction to the development of their energies; and these qualifications united with a brave heart and chivalrous spirit, rendered him able to vindicate the rights, which he knew so well how to assert.
The American navy at this time consisted of the following vessels:
Guns. Men. Alfred 30 300 Columbus 28 300 Andrew Doria 16 200 Cabot 14 200 Providence 12 150 Hornet 10 120 Wasp 8 100 Fly, dispatch vessel.
Jones, who had been appointed lieutenant of the flag ship, Alfred, hoisted with his own hands the first American flag that ever waved over the ocean. He does not give the date of this transaction, but his commission dates 7th of December, 1775. The device was a pine tree, with a rattlesnake coiled at its root in the act of striking. This was the national insignia until 1777, when the present standard was adopted. On the 17th of February, 1776, the first American squadron sailed for the West Indies. During the passage they captured two small vessels, and made preparations for the capture of the island of New Providence, where a large quantity of stores and ammunition was deposited. The enterprise succeeded, the island was captured, the governor taken prisoner; also a hundred cannon and a large quantity of stores and ammunition fell into their hands.
In October, 1776, when the grade of naval captains was established by Congress, he received a full commission as one of the number.
Having now acquired the entire confidence of the marine committee of Congress, he repaired to France to arrange some naval operations with the American commissioners. His next voyage was to Whitehaven, in the north of England, where, with a few men, he spiked all the cannon of two of the forts, the sentinels being first secured in their own guard-house.
This and similar rapacious attacks, he justified upon the principle of retaliation for the destruction of private property by the British troops in America. Off Carrickfergus, on the southern coast of Scotland, he had an engagement with the British sloop of war Drake, which, after a severe and close action of an hour, he captured and carried in triumph into France. The day only before this action occurred the atrocious act at St. Mary’s Isle. Thinking that the capture of the Earl of Selkirk, who resided at Selkirk Abbey, St. Mary’s Isle, might enable Congress to obtain more equal terms in the exchange of prisoners, his object was to seize his lordship and detain him as prisoner on board the Ranger, until Congress could demand a suitable exchange. This, however, was defeated by the absence of his lordship; and the excuse which Jones gave for entering the Abbey and bringing away all the family plate, was, that his men, remembering the scenes of devastation occasioned by the British in America, disregarded all restraints of wholesome discipline, and acted at their own discretion. Jones, in a communication from Brest to the countess, informed her that he should gratify himself by purchasing the plate and returning it uninjured, which he did, and received a formal acknowledgment from the earl upon the subject. In August, 1779, Jones first sailed in the Bon Homme Richard, with six other vessels, forming a squadron under his command.
In September, 1779, he fell in with the Serapis, off Flamborough-head, on the northeast coast of England, where that celebrated action took place, in view of hundreds of inhabitants of the neighboring coast, which has imparted so much renown to the name of Jones. The Serapis was a new ship, of forty-four guns and a picked crew. It was a clear, moonlight night, about seven o’olock, when the enemy first hailed Jones, who answered with a whole broadside. The action, which lasted several hours, raged with incessant fury, until the enemy’s bowsprit coming over the poop of the Bon Homme Richard, by the mizzenmast, Jones, with his own hand, seized the ropes from the enemy’s bowsprit, and made them fast to his own ship. The Serapis swung round, so that the ships lay square alongside of each other, the stern of the enemy close to the bow of the Bon Homme Richard. In this desperate situation the conflict lasted for some hours, each fighting with a vigor that seemed to threaten mutual extermination. At length, about half past ten o’clock, the enemy struck his colors and surrendered. Both ships were much injured in the contest; the Bon Homme Richard sunk the day after the battle. Her crew was transferred to the Serapis, and sailed for the Texel.
