Part 5

“The aforesaid colors were then laid at the feet of Mrs. Madison. _O tempora! O mores!_ This was rather overdoing the affair. I forgot to say that the flag of the _Guerrière_ was festooned on one side of the room, and of some other vessel. Now, between ourselves, I think it wrong to exult so outrageously over our enemies. We may have reason to laugh on the other side of our mouths some of these days; and as the English are so much stronger than we are with their navy, there are ten chances to one that we are beaten. Therefore it is best to act moderately when we take a vessel, and I could not look at those colors with pleasure, the taking of which had made so many widows and orphans. In the fulness of my feelings, I exclaimed to a gentleman who stood near me, ‘Good heavens! I would not touch that color for a thousand dollars!’ He walked quickly away, I hearing another gentleman say, ‘Is it possible, Mrs. Latrobe?’ I looked around, and it was a good stanch Federalist from Rhode Island, Mr. Hunter, so that I shall escape hanging after so treasonable a speech.”

Perhaps the circumstances were a valid excuse for the cheering; but this letter is a strange side light on some of the feeling of the times.

All through the country Decatur became the hero of the hour. With a record for intrepidity and gallantry behind him, gained by his actions during the war with Tripoli, handsome and young, he became the idol of the public. Congress, by a unanimous vote, gave him a gold medal. The legislatures of Massachusetts, New York, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia gave him thanks. The city of New York gave him the freedom of the city and a magnificent sword, and tendered to his crew a banquet at the City Hotel. Four hundred seamen sat down at the long tables, and the memory of that feast of rejoicing was long kept green in the service. As a picture of the day, a short account, taken from a contemporaneous history, _The War_, of the banquet given to Commodores Hull, Jones, and Decatur is of interest. The entertainment was given on the day after the freedom of the city was presented to Captain Hull. He and Decatur were present; Jones was absent. At five o’clock about five hundred guests sat down at the tables, De Witt Clinton, the mayor, presiding. “The room had the appearance of a marine palace,” said an eye-witness. It was colonnaded around with masts of ships entwined with laurels, and having the national flags of the world. Every table had a ship in miniature with the American flag displayed. On the wall was a mainsail of a ship, and when the third toast, “Our Navy,” was given, with three cheers, this sail was furled, revealing “an immense transparent painting of the three naval engagements in which Hull, Jones, and Decatur were respectively engaged.” Too great to be spoiled, Decatur still remained the quiet, simple hero, before whose eyes were spelled two words--Country and Duty; the one he lived to serve, the other to fulfil. And, alas! he died a victim to that curious, strained sense of honor that kept men demanding explanations, and led them to shoot one another under God’s sky, surrounded by their friends, in a duel to the death. He was killed by Commodore Barron at Bladensburg, Maryland, on March 22d, 1820. Commodore Bainbridge was Decatur’s second, and he, with others, had made many ineffectual attempts to avert the unfortunate meeting.

V

THE “CONSTITUTION” AND THE “JAVA”

[December 29th, 1812]

William Bainbridge, commodore, was one of those commanders who were graduated from the merchant service to take high place in the navy of our country.

Owing to his own personal qualifications and character, he became renowned. Bainbridge was born at Princeton, New Jersey, May 7th, 1774. He was descended from ancestors of high standing, who had for several generations been residents of the State in which he was born, his father being a prominent physician, who, shortly after the birth of William, his fourth son, removed to New York. As a boy Bainbridge conceived a great love for the sea; and although under the care of his grandfather, John Taylor, he had been educated carefully for a mercantile pursuit, his desires and importunities were gratified, and at the age of fifteen he was placed on board a merchantman about to sail from the port of Philadelphia.

In order to test him, he was given the berth of a common sailor before the mast. Strong and agile, with his natural aptitude and born courage, it was not long before he began to show what he was made of. After his fourth voyage he was promoted to the rank of first mate on board a vessel trading between this country and Holland. During this voyage a mutiny arose which Bainbridge and the captain put down, although there were seven men against them. For this act, and in recognition of his skill as a navigator and practical seaman, he was given command of this same vessel at the early age of nineteen.

