History of the Navy of the United States of America

Front matter

Glass t.\^ z Book ^6i

I

' iriposstssiowofM^S^FhiAn^y

Contents To Vol. L

CHAPTEE, I.

Expedition to Plymouth in the Mayl'lower St. Sauveur reduced First deck vessel

constructed First vessel built in Massachusetts Hugh Peters executed for high

Preface

The author of this History of the Navy of the United States, in submitting a new edition to the decision of the public, has endeavoured to make it as accurate, as further investigation, and increased means of acquiring information will allow. The writer of a work of this particular character has two great sources of facts to distrust, and in some measure to resist : the partialities of personal friends and connections, who so often regard merit with the exaggerations of private feeling, and the strong disposition there is in all communities, to countenance self-esteem, even at the expense of truth. These difficulties have been kept in view, and it is hoped that this book is as free from errours derived from such weaknesses as can well be expected, under the ordinary failings of humanity.

It would be much easier to write a book on the subject of the navy, that should meet the longings of national vanity, than to write one which shall meet the requirements of truth. The country is filled with false and exaggerated statements concerning the exploits of both its army and its navy, and the author who should choose to accept them for focts, would have no difficulty in referring to his authorities, though they would be authorities entitled to little respect. The author has preferred to make an effiart to obtain the truth, and, while he still admits his liability to fall into errour, he hopes that a nearer approach to that desirable quality has been made in this, than in either of the previous editions. ,

The new matter introduced into this edition, has been obtained from sources that are believed to be authentic. It is considerable in amount, and in several instances of importance; though so much dispersed through the two volumes, as probably to escape the attention of cursory examination. As instances of its value, we refer to the capture of the Hancock, 32, during the war of the revolution ; to the loss of the two sloops on Lake Champlain, in 1812; to that ot the two schooners on Lake Ontario, in 1813, and to several other similar events. The corrections in dates and minor incidents, will not be apt to strike the eye at first, but the importance of accuracy in such matters will be readily admitted.

It is repeated, that exaggerations, whether of fact or manner, have been regarded as out of place in history. The navy of this country does not stand in need of such assistants, to command the esteem, or the admiration of the world. From the hour when it was first called

X PREFACE.

into existence, during the aiduows struggles of a most important revolution, down to the present moment, its services have been material and brilliant, and he is but an equivocal friend who shall attempttoconcealitsrealexploitsbehindtheveil of flattery. Such expedients may serve a purpose, and answer for a time ; but, in the end, the truth will be certain to assert, and to recover, its ascendency.

As an instance of what is meant, the reader is referred to the account of the loss of the Intrepid, before Tripoli, in the year 1804. Popular delusion, in this instance, has been supported by evidence better than common, in supposing that Somers, and his gallant companions, blew themselves up. We think this an errour, though it is an errour into which Preble, himself, would seem to have fallen. That which we have believed we have not hesitated to record, and our statements must stand, or fall, by the evidence and reasoning that have been adduced in their support. Without entering into the discussion of the question of how far any man would be justified in destroying himself, and those under his orders, to avoid capture, we have given what we regard as unanswerable proof that the ketch was in no immediate danger of falling into the hands of the enemy, when she blew up, and that the contingency which has been popularly urged as the justification of Somers' supposed self-destruction, had not even occurred.

In the instances of the victories of the Constellation, United States, Constitution, Lake Erie, «fec., we have not hesitated to resist errour on the subject of superiority of force, believing it to be a far higher duty to record that which we feel certain to be true, than to record that which may be momentarily agreeable. Conscious of having maintained a scrupulous impartiality on this subject, we wish to be judfifed by our whole work, and not by isolated instances, dragged from out the mass, by the desire of individuals to monopolise the renown of the entire service. AVe believe that the navy, itself, appreciates the justice of our course, while it both sees and feels the designs of those who have opposed it. *

The country appears to be touching on great events. A war has commenced among us, which, though scarcely of a maritime character, in itself, must give extensive employment to the national marine, and may indeed demand, in the end, the exercise of all its energies. The Navy of the United States presents a very different aspect, in 1846, from that which it oftered in 1815. Its existence has been trebled as to time, within the last thirty years, and its force increased fifty fold. Though far from being yet, what prudence would have dictated, and the wants of the republic actually demand, it can now bring its fleet into line, and exercise a most essential influence on the result of any conflict. As respects the navies