On his arrival in France, Jones was received with the most flattering attention by the most distinguished persons in Paris. Louis the Sixteenth presented him with the cross of military merit, and a magnificent gold mounted sword, bearing this inscription: “Maris Ludovicus 16 Remunerator Strenuo Vindici.” He returned to America in the ship Ariel of twenty guns, after an absence of nearly three years. Congress immediately adopted the following resolutions:--
“_Resolved_,--That the Congress entertain a high sense of the distinguished bravery and military conduct of John Paul Jones, Esq., captain in the navy of the United States, and particularly in his victory over the British frigate Serapis, on the coast of England, which was attended with circumstances so brilliant as to excite general applause and admiration.
“_Resolved_,--That _a gold medal_ (_see_ Plate VIII.) be struck and presented to the Chevalier Paul Jones, in commemoration of the valor and brilliant services of that officer; and that the Hon. Mr. Jefferson, minister plenipotentiary of the United States at the court of Versailles, have the same executed in France with proper devices.”
Late in the year of 1787 he returned to Europe in order to settle some disputes relative to certain prizes which had been sent into Denmark; which, after much trouble, he accomplished to the satisfaction of his government. After a year of ill health, he died at Paris, on the 18th of July, 1792, aged forty-five years. President Washington designated him for the important mission to treat with the Dey of Algiers on the ransom of American captives. His credentials reached Paris the day after his death.
DESCRIPTION OF THE MEDAL.
OCCASION.--Capture of the English frigate Serapis, Captain Pearson, by the Bon Homme Richard, Captain John Paul Jones.
DEVICE.--Head of John Paul Jones.
LEGEND.--Joanni Paulo Jones classis prefecto comitia Americana.
REVERSE.--Two frigates engaged yard-arm and yard-arm; the English ship severely battered in the sides. Another ship lying across the bow of the British frigate.
LEGEND.--Hostium navibus captis aut frigatis.
EXERGUE.--Ad nam Scotiæ, 23d September, 1778.
CAPT. THOMAS TRUXTUN.
The subject of the following memoir, whose achievements shed a lustre on the infant navy of his country, was the son of an eminent English barrister of the state (then colony) of New York, and was born at Long Island, on the 7th of February, 1755. Our hero, in consequence of the death of his father, was placed under the guardianship of his intimate friend, John Troup, Esq., of Jamaica, on Long Island. In a short time, however, the kindling spark of that spirit, which has since shone so conspicuously in his character, led him to the sea. At the early age of twelve years, he embarked, on his trial voyage, in the ship Pitt, Captain Joseph Holmes, bound to Bristol, England. In the following year he was placed, at his own request, under the direction of Captain James Chambers, a celebrated commander in the London trade. During his apprenticeship, when the armament, in consequence of the dispute respecting the Falkland Islands, took place, he was impressed on board the Prudent, an English man-of-war of sixty-four guns; but was afterwards released through the application of a person in authority. While on board the Prudent, the Captain, pleased with his intelligence and activity, endeavored to prevail on him to remain in the service, and assured him that all his interest should be used for his promotion; but notwithstanding the prospects thus opened to his youthful and aspiring mind, he left the Prudent, and returned to his old ship. He conceived that his engagements with his former commander would not permit him with honor to indulge his wishes. In the early part of 1775, he commanded a vessel, and succeeded in bringing considerable quantities of powder into the United Colonies. About the close of the same year, when bound to St. Eustatius, he was seized off the Island of St. Christopher by the British frigate Argo, and detained until the general restraining bill came out, when his vessel and cargo, of which he owned the half, were condemned. But what “ill wind” can wreck the buoyant mind of the sailor? He made his way from St. Christopher’s to St. Eustatius, and thence embarking in a small vessel, after a short passage, arrived in Philadelphia. At this period the two first private ships of war fitted out in the colonies, called the Congress and Chance, were equipping for sea, and he entered on board the former as lieutenant. They sailed in company early in the winter of 1776, and proceeded off the Havana, where they captured several valuable Jamaica ships, bound home through the Gulf of Florida. Of one of these he took the command, and brought her safe into New Bedford. In June, 1777, in company with Isaac Sears, Esq., he fitted out, at New York, a vessel called the Independence. Of this he took the command, and passing through the Sound, (Lord Howe having arrived with the British fleet at Sandy Hook and blocked up that outlet,) he proceeded off the Azores, where, besides making several other prizes, he fell in with a part of the Windward Island convoy, and captured three large and valuable ships. One of these was much superior to the Independence in both guns and men. On his return, he fitted out the ship Mars, mounting upwards of twenty guns, in which he sailed on a cruise in the English Channel. Some of his prizes, which were numerous, he sent into Quiberon Bay. The success of this cruise was, in a great measure, the cause of Lord Stormont’s remonstrance to the French court, against the admission into her ports of our armed vessels and the prizes which had been taken by them.
