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Captain John Crane, 1800 - 1815

<h2 id="CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV.</h2> THE CHESAPEAKE AND THE SHANNON.—ANOTHER VOYAGE TO CHINA.—MORE ABOUT IMPRESSMENT.—I BECOME A CAPTAIN AND RECEIVE ORDERS. It is proper to say that the Shannon, while ranking as a thirty-eight-gun ship, really mounted fifty-two guns, while the Chesapeake, with the same rating, mounted forty guns. She had a crew of three hundred and thirty men and boys, was perfectly equipped, and the men were thoroughly disciplined. On the other hand, the Chesapeake had a crew which was naturally superstitious, as they regarded her unlucky. Captain Lawrence had been in command of her less than two weeks, and consequently did not know the abilities of her officers and men. The first lieutenant was ill on shore, and died soon after the Chesapeake sailed. The second lieutenant and two acting lieutenants were also absent from the same cause. Lieutenant Thompson, who had been third officer in the last cruise of the Chesapeake, became Lawrence's second in command, and there was only one other commissioned officer on the ship. [196] Many of the Chesapeake's crew were new to the ship, and those who had served in her before were in a state bordering upon mutiny, on account of disputes about prize money in their last cruise. In fact, the ship was almost as much at a disadvantage in meeting the Shannon as she was at the time she encountered the Leopard. There was great excitement in Boston when it became known that the two ships were to fight a duel outside of Boston Light. As the Chesapeake moved out she fired a gun which made the Shannon heave to. The Chesapeake had the weather gauge, and used it to advantage. She kept on until she lay fairly along the larboard side of the Shannon, yard arm and yard arm, within pistol-shot distance. Then she luffed and ranged up abeam; when her foremast came in a line with the Shannon's mizzenmast the Shannon opened fire, first with her cabin guns, and then with the others. The Chesapeake remained silent until her broadside bore well upon the Shannon; then she fired all her guns on that side, and then broadsides were given by both ships in rapid succession. The Chesapeake was practically defeated by the first broadside of the Shannon, as she lost heavily in men by the shower of grape and canister that was poured into her. She continued, however, to do her[197] best, but within twelve minutes after the first gun was fired her foretopsail-tie and jib-sheet were shot away. This was the moment when she was about to take the wind out of the Shannon's sails, shoot ahead, lay across her bow, and rake her fore and aft. The Chesapeake would not obey her helm, and speedily got her mizzen rigging foul of the Shannon's forechains. In this position she was raked by her antagonist, Captain Lawrence was wounded, the sailing-master was killed, and the first lieutenant, the marine officer, the acting fourth lieutenant, and the boatswain were all badly wounded. As soon as the ships became untangled Captain Lawrence ordered the boarders to be called up; while he was giving these orders he was mortally wounded and carried below. His last words when he left the deck became a rallying cry during the rest of the war:— "Don't give up the ship!" Captain Broke was a keen and experienced officer, and he saw the weakness of the Chesapeake at this moment. He immediately ordered his boarders away, and, placing himself at their head, reached the quarter-deck of the Chesapeake without opposition. But as he pressed forward toward the gangways he met the American boarders under Lieutenant Budd, who attacked the British, and for a time checked them.[198] In a few minutes the British were in full possession of the Chesapeake, and the first lieutenant of the Shannon hauled down the colors of the captured vessel and hoisted the British flag. The fight lasted only fifteen minutes, and was one of the most sanguinary on record. The Chesapeake lost forty-eight men killed and ninety-eight wounded. The Shannon lost twenty-six killed and fifty-eight wounded. As soon as the two ships were separated the Shannon started for Halifax with her prize, where she arrived on the 7th of June. Captain Lawrence died on the 6th, and his body, wrapped in the flag of the Chesapeake, lay upon the quarter-deck of his ship. There was great rejoicing at Halifax, and the men-of-war then in port manned their yards and fired a salute in honor of the conqueror. There was immense joy in England, which was manifested by public meetings, bonfires, and illuminations. Captain Broke was treated as a hero; the freedom of the city of London, and a sword valued at five hundred dollars, were presented to him, and he was knighted by the Prince Regent. He received compliments from every quarter, and the inhabitants of his native county gave him an immense silver plate as a testimonial of their appreciation of what he had done. I must not forget to say that the most profound respect was paid to the remains of Captain Lawrence[199] when the ships reached Halifax, and also to those of Lieutenant Ludlow, who died there within a week after their arrival. The garrison furnished a funeral party from the Sixty-fourth Regiment, and the navy also furnished one. At the hour appointed for the funeral the body was taken in a boat from the Chesapeake to the King's Wharf, where it was received by the military under the commander of the garrison. The officers of the Chesapeake followed the body as mourners, and the officers of the British navy were also in attendance. There was great depression in the United States over the loss of the Chesapeake, as the almost uninterrupted success of the navy thus far had made the Americans believe that it was invincible. The same idea was beginning to prevail among the British; hence the great elation of the latter, and the corresponding depression of