Bainbridge as a young man was not foolhardy, but he was of that stamp that brooked no interference with his rights, and allowed no insult to pass by unnoticed. While in command of the _Hope_, a little vessel of about one hundred and forty tons’ burden, mounting four guns and having a crew of eleven men, he refused to stop at the hail of an English schooner; whereat the latter fired at him, and Bainbridge, probably to the Englishman’s great astonishment, replied so briskly with his little broadside that the commander of the schooner actually surrendered, although his force consisted of eight guns and thirty men. Several were killed and wounded, and his vessel so much injured in the rigging and hull that he hailed Bainbridge, asking what the latter proposed doing with him. This was in the year 1796. There was no war between this country and England, and Bainbridge contented himself by calling the following message through his trumpet: “I have no use for you. Go about your business, and report to your masters if they want my ship they must either send a greater force or a more skillful commander.”

A few days after this event, while on the homeward voyage, the _Hope_ was stopped by a heavily armed British frigate, and one of her crew, an American, was taken out of her on the pretence of his being a Scotchman. Bainbridge offered to make oath to the contrary, but nevertheless the man was impressed. Within the same week Bainbridge fell in with an English brig much larger than his own ship, and, surprising her by rowing alongside with an armed boat’s crew, he took from her one of the English sailors, leaving this message: “Captain--may report that Captain William Bainbridge has taken one of His Majesty’s subjects in retaliation for a seaman taken from the American ship _Hope_ by Lieutenant Norton of the _Indefatigable_ razee commanded by Sir Edward Pellew.”

A contemporary adds: “The captured seaman received good wages and was discharged just as soon as he reached an American port, in no way dissatisfied with the service into which he had thus been forced.”

Bainbridge’s action in these small affairs attracted the notice of the Secretary of the Navy, and early in 1798 he was given the command of the _Retaliation_, a small vessel lately taken from the French by the elder Decatur. In the fall of the year the _Retaliation_, in company with the _Norfolk_ and the _Montezuma_, two little vessels of about the same size, sailed for the West Indies, the squadron being under the command of Commodore Murray. Off the island of Guadeloupe, in the month of November, three sail were discovered to the eastward that were supposed to be English. At the same moment two other vessels were sighted to the westward. Commodore Murray sailed for the latter in company with the _Norfolk_, while Bainbridge was ordered to reconnoitre the three sails first sighted. Unfortunately they proved to be French, and, having the weather-gage, they closed with the _Retaliation_ and ordered her to strike. As both of them were frigates, one being _L’Insurgent_ and the other the _Volontier_, there was nothing for the young captain to do but to comply. The French commander, St. Laurent, declined to take Bainbridge’s sword, gallantly observing that, as he had no opportunity to fight, he should prefer that he would retain it. At once both frigates set out in chase of the _Montezuma_ and _Norfolk_; and _L’Insurgent_, out sailing the other Frenchman, was almost within firing distance of the two American ships when St. Laurent asked their force. The deception that Bainbridge practised, under the circumstances, was entirely pardonable; but in his reply he gave full swing to his imagination, and overstated the American armament by exactly doubling it, stating that the Americans were armed with 28-pounders and full of men. At once _L’Insurgent_ was recalled from the chase, much to the chagrin of her captain, who stated that _les Américains_ did not carry a gun heavier than six pounds, for he had been close enough to see them. St. Laurent forgave Bainbridge the ruse, and treated him with great consideration.

After being in prison for some time, owing to negotiations, Bainbridge was sent to the United States in his own vessel, which was filled with liberated American prisoners.

