CHAPTER V
UNDER THE CRAGS OF THE “TIGHT LITTLE ISLE”
THE SAUCY YANKEE CRUISERS IN BRITISH WATERS--WHEN FRANKLIN SAILED FOR FRANCE--WICKES IN THE _REPRISAL_ ON THE IRISH COAST--NARROW ESCAPE FROM A LINER--A PLUCKY ENGLISH LIEUTENANT--HARSH FATE OF THE AMERICANS IN THE BRITISH PRISON--STARVED BY ACT OF PARLIAMENT--DEEDS OF THE GALLANT CONNYNGHAM--WELL-NAMED CRUISERS--A SURPRISE AT A BREAKFAST TABLE--TAKING PRIZES DAILY--WHY FORTY FRENCH SHIPS LOADED IN THE THAMES--INSURANCE RATES NEVER BEFORE KNOWN.
Signal as has been the value of the services of the little vessels of the infant navy of the United States in their operations along the American coast and upon the woodsy waters of the highway from the north during the year of the nation’s birth, the American sailors had really only just begun to fight, and it was not until they carried the fight into the very harbors of Great Britain that they taught the British merchants, who had been supporting the British ministry in its oppression of the colonies, a lesson they were slow to learn. For the British merchants had looked upon the war in America as a blessing upon their business interests. It would be somewhat expensive in the way of taxation, but it would ruin their competitors, the enterprising colonists. It is in the spirit of trade and tradesmen of all classes to view with complacency the little expenses that ruin competitors. But some of the British merchants who rubbed their hands and smiled with satisfaction as they heard of the retreat of Washington across New Jersey in 1776, were to wring them in distress because of wounds in their pockets before the end of 1777--because of ships that were snatched away from under the very crags of what they were pleased to term their “tight little isle.”
“In the meantime the irruption of the _Phœnix_ and the _Rose_ into the waters of the Hudson had roused a belligerent spirit along its borders.” These were the first British warships to sail up the Hudson in the Revolutionary war, and their advent was in July, 1776. The Americans had no ships to send against them, and they commonly remained at anchor out of reach of shore batteries. It was because of their presence that it was proposed to stretch an iron chain across the river at Anthony’s Nose. Other obstructions were prepared, but the only thing done in the way of going afloat to attack them was when some rafts were brought down the river chained between a couple of old sloop hulls, the whole of which were covered with dry fat, pine, tar, turpentine, etc. These were fired and let drift with the tide, but as a substitute for the modern torpedoes they were not successful.
The war was, indeed, carried across the stormy Atlantic in the autumn of 1776, though only a small beginning was made that year. To Capt. Lambert Wickes was given the honor of commanding the first American naval ship to cross the Atlantic. Captain Wickes, while in command of the sixteen-gun brig _Reprisal_, had, as already told, made such a good fight when attacked by the British sloop-of-war _Shark_ off Martinique that he beat her off and escaped. For this he was chosen to carry Franklin, who had been appointed American commissioner to France, across to Nantes.
Not only did Wickes carry his passenger safely into port; he captured two prizes on the way and sent them into port also. And then, after refitting in Nantes, he went on a cruise in the Bay of Biscay, where he captured two more prizes, of which one was the king’s mail packet plying between Falmouth and Lisbon, it being the custom in those days for the British government to employ swift brigs of the navy on the regular mail routes.
[Illustration: The _Phœnix_ and the _Rose_ Engaging the Fireships on the Hudson River.
_From a lithograph of the painting by Serres after a sketch by Sir James Wallace._]
France and England were at peace at that time, but by carrying the prizes out to sea, after they had been successfully brought to port, they were readily sold to French merchants, and the money was placed in the hands of Franklin and the other American commissioner, Silas Deane.