He commanded, and in part owned, during the rest of the war, several of the most important armed vessels built in Philadelphia; and brought in from France and the West India Islands, large cargoes of those articles, which, during the Revolution, our army most greatly needed. While carrying out to France Thomas Barclay, Esq., our consul-general to that country, he had a very close and severe engagement with a British ship-of-war of thirty-two guns, (double his own force,) which he obliged to sheer off; and she was afterwards towed into New York by one of the king’s ships, in a very dismantled condition. The ship under his command was called the St. James, and mounted twenty guns, with a crew of about one hundred men--not half the number on board his enemy. From this voyage he returned with the most valuable cargo brought into the United States during the war. It would be impossible, within the limits of this memoir, to recount the various instances of activity and zeal displayed by this gallant officer during our struggle for independence; but in all his actions with British vessels of war, many of which were of force greatly superior to his own, he was invariably victorious.
After the peace of 1783, at the commencement of our naval establishment, he was one of the six captains selected by President Washington. The frigate Constellation, of thirty-six guns, which he was appointed to command, was built under his superintendence at Baltimore. She was the first of the required armament that put to sea.
Appointed, with a squadron under his command, to the protection of American commerce in the West Indies, Captain Truxtun had an arduous duty to perform, at a time when our navy was scarcely yet organized; but every difficulty yielded to the excellence of that discipline for which he was ever celebrated. On this station, by his indefatigable vigilance, the property of our merchants was protected in the most effectual manner, and an enemy’s privateer could scarcely look out of port without being captured.
At noon, on the 9th of February, 1799, the Island of Nevis bearing W. S. W., five leagues distant, the Constellation being then alone, a large ship was seen to the southward, upon which Captain Truxtun immediately bore down. On his hoisting the American ensign, the strange sail showed French colors and fired a gun to windward, (the signal of an enemy.) At a quarter past three o’clock, P. M., the captain was hailed by the French commander, and the Constellation, ranging along side of the enemy’s frigate, who had declared herself to be such by firing a gun to windward, poured in a close and extremely well-directed broadside. This was instantly returned by her antagonist, who, after a very warm engagement of an hour and a quarter, hauled down her colors, and proved to be L’Insurgente, of forty guns and four hundred and seventeen men; twenty-nine of whom were killed and forty-four wounded. She was commanded by Captain Barreau, a distinguished officer, who did not strike his colors until his ship was a perfect wreck. The Constellation had only one man killed and two wounded.