Upon his return to his country he was promoted to the rank of master-commander, and put in command of the _Norfolk_, the ship he had saved. For over a year he cruised in the West Indies, meeting with many adventures, of which there is not space here to tell, and in 1800, at the age of twenty-six, he was given the highest rank then in our navy, that of captain, and appointed to the command of the _George Washington_, with the duty, much against his grain, before him, of carrying tribute to the Bey of Algiers. He fulfilled this mission; but there was not an end of it, as he was forced by circumstances to place his vessel at the disposal of the barbaric potentate, and to conduct a mission for him--no less than carrying an ambassador and his suite, numbering some two hundred persons, to Constantinople, the Bey wishing to conciliate the government of the Sublime Porte.

Despite his remonstrances, Bainbridge was compelled to do this, or the safety of every American in Algiers would have been in jeopardy, in addition to which the Bey declared he would immediately make war upon the United States. This disagreeable duty was performed, and the _George Washington_ was the first vessel to fly the flag of the United States under the walls of Constantinople. The stars and stripes had never been seen there before; and as the name United States signified nothing to the governor of the Porte, Bainbridge had to explain that he came from the New World that Columbus had discovered.

On the 21st of January, 1801, Bainbridge was again in Algiers. He declined, however, to anchor in the harbor, as it was evident that the wily Bey was not to be trusted. Later in this year Bainbridge was transferred from the command of the _George Washington_ to the _Essex_, which was one of a squadron of four vessels, consisting of the _President_, the _Philadelphia_, and the schooner _Enterprise_, under the command of Commodore Richard Dale, whose object was to protect American merchant ships from the depredation of the Tripolitan corsairs. Bainbridge was employed convoying merchantmen through the Strait of Gibraltar until the spring of 1802, when, his vessel being in need of repairs, he was ordered home. At once he was appointed to the command of the _Philadelphia_, to take up again the service he had left. On the 26th of August, not far from the strait, Bainbridge fell in with two suspicious sail--one a brig, and the other, apparently, one of the hated corsairs. He hailed them, and found that the brig was an American, and the other a Moorish vessel--the _Meshtoha_. Searching the latter, he found the officers and the crew of the brig under the hold, they having been captured nine days before. He retook the brig, placed her crew once more on board of her, and made a prize of the Tripolitan. This capture was a decided check to Moorish depredations. On the 21st of October, while Bainbridge was cruising off the harbor of Tripoli, sailing after one of the pirates, he unfortunately ran on a ledge of rock that was not down on the map which he possessed. All efforts to force the _Philadelphia_ off the reef were unsuccessful, although everything was done to accomplish this; and after being subjected for five hours to the fire of numerous gunboats, a council of officers was called, and it was decided to surrender the ship as the only means of preserving the lives of her people. After this followed the long confinement, during which Bainbridge saw from his prison-cell the attempts of the American fleet under Preble to rescue him, and the destruction of the _Philadelphia_ at last.

Shortly before the peace was made he was allowed to visit Preble’s fleet, under pledge of his word of honor to return, although the Bashaw exacted that he should leave a hostage. He returned to his confinement, unable to effect conclusions satisfactory to the Turk and to Commodore Preble; but in 1805 the Tripolitans gave in, the prisoners were exchanged after their nineteen months of painful captivity, and Bainbridge returned to the United States, where he was greeted with the warmest sympathy and exonerated for the loss of the _Philadelphia_ by a Court of Inquiry. After making successful cruises in various commands, Bainbridge, being in America at the time war was considered imminent between this country and England, hastened to Washington and appeared before the Cabinet, and, with Commodore Stewart, successfully urged the rehabilitation of our little navy, that, owing to the mistaken policy then in force, had been allowed to fall into sad decay. Delighted at the result, he returned to Boston, where he took command of the navy-yard at Charlestown, which position he held at the time of the declaration of war against Great Britain in 1812.