PREFACE. Xi

of this hemisphere, it is supreme ; the united marines of all the rest of this continent being unable to contend against it, for an hour. As respects the three great maritime States of Europe, though inferior to each in vessels, it can scarcely be called inferior to more than one of them in resources; while in character, skill and hopes, it is second to no other service on earth. These are great changes, and all has been eftected within the limits of a single life. What is to succeed in the last half of this century, may be dimly shadowed forth, by the aid of the images of the past. Divine Providence controuls all for its own great ends ; but, should its laws work as they have done for the last half century, the historian of the American Navy, who shall sit down to his labours in the year 1900, will have a task before him very different from that which has fallen to our share.

Cooj^erstown, 1846.

PEEFACE TO THE CONTINUATION.

The continuation of this work has been prepared from unfinished manuscript?,, documents, etc., left by Mr. Cooper, and from other most reUable and authentic sources, published, documentary and personal. Free access has been had to the archives of the Navy Department, and to the papers of actors in some of the scenes recorded: in addition to which, the ■whole has been carefully revised, especially in the portions within their personal knowledge, by several officers of the Navy, whose familiarity with its history, as well as their age, rank and position, rendered their aid of the highest value.

Although the writer has aimed only at a plain narrative of facts, he has felt, with the members of Mr. Cooper's family who in the discharge of their responsibility have devolved the preparation of this edition upon him, that it was due to the subject and the author that no time nor pains should be spared to complete his design of making it a correct history of the navy to the present day.* With this view, and after careful research, it is hoped that no error or omission of consequence has occurred.

The first edition of the Naval History appeared in 1839, in two octavo volumes, which were immediately republished in London, Paris, and Brussels. Besides the subsequent reprints here of this edition, an abridgment was prepared by the author in 184.1, omitting the documents and more elaborate reasoning. In 1846 he revised the unabridged work, correcting, condensing, rewriting in part, and adding considerable new matter. This copy, embracing the history to 1815, with his latest €mendations, is followed in the present edition.

In 1851, having for some time accumulated materials, he commenced the continuation of the history ; but, after preparing only the portion upon the Mexican war, which is designated in its place, he was interrupted by the iUness which resulted in his death, Sept. 14, 1851.

Cooperstown^ Sept., 1853.

* In addition to this work, Mr. Cooper Is the author of two volumes of Lives of Distingttish- ED Naval Officers, to which, since liis death, is added his history of the old ship Constitution, more familiarly known as Old Ironsides.

UNITED STATES.

Chapter I

Expedition to Plymontli in the May Flower St. Sauveur reduced First deck vessel

constructed First vessel built in Massachusetts Hugh Peters executed for high

treason First sea fight of the American colonies.. ..First regular cruisers First regular naval combat Capture of New Netherlands First vessels on Lakes Ontario and Erie First depredations of the Buccaniers in American seas First attempt

to suppress piracy::::Diving bell used::::;Expedition against Port Royal against Q,ue-

bec....Sir William Phipps Launch of the Falkland. Pai:;eU.

The empire of Great Britain, much the most powerful state of modern times, has been gradually and progressively advancing to its present high degree of maritime prosperity, and its actual condition ought to be considered theresult of moral instead of physical causes, though the latter is probably the more prevalent opinion. Notwithstanding the insular position of its seat of authority, the naval ascendency of England is of comparatively recent date ; Spain, and even the diminutive communities of Portugal and Holland, manifesting as great, if not a greater spirit of lofty nautical enterprise than the islanders themselves, during the century and a half that succeeded the important discovery of the western hemisphere, and that of a passage by sea to India. While these three nations were colonising extensively, and laying the foundations of future states, the seamen of England expended their energies in predatory expeditions that were rapacious in their object and piratical in spirit. Familiar political causes, beyond at question, had an influence in bringing about these results; for, while the accession of the House of Hapsbourg to the throne of Spain and the Indies, created a power able to cope with Europe, as it then existed, England, driven entirely from her continental possessions, had Scotland for a troublesome neighbour, and Ireland for a discontented and turbulent subject, to check her efforts abroad. It is probable, too, that the civil contests, in which England was so long engaged, had a serious eflect on her naval advancement, and the struggle that succeeded the dethronement of the family of Stuart, could not fail to lessen exertions that were directed to interests without the territory more immediately in dispute. As a consequence of all these causes, or of that portion of them which was in existence at the commencement of the seventeenth century, when England seriously commenced the business of colonisation,

Spain, Franco and Portugal were already in possession of what were then considered the most favorable regions on the American continent. AVhen, indeed, the experiment was finally and successfully made, individual enterprise, rather than that of the government, achieved the object; and for many years the power of the crown was exercised Avith no other aim than to afford an ill-regulated, and frequently an insufficient protection. It was Englishmen, and not England, that founded the country which is now known as the United States of America.

