CHAPTER XVII

THE LUCK OF A YANKEE CRUISER

THERE WAS NEVER A MORE FORTUNATE VESSEL THAN THE CLIPPER-SCHOONER _ENTERPRISE_--AS ORIGINALLY DESIGNED SHE WAS THE SWIFTEST AND BEST ALL-AROUND NAVAL SHIP OF HER CLASS AFLOAT--MEN SHE MADE FAMOUS IN THE WEST INDIES--A GLORIOUS CAREER IN THE WAR WITH THE MEDITERRANEAN PIRATES--EVEN WHEN THE WISDOM OF THE NAVY DEPARTMENT CHANGED HER TO A BRIG AND OVERLOADED HER WITH GUNS SO THAT SHE “COULDN’T GET OUT OF HER OWN WAY,” HER LUCK DID NOT FAIL HER--HER FIGHT WITH THE _BOXER_--EVEN A GOOD FRIGATE COULD NOT CATCH HER.

If the reader would like to learn the story of the luckiest American naval ship let him look up the details of the career of the little cruiser _Enterprise_, for of all the vessels that have carried the gridiron flag on the salt seas, or on any other seas, not one has had the credit of as many victories as she. Modelled with the finest lines known in the ship-yards of her day, she was launched in the year 1800, rigged as a schooner, armed with twelve six-pounders, and was then sent under Lieutenant John Shaw to the West Indies in search of the French privateers that were preying there on American commerce. In a brief time she had taken eight of these privateers. Among them were included _l’Agile_, a vessel of practically the same weight of metal and of almost an equal crew, whose captain was noted as the most daring of his kind in that region, and the _Flambeau_, a larger vessel mounting twelve nine-pounders to the _Enterprise’s_ twelve sixes, and carrying a crew of one hundred and ten to the _Enterprise’s_ eighty-three. And that this Frenchman was both brave and persistent is amply shown by the fact that he did not surrender until forty out of his one hundred and ten men had been killed and wounded, leaving but seventy able to fight. A year later she was in the Mediterranean under Lieutenant Andrew Sterrett, and on August 1st she fell in with the Tripolitan polacre _Tripoli_, a vessel of fourteen guns and eighty men. So stubborn was the resistance of this pirate that he would not surrender until twenty of his men had been killed and thirty wounded out of the crew of eighty. The _Enterprise_ did not lose a man. It was the _Enterprise_ that captured the ketch _Mastico_, rechristened the _Intrepid_, with which Decatur entered Tripoli Harbor and burned the _Philadelphia_. And so the story runs.

When the War of 1812 was declared the _Enterprise_ was still in commission, but “official wisdom” had changed her so wofully that only an expert would have recognized in her the trim, fleet-winged schooner of 1801. Her tall and raking masts had been taken out and the squat rig of a brig substituted, while to make her still more top-heavy her armament had been changed from twelve sixes to fourteen short eighteens and two long nines. Her crew was increased by the addition of forty men, so she “became too slow to run without becoming strong enough to fight.” That she “managed to escape capture” was “owing chiefly to good-luck” and the fact that “the British possessed a class of vessels even worse than our own,” and these were usually the ones that the _Enterprise_ happened to meet.

At the opening of the war the _Enterprise_ was placed as a coast-guard between Cape Ann and the Bay of Fundy to drive off the British privateers that came hunting Yankee merchant-coasters. The reader of American history must keep in mind that to the whelming force of their regular navy which the British brought against the Yankees in this war, as well as in that of 1776, there was a force of English privateers numbering hundreds and carrying tens of thousands of armed men. In driving off privateers the _Enterprise_ was very successful, for the reason that the British privateers were rarely armed to fight a war-ship. At first she was under Master-Commandant Johnston Blakely, but he was promoted to the command of one of the new sloops built under the act of January 2, 1813 (the _Wasp_), and then Lieutenant William Burrows took charge of her.