What with the enthusiasm that arose when he saw two prizes taken under his own eyes, and the satisfaction arising from having his scanty means augmented by the price of the prizes, Franklin joined heartily with the other commissioners in urging upon the Congress the advisability of keeping a naval force on the European side of the water, with French ports as a base of action. “We have not the least doubt but that two or three of the Continental frigates sent into the German Ocean, with some less swift-sailing cruisers, might intercept and seize a great part of the Baltic and northern trade.” So wrote Franklin.
The Congress had been building some frigates, but instead of sending one of them the brig _Lexington_, armed with sixteen long four-pounders (a brig of which something was told in a former chapter), was sent across, under command of Capt. Henry Johnson. Meantime the American commissioners purchased a ten-gun cutter called the _Dolphin_, which they placed under the command of Lieut. Samuel Nicholson, who afterwards died at the head of the American navy.
The _Lexington_ arrived out in April, 1777. In June this fleet of two small brigs and one “single-sticker” sailed out of Nantes, under command of Captain Wickes, to prey upon British commerce.
It had been the boast of the British sailor, and it was still his boast, that
“Not a sail but by permission spreads.”
He sang his boast over his grog; but he was mistaken. Captain Wickes, after a brief cruise in the Bay of Biscay, sailed north to intercept a fleet loaded with linen on the Irish coast. He missed the linen ships, but he sailed twice around Ireland, and captured fifteen prizes, which were sent into port.
On coming back to the French coast the little fleet fell in with a British ship of the line--a big three-decker--that at once gave chase. The three Americans separated, and the Englishman followed the flagship _Reprisal_.
That was a close call for the _Reprisal_. Her crew at the last felt so hard pressed that they threw their guns overboard to lighten her, and “sawed her bulwarks and even cut away some of her timbers; expedients that were much in favor among the seamen of the day.” She arrived safely at the last, but the sawing of her timbers was a mortal wound, as will appear further on.
Not in years had the British commerce received such a blow, although this was only a trifle to what followed. A storm was raised in France by the British agents. The two countries were nominally at peace, and the French king was not yet ready for war. So the _Reprisal_ and the _Lexington_ were ordered to leave France, “while the prizes were ordered to leave port.”
As to the prizes, they were taken out of port and sold as others had been sold. The _Reprisal_ sailed for America, but in a storm off the banks of Newfoundland she foundered, no doubt because her frames had been weakened by the sawing when she was fleeing before the British ship of the line. One man, the cook, was picked from the wreckage by a passing vessel.
[Illustration: _Engraved by Ridley from a Miniature by Tho^s. Langdon._
IOHN BAZELY _ESQ^R._ _Vice Admiral._
of the Red Squadron]
The _Lexington_ was captured on September 20, 1777. She had refitted at Morlaix, whither she had gone when chased by the line-of-battle ship. When ordered to sail she had not a full supply of powder on board, but was, nevertheless, forced to go. She sailed on September 18th, and when two days outside of the port she fell in with the man-of-war cutter _Alert_, commanded by Lieutenant Bazely, and Bazely was one of the fighters of whom British seamen have a right to be proud. His cutter was smaller than the _Lexington_, and she had but ten cannon to the _Lexington’s_ sixteen. The wind was strong and the sea was rough for such light vessels, but Bazely forced a fight, and for two hours and a half held his own. At the end of that time, however, his rigging had been so badly hurt that he had to stop fighting and make repairs. Seeing this, the _Lexington_, having expended all but a trifle of her ammunition, made sail for home, and she would have got away had any one but the plucky Bazely commanded the _Alert_. Bazely made repairs, overhauled the _Lexington_, and again opened fire. The _Lexington_ held on her course for an hour without being able to reply, and in the hope that the wind would carry away some of the cutter’s sails. But the cutter was well found, and the _Lexington_ was carried into Plymouth. Lieutenant Bazely lived to become an admiral, and there is no doubt he earned his promotion.
The fate of the _Lexington’s_ crew, because like that of every American cruiser of those days, shall be told somewhat in detail. They were thrown into jail without trial on a charge of high treason, and there they were deliberately starved. On one occasion they were glad to kill and eat a dog that strayed into their yard. The conduct of the prison officials in their bearing toward the prisoners was insufferably brutal.