It would exceed the proper bounds of a work of this nature, were we to enter into a detailed account of the events connected with the settlements in Virginia and Massachusetts. The first permanent establishment was made in the former colony, during the year 1607, and that at Plymouth followed in 1620. Nothing could be less alike than the motives which influenced the adventurers in these two enterprises, out of which has virtually arisen, within the short space of little more than two centuries, a Republic that has already taken its place among the great powers of Christendom, and which has only to be true to itself and to its predominant principles, to stand foremost in the ranks of nations. Those who cast their fortunes on the fertile shores of the waters of the Chesapeake sought worldly advancement for themselves, an affluence for their posterity, while the Pilgrims, as it has become usual to term them the parent stock of New England, landed in quest of an asylum, where they might erect their altars, undisturbed by the temporal power that profaned the rites of the church in the old world. Natural affinities attracted like to like, and for quite a century the emigrants from Europe partook of the distinctive traits of the original colonists ; the one portion of the country being distinguished for the gay and reckless usages of successful pecuniary adventure, and the other for the more sobered and reflecting habits of severe moral training, and an industry that was stimvdated by necessity and tempered by prudence. The distinction did not end here. If the one carried liberality and thoughtlessness to the verge of indiscretion, the other substituted fanaticism and bigotry for the mild and aftectionate tenets of Christianity. It is not easy to say what might have been the consequence of the proximity of two establishments influenced by characters and modes of thinking so antagonist, had not the conquest of the Dutch territories of New York bound them together, by the means of a people who came from England at a later day, and who brought with them most of the nationartraits,less influenced by exaggerations and accidents. The result has been an amalgamation that is fast wearing off asperities, and which promises, at no distant period, to produce a homogeneity of character that it is not usual to find in any great and numerous people.

The vessels employed in the earliest communications between the colonies and the mother country, were small, varying from fifty to two hundred tons in burthen. The expedition to Plymouth was first attempted in the May Flower, a bark of one hundred and eighty ions and the Speedwell of sixty tons; but the lattfer proving leaky, after twice returning to port to refit, was abandoned, and the voyage was made in the former vessel alone. That to Virginia under Newport, consumed four months, a delay that was owing to its steering south until the trades were struck, a practice which prevailed among most of the navigators to the new world, for a longtime subsequently to the discoveries of Columbus, wlio had himself been favoured by those constant winds. The May Flower sailed from Plymouth, in England, on the 6th of September, and, after a stormy passage, made Cape Cod on the 9th of November. As it had been the intention of those on board to go further south, it is probable that they met with southwest winds and currents, with a northeasterly set, in the American seas.

The first conflict that took place between the colonists and any of their civilised neighbours, occurred in 1613, when an expedition fi*om Virginia, under the orders of Captain Samuel Argal, arriving on the coast of Nova Scotia, made an attack on the new French post of St. Sauveur, which was reduced without difficulty. Argal had eleven vessels with liim, most of which, however, were quite small, and his armaments amounted in the whole to fourteen light guns-. The French were entirely Avithout artillery. The avowed object of this enterprise was fishing, but the armament has induced a suspicion that the end actually effected was also kept in view. Whatever might have been the intention in fitting out the first force under Captain Argal, it is quite certain, that, on his return to Virginia, he was formally sent against the French in Acadie, with three vessels, better prepared, and that he laid waste the whole of their possessions. Both of these occurrences took place in a time of profound peace, and grew out of a pretension on the part of the English, to the possession of the whole coast, as far north as the 46th degree of latitude.