At this time she was making Portsmouth, New Hampshire, her port of call, and on September 4, 1813, she sailed for Monhegan, where a number of privateers had been seen. The next forenoon, while approaching Penguin Point, not far from Portland, Maine, a brig was seen. There were men aloft, loosing her sails, while others were seen at the capstan getting up anchor. Only a man-of-war was likely to carry such a crew as that, and no American man-of-war was in that region except the _Enterprise_, and so Burrows cleared for action. At this time his crew numbered one hundred and two men.

Meantime the stranger fired four guns and set four British ensigns at different points on her spars, and then she stood out to sea, plainly eager for a fight with the _Enterprise_.

The stranger got under way at noon. A fresh breeze was blowing from the southwest, and Lieutenant Burrows headed offshore to get a-plenty of sea-room; and then to be prepared in case the stranger proved a faster sailer and should overhaul him, while yet too near shore for a fair fight, he ordered one of the stern ports enlarged from the mere window that it was, to a port, of sufficient size to permit the use of one of his long guns.

When the crew of the _Enterprise_ heard the orders for this work passed, a distinct Yankee growl swept along the deck. Burrows had been on board but three days and they did not know him--they thought he meant to run instead of fight--and a midshipman was requested by the men on the forecastle to go aft and say to the captain that the men wanted to fight. The middie yielded so far as to tell the executive officer, Lieutenant Edward Rutley McCall, what the men were growling about, and he, knowing the men well, promptly quieted them by explaining why the _Enterprise_ was apparently running away.

At 3 o’clock the desired offing was obtained, and then ensigns were set on the _Enterprise_, the topmen ran aloft to furl the lighter sails; came down again; manned the braces, and, tacking around, headed with free sheets for the enemy that with her brave show of bunting was coming on confident of victory. For twenty minutes thereafter the two ships approached steadily, each holding her fire until within half pistol-shot, when both cut loose almost at the same instant with a broadside. It was a deadly fire on both sides, for men were struck on the _Enterprise_ as well as on the enemy, and as it happened, those cut down on the _Enterprise_ were working one of the quarter-deck guns. The men had cheered on both ships as they fired and on both sides they cheered as they began to reload their guns, Burrows joining in with encouraging words. As the short-handed crew just under his eye grasped the tackles to haul out the gun for the next round he ran to their aid, grasped the tackle-fall with both hands, braced his foot against the port-sill and threw his weight on the tackle with the men. And then came a canister-shot from the enemy through the port, striking the Yankee commander in the upper part of the leg by which he was braced, and, glancing along the bone of the thigh, it buried itself in his abdomen.

[Illustration: The _Enterprise_ and _Boxer_.

_From a wood-cut in the “Naval Monument.”_]

It was “a fearful wound,” but Burrows, despite his mortal agony, refused to be carried below, “crying out that the colors must never be struck.” However, Lieutenant McCall was obliged to take command, and this was one of the few instances in history where a subordinate who succeeded to the command of a ship because his superior was shot out of it has done as well as his chief could have done. The fire on the _Enterprise_ continued as vigorous and effective as before. Her sailing proved, bad as it was, superior to that of the enemy, and on forging ahead McCall eased her sheets, hauled down his foresail, ran down across her bows, raked her with his port battery, and then luffing up and backing his head-yards, he raked her again and again with the fresh battery on the starboard side.

[Illustration: Diagram of the ENTERPRISE-BOXER BATTLE.

The wind was from the southwest.]

It is a story quickly told, but the enemy stood the fire, returning it as best they might with such guns as would bear, until 3.45 P.M., when an officer appeared on the top-gallant forecastle and shouted that they had surrendered, but they could not haul down the colors because all of them were nailed fast to the spars.

The next moment another officer, though of inferior grade, jumped up in sight and, shaking his fists toward the _Enterprise_, shouted “no, no, no!” and added “some pretty strong words of opprobrium.” However, his superior ordered him down, while the Americans laughed heartily at the scene the youngster had made.

Then men went aloft and with considerable labor ripped the ensigns from the spars and brought them to the deck. It was now learned that the beaten vessel was the British brig _Boxer_, Captain Samuel Blythe, and that Blythe had ordered the flags nailed aloft, saying that they should not be lowered while he lived; nor were they. At about the time that Burrows was mortally hurt, Blythe was struck fair in the chest by an eighteen-pound shot that almost cut him in two and killed him instantly.