Because the assertion that the prisoners were deliberately starved may seem to some readers an exaggeration, the proof of the statement shall be given from an English source. It may be found on page 152 of the “Annual Register for the Year 1781,” published by G. Robinson, Paternoster Row, London. In reporting the proceedings of Parliament for June 20th of that year it says:
“A petition was presented to the house by Mr. Fox from the American prisoners in Mill Prison, Plymouth, setting forth that they were treated with less humanity than the French and Spaniards; that they had not a sufficient allowance of bread, and were very scantily furnished with clothing. A similar petition was presented to the house of peers by the Duke of Richmond. It appeared upon inquiry that the American prisoners were allowed half a pound of bread less per day than French or Spanish prisoners. Several motions were grounded on these petitions, but those proposed by the lords and gentlemen of the opposition were determined in the negative, and others to exculpate the government in this business were resolved in the affirmative.”
Neither the French nor the Spanish were fully fed, but by the deliberate vote of Parliament the Americans received half a pound of bread less per man each day than did the French and Spanish.
At one time prisoners escaped by tunnelling under the prison walls, and in London got on board a vessel bound for Dunkirk. But a press-gang found them and dragged them back to the jail. Among their number was Master’s Mate Richard Dale. A year after he was recaptured he procured a British uniform. How he got it he would never tell, not even when the war was over, and it is therefore not unlikely that a woman brought it to him. With that on, he walked out of the jail in open day and escaped.
Meantime another American cruiser had been at work on the British coasts with notable results. The American commissioners in France had purchased a fast cutter, which they equipped as a man-of-war. They named her the _Surprise_, and that proved to be a very appropriate name. Capt. Gustavus Connyngham was placed in charge of her, his commission being one of the blank ones which had been given to the commissioners to fill out at their own discretion. It was dated March 1, 1777, and Captain Connyngham got away to sea on May 1st, but he had a deal of trouble before he found himself fairly afloat. To avoid complications with the French government he was obliged to send ashore all his cannon and warlike supplies and load his vessel with merchandise for Norway. In this way he left port. Then, when well outside, he met by appointment a vessel that had his equipment and crew, and effected a transfer. But the government had suspected that he was going to do this, and had compelled him to give bonds not to do it. Two men were hired to sign the bond, but one of them found he had made a bad bargain, even though he had signed it with his eyes open, for when the first prize made by the _Surprise_ came in he was haled away to the Bastile, while the prize, in which he was to have a share, no doubt, was given up to the English without legal process. The names of the bondsmen are recorded simply as “Allen and Hodge.” Hodge was the chief unfortunate, but he was released after six weeks.
The prize was the ship _Joseph_. She was captured the third day out. Four days later (May 7th), while cruising off the coast of Holland, the _Surprise_ fell in with the British packet brig _Prince of Orange_, carrying the mail to the north of Europe, and having a number of passengers on board.
It is likely that no ship’s company were ever more completely surprised than were the people on the _Prince of Orange_. It was early in the forenoon when the _Surprise_ came alongside and carried the packet by boarding. Not a gun was fired, and so little noise was made that not a soul below decks knew that anything out of the usual course was occurring until the Yankee captain coolly walked down the companionway and found the captain of the _Prince of Orange_ and his passengers eating breakfast very comfortably.
Because of the mails on board this packet Captain Connyngham decided to carry his prize into port at once.
It will be remembered that the capture of this mail packet happened but a few weeks after the capture of the Lisbon packet. So, as may be supposed, the arrival of the _Surprise_, with the _Prince of Orange_ as a prize, created a tremendous excitement among the English. The British ambassador at Paris demanded that Connyngham and his crew be surrendered for trial as pirates, and threatened to leave the country if the demand was not complied with. As the French government was not yet ready for war, and the firm attitude of the English compelled seeming compliance with the demand, Connyngham was arrested and his commission taken away from him. The British ambassador sent for two sloops-of-war to come over and convoy the _Surprise_ and the _Prince of Orange_ across to England. For a time it looked as if the audacious Americans would really be hanged as pirates by the infuriated Englishmen.