A stronger instance of the strict and exemplary discipline preserved on board the Constellation, cannot be given than this disparity of loss in the two ships; and yet, during the whole time that Captain Truxtun commanded, but one man was chastised for disorderly conduct. Scarce a man in his crew had ever been in action before. The prize was taken into Basseterre, St. Christopher’s, and after being refitted, added to the American navy. This was the first opportunity that had offered to an American frigate of engaging an enemy of superior force, and the gallantry displayed by Captain Truxtun was highly applauded, not only by his own countrymen, but by foreigners. He received congratulatory addresses from all quarters, and the merchants of Lloyd’s Coffee-house, London, sent him a present of plate, worth upwards of six hundred guineas, with the action between the frigates elegantly engraved on it. It is a relief to the horrors of war, to see those whom the collisions of their countries have placed in hostile array, treat each other, when the battle is over, with all the urbanity of accomplished cavaliers. Captain Barreau, in a letter to Captain Truxtun, of which the following is a translation, says, “I am sorry that our two nations are at war, but since I unfortunately have been vanquished, I felicitate myself and crew upon being prisoners to you. You have united all the qualities which characterize a man of honor, courage, and humanity. Receive from me the most sincere thanks, and be assured, I shall make it a duty to publish to all my fellow-countrymen the generous conduct which you have observed towards us.” The Constellation, in a short time, put to sea again; and France saw the West Indies cleared of her bucaniers by our infant navy on the station. While the different ships belonging to it, were cruising separately, so as best to give protection to our merchant vessels, Captain Truxtun, hearing that La Vengeance, a large French national ship of fifty-four guns, with upwards of five hundred men, including several general officers and troops on board, was lying at Gaudaloupe, proceeded in January, 1800, off that port, determined, if possible, notwithstanding the superiority of her force, to bring her into action, should she put to sea. On the 1st of February, at half-past seven, A. M., in the road of Basseterre, Gaudaloupe, bearing E. five leagues distant, he discovered a sail in the S. E. standing to the westward, which soon proved to be the long-sought La Vengeance.
The French commander, one would suppose, could have had no hesitation in engaging an enemy so inferior in guns and men as the Constellation; but this did not prove to be the case, for he crowded all sail to avoid his foe, and it was not till after a most persevering chase for upwards of twelve hours that the Constellation brought him to action.
The engagement began by a fire from the stern and quarter-deck guns of the French ship, which was returned in a few minutes afterwards, by a broadside from the Constellation, that had by this time got upon the weather quarter of her antagonist, and a close and desperate action commenced, which lasted from 8 P. M., until within a few minutes of 1 A. M., when the fire of La Vengeance was completely silenced. At this moment, when the American commander considered himself sure of his prize, and was endeavoring to secure his main-mast, which had been very much injured, he had the misfortune to see it go by the board. A heavy squall coming on at the same time, before the Constellation could be completely cleared of the wreck, the French ship was enabled to effect her escape. Indeed, so sudden was her disappearance in the squall, that she was supposed by all on board the Constellation to have sunk. Nevertheless, it appeared that five days after the action she got into Curracoa, in almost a shattered condition, having had one hundred and sixty men killed and wounded, and nearly all her masts and rigging shot away.
It had required all hands at the pumps for several days, to keep her from foundering.
Her captain had the candor to acknowledge that he had twice struck his colors, but owing to the darkness of the night, this was not perceived on board the Constellation, and he, finding that her fire continued, and concluding that it was the determination of his enemy to sink him, renewed the combat from necessity. When her mast went overboard, he took the advantage of the accident, and got off. In this engagement, the Constellation had fourteen men killed and twenty-five wounded.
Among the former was Midshipman Jarvis, a young man of great promise, who commanded in the main-top. When told by one of the old seamen of the danger of the mast falling, and requested, with his men, to come down, he replied that if it went, they must go with it. In a few minutes after it went over, and but one of the topmen was saved. For the signal gallantry displayed in this action, Congress passed the following resolution.
“_Resolved_, by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That the President of the United States be requested to present to Captain Thomas Truxtun a gold medal (_see_ Plate IX.,) emblematical of the late action between the United States frigate Constellation, of thirty-eight guns, and the French ship-of-war La Vengeance, of fifty-four guns, in testimony of the high sense entertained by Congress of his gallantry and good conduct in the above engagement, wherein an example was exhibited by the captain, officers, sailors, and marines, honorable to the American name, and instructive to its rising navy.”
THEODORE SEDGWICK, _Speaker of the House of Representatives_.
THOMAS JEFFERSON, _Vice President of the United States_.
JOHN ADAMS, _President of the United States_.
_Approved, March 29th, 1800._
Captain Truxtun still continued to serve his country with all the ardor of his temperament, and devoted all the energies of his character to the promotion of her glory. In the beginning of 1802, he was ordered to take the command of a squadron destined for the Mediterranean; he immediately proceeded to Norfolk, where the frigate Chesapeake then was, and made every preparation for the duty assigned to him.