But, to quote from the _American Naval Biography_, by John Frost, “it is not to be supposed that one so adventurous as Bainbridge could be satisfied to remain on shore comparatively inactive when danger and glory were to be courted on the sea.” Applying for the command of a frigate, the _Constellation_, 38, was placed at his service; but his arrangements were not completed when Captain Hull arrived in Boston harbor in the _Constitution_, after his victory over the _Guerrière_. Owing to some private affairs that demanded his immediate attention, Hull was obliged to resign his command, and Bainbridge, at his own request, was transferred to “Old Ironsides.” The _Essex_ and the _Hornet_ also were placed under his orders, the former under command of Captain David Porter, and the latter under the brave Lawrence. On October 26th, 1812, the _Hornet_ and the _Constitution_ sailed out to sea, bound for the Cape Verd Islands. The _Essex_, then being in the Delaware, was ordered to join them there; but circumstances prevented her from carrying this out, although Porter did his best to find his superior officer and report.

Thus we find, in the latter part of December, 1812, the old frigate _Constitution_ cruising in southern waters off the coast of Brazil. Her brave little consort, the _Hornet_, she had left blockading the _Bonne Citoyenne_, a British sloop of war, in the harbor of Bahia. Every day the _Hornet_ dared the Englishman to leave her anchorage and meet her, broadside to broadside, in the open sea beyond the neutral limits and the protection of Brazilian guns. Writes Captain Lawrence of the Yankee sloop to Captain Green of the _Bonne Citoyenne_: “I pledge my honor that neither the _Constitution_ nor any other American vessel shall interfere.”

And, as if to emphasize this announcement, the _Constitution_ spread her sails and sailed off to the southward, Bainbridge’s last message to the watching Lawrence being, “May glory and success attend you!” But Captain Green was prudent; the English vessel kept to the harbor with her load of specie and her superior armament, and Bainbridge it was who won “the glory and success.” Surely the _Constitution_ was launched on a lucky day. About sixty hours after leaving the Island of San Salvador behind her, the _Constitution_ was again clearing decks for action, and the men were cheering as they jumped to the guns. The following account is compiled from the _Constitution’s_ log and Commodore Bainbridge’s diary:

It was the 29th of December; the vessel was in 13° S. latitude and 38° W. longitude, about ten leagues distant from the coast of Brazil. It was 9 A.M. when two strange sails were discovered on her weather bow. At 10 the strange sails were discovered to be ships. One of them stood in for the land; the other stood offshore towards the _Constitution_. At 10 Commodore Bainbridge tacked ship to the northward and westward, and stood for the sail approaching him. At 11 A.M. he tacked to the southward and eastward, hauling up the mainsail and taking in the royals. At 11.30 made the private signal for the day, which was not answered; then the commodore set mainsail and royals, to entice the strange sail off from the neutral ground, and separate her from the sail in company, which, however, was not necessary, as the other, with everything drawing, was making up the coast.

At 12 the American ensign and pendant were hoisted on board the _Constitution_. At fifteen minutes past 12 the strange sail hoisted an English ensign, and displayed a signal at her main-mast.

At a quarter-past one, the ship in sight proving to be an English frigate, and being sufficiently distant from land, Commodore Bainbridge ordered the mainsails and royals to be taken in, tacked ship, and stood for the enemy, who soon bore down with an intention of raking the _Constitution_, which the latter avoided by wearing. At 2 P.M. the British ship was within half a mile of the _Constitution_, and to windward. She now hauled down her colors, except a union-jack at the mizzen-mast-head. This induced Commodore Bainbridge to order a gun to be fired ahead of her, to make her show her colors, This was succeeded by the whole of the _Constitution’s_ broadside. Immediately the enemy hoisted colors, and at once returned the fire. A general action now commenced with round and grape shot. But the British frigate kept at a much greater distance than the commodore wished. He, however, could not bring her to closer action without exposing his vessel to be several times raked. Both vessels for some time manoeuvred to obtain a position that would enable them to rake or avoid being raked, and it was evident that the Englishman was cautious and well manned. In the early part of the engagement the wheel of the _Constitution_ was shot away; but so well was she handled from below that her movements were hardly retarded. Commodore Bainbridge now determined to close with the British vessel, notwithstanding in so doing he should expose his ship to be several times raked. He ordered the fore and main sails to be set, and luffed up close to the enemy in such manner that his jib-boom got foul of the Englishman’s mizzen-rigging. About 3 o’clock the head of the British vessel’s bowsprit and jib-boom were shot away, and in the space of an hour her foremast went by the board; her main-topmast just above the cap, her gaff and spanker-boom were shot away, and her main-mast went nearly by the board.