the former. Happily, the feeling of depression among the Americans soon passed away, as it was seen that all the circumstances were very unfavorable to the Chesapeake, and it was not likely that such a misfortune would occur again. Having followed the Chesapeake through her unlucky career, which ended with her capture by the Shannon, we will now go back to where Haines began the story of his experience as a man-of-war's man. [200] The embargo of 1807 was then in force, but there was a great pressure on the government for its withdrawal, and on the 1st of March, 1809, it was repealed. Meantime I went on another voyage to China as second mate of the Aurora, the ship on which I had formerly sailed as a foremast hand. Haines accompanied me, and we had no experiences out of the ordinary run on the entire voyage. Yes, we had one experience that I ought to mention; we were overhauled by a British man-of-war in the South Atlantic Ocean, and compelled to submit to a search for British deserters. Several times during the voyage we saw men-of-war, and ran away from them, but this one caught us when we were becalmed, having sailed close to us during the night, while we were enveloped in a fog. When the fog lifted the wind had gone down, and we lay helpless, within easy range of her cannon. She sent a boat on board, and the officer who came in it was inclined to take away two of our crew, alleging that they were Englishmen. They showed their protection papers, which set forth that they were American citizens. The lieutenant was about to disregard these when our captain told him that, if he took those men away, the case would be reported to the American government, and he added, "I will spend every dollar that I possess to see that justice[201] is secured. These men are Americans, and I have known them both from their boyhood. If you take them from this ship you will find that they are not without friends." I expected that this would only make the lieutenant more determined to carry the men away, but to my surprise he yielded, and said he would go back to his ship for instructions. He went, and just as he did so a breeze came up, and we speedily drifted out of gun-shot of the British ship. As they did not try to follow us I presume they were not specially in need of men at that time. If they had been short-handed there is little likelihood that they would have hesitated. To show you how impressed seamen were treated on board British ships-of-war let me give you the testimony of two men, both natives of Ulster County, New York State. One of them, Richard Thompson, testified that he was impressed on board the British ship-of-war Peacock, in 1810, and he was not allowed to write to his friends. When he and two other impressed American seamen heard of the declaration of war they claimed to be considered prisoners of war, and refused to do duty any longer. They were ordered to the quarter-deck, put in irons for twenty-four hours, then taken to the gangway, stripped naked, tied, and whipped. Each one[202] received eighteen lashes, and was then put to duty. When the Peacock went into action with the Hornet they asked the captain to send them below, so that they might not fight against their countrymen. The captain called a midshipman and told him to hold a pistol at Thompson's head, and blow his brains out if he and his companions did not do service. They were liberated on the capture of the Peacock by the Hornet. The other man from Ulster County was named James Tompkins, and was impressed, with three others, on the British ship Acteon, in April, 1812. When they refused to do duty they were whipped, five dozen lashes each; two days afterwards they received four dozen lashes each. They still refused, and after being whipped again they were put in irons, where they were kept three months. When they arrived in London they heard of the capture of the Guerrière by the Constitution. They made the American colors out of a shirt and handkerchief, then hung it over a gun, and gave three cheers for the victory. For displaying their patriotism in this way they received two dozen lashes each. Great Britain always claimed that she was entitled to take from American vessels on the high seas any of her own subjects voluntarily serving on American craft, but she constantly gave as a reason for not[203] discharging from her service any American citizens, that they had voluntarily engaged in it. She used to take her own subjects from the American service, although they had been settled and married and naturalized in the United States; but at the same time she constantly refused to release from her ships American seamen who had been pressed into it, whenever she could give as a reason that they were settled and married in her dominions. In other words, when marriage or residence could be pleaded in her favor, she availed herself of the plea. When marriage, residence, and naturalization were against her, she paid no respect whatever to the plea. I made several coasting voyages, and also another voyage to China; the last time as first mate of a ship as large as the Aurora. When I came home from this voyage to China, in the latter part of 1811, the owners of the ship expressed themselves as entirely satisfied with my services, and said they should give me command of a ship as soon as possible. The reader can imagine my elation at this news. I wanted to go away somewhere alone and call myself captain, just to see how it would sound; and, as good luck would have it, on that very day when I was notified of my promotion, my friend David arrived in port and received the same information. We congratulated each other, and then proceeded to find Haines and Herne,[204] and tell them of the good news. Not only did we tell them of our promotion, but we notified each of them that we wanted him to go with us whenever we went to sea, Haines on my ship and Herne on David's—no, stop a moment! Mr. Haines on