But in those days much time was required for completing matters of diplomacy, and the American commissioners, with their agents, were working day and night not only to save Captain Connyngham, but to send him once more on a cruise against the enemy. Another swift cutter was procured and secretly armed with fourteen six-pounders and twenty swivels, while a crew of 106 men was shipped. The new man-of-war was very properly named the _Revenge_, and before the sloops-of-war had arrived from England Captain Connyngham had, “with some address and intrigue,” been released from prison and supplied with a new commission and sent away to sea.
It was on July 18, 1777, that the _Revenge_ left port, and she was the fifth ship of the American navy to cruise in England’s home waters. If the _Surprise_ had astonished the British seafaring folks, the _Revenge_ astounded them. And it must not be forgotten that the little fleet of three vessels under Captain Wickes had already gone to sea on the same errand.
It is recorded that the _Revenge_ “proved a remarkably successful vessel, taking prizes daily,” which were, for the most part, sent to Spanish ports and sold. The means so obtained were of the utmost value to the American commissioners already in Europe and to those who came after, while the damage inflicted on the British marine was, as already intimated, something to make the British merchant wonder whether, after all, his investments for the ruin of American rivals were likely to prove profitable. Nor was the injury felt alone by those British merchants whose ships happened to be captured. The insurance rates on all British ships rose at one period to twenty-five per cent., and ten per cent. was demanded for the simple voyage from Dover to Calais. Worse yet, the fear of the Yankee cruisers became so great that shipments in British vessels were so far abandoned that “_forty sail of French ships_ were loading in the Thames on freight; an instance never before known.” An escort was asked for and received for British ships in the trade with Ireland, “something that had never been known even in the wars with France.”
But the best of the story of Captain Connyngham’s cruise remains to be told. Having been considerably injured by a gale, the captain felt obliged to go into port for repairs. To return to a French port was extremely dangerous because the whole French coast was closely watched and because even were he found safely in port he would be very likely delivered over to the English, so he sought safety in audacity and found it. Disguising his cutter as best he might with the paint and materials in store, he entered an English port (the name of which is not recorded), thoroughly refitted, and sailed away unsuspected. Some time later he entered an Irish port and got a full supply of provisions, paying for them with drafts on his agent in Spain. Later still he refitted at Ferrol, and then sailed for America.
It is not uncommon for people to speak in these days of such deeds as Captain Connyngham’s as if they were something of the past that might never be repeated. They do not realize that every class graduated from the Naval Academy at Annapolis contains men of equal bravery and resources--men needing only the opportunity to show their metal.
It must be noted here that the British ministry chose to make a distinction between the two ships fitted out wholly in the French ports (the _Surprise_ and the _Revenge_) and those that had come over from America; they made a distinction in spite of the fact that these two were fitted out by the American commissioners of the American government that had maintained itself for a year. The _Surprise_ and the _Revenge_ were denounced as pirates, and Connyngham as a pirate commander.
Unfortunately for Connyngham, he was captured in a privateer early the following year after his cruise on the English coast. What treatment he then received cannot be given in detail here, but if the British authorities were willing to starve the prisoners from the _Lexington_, which was then conceded to be a lawful ship of war, one may rest assured that it would have been kinder to Connyngham to hang him out of hand. He would, indeed, have been hanged but for the fear of retributive justice being meted out to prisoners in the hands of the Americans. So, to put it bluntly, they tortured whom they dared not kill, until the Congress, on July 17, 1778, passed a resolution formally demanding the reason why he was “treated in a manner contrary to all the dictates of humanity and the practice of civilized nations.” And yet, in spite of the pitiful sufferings of Connyngham and the other American seamen in British prisons, it was not until July 15, 1779, that Congress resolved to “cause the crews of vessels captured from the enemy to be confined on board prison ships and supplied and treated, in all respects, in the same manner as the crews of vessels belonging to these United States, and captured by the enemy, are supplied and treated.”