About 4 o’clock, the fire of the British vessel being completely silenced, and her colors in the main-rigging being down, she was supposed to have struck. The courses of the _Constitution_ were now hauled on board, to shoot ahead, in order to repair her rigging, which was very much cut. The British vessel was left in bad condition; but her flag was soon after discovered to be still flying. The _Constitution_, however, hove to, to repair some of her damages. About a quarter of an hour after, the main-mast of the British vessel went by the board. At a quarter of five or thereabouts the _Constitution_ wore, and stood for the British vessel, and got close to her athwart her bows, in a very effectual position for raking, when she very prudently struck her flag. Had she suffered the broadside to rake her, her additional loss would have been extremely great, for she lay quite an unmanageable wreck upon the water.

After the British frigate struck, the _Constitution_ wore, and reefed topsails. One of the only two remaining boats out of eight was then hoisted out, and Lieutenant Parker of the _Constitution_ was sent to take possession of the frigate. She proved to be His Britannic Majesty’s frigate _Java_, rating 38 but carrying 49 guns. She was manned by upwards of four hundred men, and was commanded by Captain Lambert, a very distinguished naval officer. He was mortally wounded. The action continued, from the time the firing commenced till the time it ceased, one hour and fifty-five minutes.

The _Java_ was on fire and leaking; nothing could have saved her or the souls on board if the _Constitution_ had been disabled.

The _Constitution_ had 9 men killed and 25 wounded. The _Java_ had 60 killed and 101 certainly wounded; but by a letter written on board the _Constitution_ by one of the officers of the _Java_, and accidentally found, it is evident her loss must have been much greater. The unknown writer states it to have been 60 killed and 170 wounded.

The _Java_ had her own full complement of men, and upwards of one hundred supernumeraries for British ships in the East Indies. Her force in number of men, at the commencement of the action, was probably much greater than the officers of the _Constitution_ were enabled to ascertain. Her officers were extremely cautious in giving out the number of her crew, but by her quarter bill she had one man more stationed at each gun than the _Constitution_. The _Java_ was an important ship. She had been fitted out in the most complete manner to carry Lieutenant-General Hislop and staff to Bombay, of which place he had been appointed governor, and several naval officers for different vessels in the East Indies. She had despatches for St. Helena, the Cape of Good Hope, and for every British establishment in the Indian and Chinese seas. She had in her hold copper for a 74 and for two brigs, building at Bombay.

The great distance from the United States and the disabled state of the _Java_ precluded any attempt being made to bring her to a home port. The commodore therefore determined to burn her; she was set on fire, and the _Constitution_ sailed away. Shortly after dark the British ship blew up. The prisoners were all landed at San Salvador and paroled, and, sad to tell, the commander of the _Java_, Captain Lambert, died soon after he was put on shore. The British officers paroled were: 1 lieutenant-general, 1 major, and 1 captain of land service; in the naval service, 1 post-captain, 1 master and commander, 5 lieutenants, 3 lieutenants of marines, 1 surgeon, 2 assistant surgeons, 1 purser, 15 midshipmen, 1 gunner, 1 boatswain, 1 master, 1 carpenter, and 2 captain’s clerks; likewise, 323 petty officers, seamen, andmarines--making altogether 361 men; besides 9 Portuguese seamen liberated, and 8 passengers, private characters, who were permitted to land without restraint.