Captain Crane's ship, and Mr. Herne on Captain Taylor's, as we intended to make officers of them. My promotion to the rank of captain was not of as much importance as it might have been, owing to circumstances which were quite out of my control. American commerce was paralyzed by the state of affairs then prevailing. British insults to our flag continued; British war-vessels were numerous on our coast; and the impressment of American sailors under the pretense that they were deserters from the British service were of almost daily occurrence. Things were rapidly growing from bad to worse, and war between the two countries seemed inevitable. I was a captain without a command, as the vessel to which I had been assigned was lying in port with no prospect of employment. This continued for some time, when one day I was summoned to report at once at the office of my employers. I realized the importance of the summons when I learned that four messengers had been sent out to look for me, with instructions to say that not a moment was to be lost in my responding to the call. [205] I walked rapidly, no, I ran, till I reached the office, wondering what it could be for which my presence was so imperatively demanded. One of the owners of the Aurora was in the office, and he immediately took me to his private room, out of hearing of the clerks. After closing the door, he said,— "How long will it take you to get ready for sea?" "As for myself," I answered, "not over an hour; for my vessel I couldn't say till I know the kind of service expected." "Well," he replied, "we have news from Washington that war with Great Britain is inevitable. Events are leading up to it very rapidly, and it is liable to come at any moment. Now, we want to fit out some privateers and have them ready to take the sea the moment war is declared. We want you to command one of them, and your friend Taylor can have another. Will you tell him so as soon as you see him?" "Certainly I will; and as to fitting out, I will proceed about it at once, whenever you name the ship I'm to command." "That's all right," he said; "but we want you to act as secretly as possible, so as to get the start of our rivals as much as we can. Those who are first at sea when the war breaks out will have the best of the harvest in prizes." [206] "Certainly, sir; I understand. With your permission I'll think the matter over to-night, and come to you to-morrow with my plans. I suppose I am to get the powder, guns, and all other things necessary for equipment and stores, and the firm will pay for them?" "Certainly; but our name must be kept out of sight, or it will be a hint to our rivals in business to follow our example, and that's what we want to avoid." Then he meditated a moment, and I remained silent, waiting for him to speak. When his meditations were concluded, he said,— "You will have command of the Baltimore clipper Marguerite; she is lying at Jones's wharf on the East River, and right alongside of her is the Hyacinth, which we shall give to Captain Taylor. Before you leave the office I will give you the builder's plans of both vessels, so that you will hardly need to make any measurements when you go to look at them. Just stroll around carelessly and look at the two vessels as closely as you can, but don't use any measuring lines or rods when anybody is in sight, or do anything to show that you have been drawn there except by idle curiosity. If you want to measure anything, you and Taylor can pretend to get into a dispute about it, and then measure to[207] decide the difference between you. I will look for you here some time in the forenoon to-morrow." This ended our conversation, and I hurried away to find David and tell him of his new prospects in life. I was lucky in finding him at once, and asked him to take a stroll with me while we had a friendly chat. Soon as we were out of earshot of everybody I told him what the reader already knows. There was still time before sunset for visiting Jones's wharf, and so we walked in that direction. We found the two clippers tied up as the owner had indicated. We sauntered carelessly around, visiting two or three other embargoed craft before we stepped on board the Marguerite. I'm sure we displayed no more interest in them than in other vessels in the vicinity, and our actions could not arouse anybody's suspicions. Several sailors and longshore-men were idling about; some of them were known to us, and we greeted them after the customary manner, making no effort to avoid them. While we were there we met a young captain of our acquaintance; at first he manifested a disposition to join us just for the sake of passing away the time, and we feared that he would not be easily shaken off. Happily, he inquired for another captain who was known to all of us, and whom we had just left at our boarding-house. [208] "You'll find him down at the Neptune," said David; "when we left he was wishing a friend would happen in, as he felt lonesome." "I guess I'll go down and see him;" responded our friend. He suited the action to the word and went away, greatly to our satisfaction. We looked the vessels over with great care, and made up our minds what was wanted. Each of them would carry three guns on a side, and a long gun amidships, and there was abundant room for crew and stores. The running and standing riggings were in good condition, and the sails were nearly new. The vessels were all ready for sea when the embargo of April (1812) was enacted by Congress, and consequently there was very little to be done in the way of fitting out. We lingered as long as we dared around the two clippers, and then returned to the Neptune, though not directly. There was a riddle to be solved that bothered us a good deal, but finally I hit upon what I considered a fair solution of it. <hr class="chap" /> [209] <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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