The story of the early doings of the American navy concludes with the loss of the first American flagship, the _Alfred_.
It will be remembered that the Congress had, late in 1775, ordered quite a fleet of small frigates built at different points along the coast--thirteen in all. Of the whole number, six never got to sea, for they were captured in port by the victorious British. Among those that finally carried the flag was the _Raleigh_, a thirty-two-gun vessel, built at Portsmouth, and a very fair ship for that time she proved to be. Toward the end of August, 1777, the Marine Committee ordered the _Raleigh_, under the command of Capt. Thomas Thompson, and the original flagship _Alfred_, which was still under the command of Capt. Elisha Hinman, to sail for France to procure supplies for the American army.
The two ships had been at sea only a few days, when, on September 2d, they fell in with a small English merchantman called the _Nancy_, that surrendered without a stroke. From her captain they learned that she had gone adrift the day before from a big fleet bound to the Windward Islands under convoy of one twenty-gun ship, two fourteen-gun brigs, and one sixteen-gun sloop.
On learning this Captain Thompson carefully noted the positions of the different men-of-war in the squadron, and learned the code of signals in use in the fleet, the necessary flags for signalling having been taken from the _Nancy_. He then headed away in pursuit.
At noon on the 3d he had overhauled the fleet, and from that time until daylight of the 4th he was busy trying to cut out some of the merchantmen without exciting suspicion. By signalling to the _Alfred_ with the captured code, he succeeded in concealing his character effectually; but on the morning of the 4th he gave up the hope of getting a merchantman, and sought a fight instead. Leaving the _Alfred_, that was too slow for the enterprise, behind, he steered with closed ports right through the fleet until in an advantageous position on the weather side of one of the brigs, the _Druid_, when he opened up his ports, set his flag, and fired a broadside into the unsuspecting Britisher.
The effect of the broadside upon the other ships of the fleet was picturesque. Everywhere the pipe of the boatswain to call all hands was heard. On every ship the men ran to and fro to crowd on sail, while every tiller was thrown up or down as every ship strove to get as far away from every other ship as possible. For no one knew what minute another supposed cargo-carrier would prove to be a Yankee warship.
Meantime Captain Thompson fired volley after volley into the _Druid_, receiving only a feeble fire in return, until the brig was so well wrecked that she had to return to England. Her loss, according to Captain Carteret, who commanded her, was six killed and twenty-six wounded, he himself being among the severely wounded.
But, although badly cut up, the _Druid_ did not surrender; and when the other two warships, with several of the best-armed merchantmen who had recovered from the panic, drew near, the _Raleigh_ squared away and returned to the _Alfred_.
Rightly considered, it was not an exploit to excite the pride of the American naval officer, for the _Raleigh_ had more guns than the two brigs together, and should have been almost a match for all three of the warships. American sailors had not yet reached the efficiency as man-o’-warsmen that afterwards made them famous.
However, the two American ships reached France, and loaded their supplies. On returning they took the southern route, hoping to meet some British merchant ships. They met, instead of merchantmen, two British men-of-war--the _Ariadne_ of twenty guns and the _Ceres_ of fourteen.
It happened that the two Americans were at the time (it was on March 9, 1778) far apart, the _Raleigh_ being hull down to leeward. The two Britishers came down on the _Alfred_, and without making very much of a fight she surrendered. Seeing this, the _Raleigh_ up helm and sailed for home, where, on his arrival, the captain was very properly relieved from the command of the ship. What John Paul Jones would have accomplished had he been in command of the _Raleigh_ that voyage, instead of Thompson, may be inferred from what he did when a command was given him, as will be told in the next chapter.
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