Burrows happily lived until after the formal surrender. The sword of the British commander was brought on board the _Enterprise_ and offered to him. Grasping it with both hands, he said:

“I am satisfied. I die content.” A few minutes later he was dead.

The _Boxer_ having been carried into Portsmouth, she was there inspected by Commodore Hull, and letters written by him to the Secretary of the Navy and to Commodore Bainbridge give, with the official report of Lieutenant McCall, all the accurate information we have about the force of the _Boxer_ and the damage she sustained. As to her guns, there is no dispute. She carried twelve short eighteens and two long sixes, to the fourteen long eighteens and two long nines on the _Enterprise_. The Americans, with short-weight shot, fired one hundred and twenty-five pounds of metal to the British one hundred and fourteen. Exactly what her crew numbered is not known. Commodore Hull wrote to Commodore Bainbridge as follows on this subject:

“We find it impossible to get at the number of killed; no papers are found by which we can ascertain it. I, however, counted upwards of ninety hammocks, which were in her netting, with beds in them, besides several beds without hammocks; and she has excellent accommodations for all her officers below in staterooms; so that I have no doubt that she had one hundred men on board. We know that she has several of the _Rattler’s_ men on board.”

As everyone familiar with the old-time warship knows, only the men before the mast and petty officers slept in hammocks. When Commodore Hull estimated “that she had one hundred men on board,” he unquestionably meant men before the mast and petty officers. In corroboration of this is the fact that Captain Blythe was looking for the _Enterprise_. He had sailed, only a few days before, from St. Johns, “where great exertions were made by the Government officers, as well as the magistrates of the place,” to man and equip her in a perfect manner to fight the _Enterprise_. The victory of the British frigate _Shannon_ over the Yankee _Chesapeake_ was then but two months old, and Blythe was eager for the honors showered upon Broke. That she sailed from St. Johns with plenty of men is a matter not to be disputed. Moreover, a further reason for supposing that her crew numbered at least one hundred men is found in the fact that James, the oft-quoted British historian, says it numbered “sixty men and six boys.” Recalling the fact that James said that the _Java_ had but three hundred and seventy-seven men on board when her muster-roll showed four hundred and twenty-six; that he systematically understates the British force and overstates the American force in every instance where there was any motive for doing so, and that Benton, the British historian, distinctly says that the British naval authorities deliberately understated British losses in many reports given to the public in those days, it is simply fair to add fifty per cent. to the figures of James in this account. However, it is asserted by the British that twelve of their crew were on shore that morning, and that the four guns fired when their flags were sent aloft and nailed to the mast were fired to recall these twelve, who, however, failed to get on board. This is very likely true. So from the one hundred and four, which all the American accounts of that day say the _Boxer_ had, may be subtracted twelve, leaving ninety-two as the crew of the _Boxer_.

All of this space seems to be worth giving to the subject only because the British writers without exception twist like a flushed snipe whenever they are started by a Yankee victory over the British, and every well-informed American should have the facts at hand to bring them down.

Of the _Boxer’s_ crew, the British admit that four were killed and seventeen wounded. Lieutenant McCall in his report says that “from information received from the officers of that vessel, it appears there were between twenty and thirty-five killed.” The _Enterprise_ lost four killed and eight wounded.

As to the damage done to the _Boxer_, it is worth while quoting the words of Commodore Hull’s letter of September 10, 1813 (written by the way, while Perry was winning glory on Lake Erie). He says:

“I, yesterday, visited the two brigs, and was astonished to see the difference of injury sustained in the action.

“The _Enterprise_ has but one eighteen-pound shot in her hull, and one in her main-mast, and one in her foremast; her sails are much cut by grape-shot, and there are a great number of grape lodged in her sides, but no injury done by them. The _Boxer_ has eighteen or twenty eighteen-pound shot in her hull, most of them at the water’s edge, and several stands of eighteen-pound grape stick in her side, and such a quantity of small grape that I did not undertake to count them. Her masts, sails, and spars are literally cut to pieces, several of her guns dismounted, and unfit for service; her top-gallant forecastle nearly taken off by the shot, her boats cut to pieces, and her quarters injured in proportion.”

The British historian Allen in his account of this fight says, on page 438, vol. ii.: “The two vessels were much disproportioned in every way. The _Boxer_ measured one hundred and eighty-one, the _Enterprise_ two hundred and forty-five tons. The one was a fine roomy vessel, well manned and equipped, the _Boxer_ a mere gun-brig, unfit for any other purpose than to protect a convoy of coasters from the attack of a French lugger. The result, therefore, cannot cause any surprise.”

As a matter of fact, the _Boxer_ was larger than the _Enterprise_ by thirty-five tons burden, and Allen’s comment is worth quoting to show how a popular British historian misrepresented the little Yankee brig that was built as a schooner to carry a dozen six-pounders.

It was as fair a match as one will commonly find described in history. The _Boxer_ was a few tons larger in size, and her officers had had experience in naval battles. The Americans had more guns and more men, with officers who had not had the experience of the enemy. The _Enterprise_ was old and the _Boxer_ new. But while the number of shot which the Americans could throw at a broadside were in number eight to the British seven, the number of times the British hull was struck was eighteen to the one shot the American hull received.

The report of the British court that tried the survivors of the crew for the loss of the _Boxer_ said that the defeat of the _Boxer_ was due to “a superiority of force, principally in the number of men, as well as to _a greater degree of skill in the direction of her fire_, and to the destructive effects of the first broadside.”

To this may be added what the London _Times_ said, editorially, on October 22, 1813:

“But what we regret to perceive stated is, that the _Boxer_ was literally cut to pieces in sails, rigging, spars, and hull; whilst the _Enterprise_ (her antagonist) was in a situation to commence a similar action immediately afterward. The fact seems to be too clearly established that the Americans have some superior mode of firing; and we cannot be too anxiously employed in discerning to what circumstances that superiority is owing.”

Both Captain Blythe and Captain Burrows were buried in Portland with the highest honors known on such occasions. Certainly, the gallant efforts of the British captain deserved all the honors that could be paid. A gold medal was voted by Congress to the nearest male relative of the dead American captain, and it is very likely still cherished as an heirloom in some South Carolina household, for Burrows was a native of that State. He was the son of Lieutenant-Colonel Burrows, previously of the American Marine Corps. He was but twenty-seven years of age when killed.

[Illustration: Medal Awarded to Edward R. McCall After the Battle Between the _Enterprise_ and the _Boxer_.]

After the battle, Master-Commandant James Renshaw was appointed to command the _Enterprise_. In company with the brig _Rattlesnake_ she cruised off the southern coast of the nation, where she proved so slow that the _Rattlesnake_, although not a fast vessel, was often compelled to sail under top-sails only, while the _Enterprise_ carried full sail. And yet on several occasions the _Enterprise_ escaped from British frigates, and did so once though chased for seventy hours. If anything had been needed to confirm the old sailormen in their belief in the luck of the _Enterprise_ this prolonged race would have done it. When the frigate appeared and gave chase the two Yankees separated, and the frigate chose to follow the _Enterprise_. During the three days that the frigate thereafter followed the ill-sparred American, the wind proved exceedingly variable and baffling, but it was without exception baffling in each change for the British ship. Time and again she almost overhauled the little _Enterprise_, but on each occasion the Yankee was favored by a shift of wind, or a calm where the row-boats could tow her, and at the last she got a breeze that placed her a long way fair to windward of the enemy, and before the frigate’s flapping sails were filled with it the _Enterprise_ beat fairly out of sight and escaped altogether. It is certain that she was handled with consummate skill, just as Hull handled the _Constitution_, but then the _Constitution_ was lucky, too.

The _Rattlesnake_ was lucky for a time after separating from the _Enterprise_ on this occasion, but was captured by the British frigate _Leander_ later in the war.

The _Enterprise_, having reached Charleston in safety, was there employed as harbor guard until the end of the war.

So it happened that in spite of the risks taken by the bravest of sea-commanders during four different wars (she was in the second Mediterranean war), this the luckiest of ships known to the American register, perished at last in an honored old age, worn out in the service of the nation.

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