On his return to Virginia, Captain Argal entered the bay of New York, and demanded possession of that territory also, under the plea that it had been discovered by an Englishman. Hendrick Christaens, whom Argal styled "a pretended Dutch Governor," had no force to resist such a claim, and was compelled to submit. On the return to Virginia, one of the three vessels employed in this expedition was lost, and another having been driven as far east as the Azores, proceeded to England, while Captain Argal alone got into the Chesapeake. The prisoners taken on this occasion narrowly escaped being executed as pirates !

This was the first warlike maritime expedition attempted by the American colonists, if a few parties sent in boats against the savages be excepted. The Dutch were not dispossessed by the useless attempt on their settlement, which appears to have been viewed more as a protest than a conquest, for they continued to increase and to govern themselves for near half a century longer. The first decked vessel built within the old United States, of which we have any account, was constructed by Schipper Adrian Block, on the banks of the Hudson, and probably within the present limits of New York, during the summer of 1614. This vessel De Laet terms a " yacht," and describes as liaving been of the dimensions of thirty-eight feet keel, forty-four and a half feet on deck, and eleven feet beam. In this "yacht" Block passed through Hell Gate, into the Sound, and steering eastward, he discovered a small island, which he named after himself; going as far as Cape Cod, by the way of the Vineyard passage.

According to the same authority, the Dutch at New Amsterdam, who had constructed a fort, and reinforced their colony, soon after built many more small vessels, sloops and periaguas, opening a trade with the savages, by means of the numerous bays, sounds, ahd rivers of their territory.

It was also in 1614, that the celebrated Capt. John Smith arrived from England, and sailed on a coasting voyage, with the double purpose of trade and discovery. He went himself in a boat, having a crew of only eight men, and the profits, as well as the discoveries, abundantly rewarded the risks. ■

It may serve to give the reader a more accurate idea of the condition of trade in this part of the world, if we state that in 1615 the English alone had one hundred and seventy vessels engaged in the Newfoundland fisheries, while the French, Portuguese, and Spaniards had altogether about three hundred.

Many attempts were made about this time to discover a northwest passage to China ; the Avell known expedition in which Bafiin was employed occurring in 1616.

After the settlement at Plymouth, the English colonies began to increase regularly in population and resources, while the Dutch at New York became firmly established. The Swedes also commenced a settlement in the Delaware, and the entire coast, from Acadie to North Carolina, Avas more or less occupied from point to point. There Avas a good deal of trade Avith the Indians, Avith Avhom wampum Avas exchanged against peltries. As early as in 1629 the Ncav England Company employed five ships of respectable size, in the trade Avith the colony. Most of these vessels Avere armed, and all took colonists in their outAvard passages. The May FloAver appears to have been retained in this business for many years after her first voyage. A small ship Avas built at or near Boston, in 1633, Avhich was one of the first vessels, if not the first vessel of any size constructed in Ncav England. But the progress of the colony of Massachusetts Bay, in navigation, Avas so rapid, that in 1639, laAvs were passed to encourage the fisheries, Avhich may be considered as the elementary school of American nautical enterprise. The fishermen during the season, and the shipwrights at all times, Avere exempted from military duty, a great privilege in an infant community that Avas surrounded by savages. Among those Avho gave an impulse to tirade and navigation in this colony, was the celebrated Hugh Peters, subsequently executed for treason in England, aa'Iio actually caused a vessel of three hundred tons burthen to be constructed at Salem, in 1641.

Within twenty years after the settlement of Plymouth, ship-building and navigation began to occupy much of the attention of New

EnHand, and as every vessel of any size earned many light guns, the navigation of the period had most of the characteristics of an armed trade. In addition to the ships and barks that crossed the ocean, many decked boats, oi- small sloops, were used on the coast, especially by those who deak with the Indians for skins. The first engagement that probably ever occurred between inhabitants of the American colonies, and enemies afloat, was a conflict between John Gallop, who was engaged in a trade of this nature, in a sloop of twenty tons, and some Narragansctt Indians, who had seized upon a small vessel belonging to a person of the name of Oldham, known to have been similarly occupied. As this, in a certain sense, may be deemed the earliest sea-fight of the nation, we consider it worthy to be related.

Some time in May, 1G3G, Gallop, in his little sloop, manned by two men and two boys, himself included, was standing along the Sound, near Plum Island, when he was compelled by stress of weather to bear up, for a refuge, among the islands that form a chain between Long Island and Connecticut. On nearing the land, he discovered a vessel very similar to his own, in size and ecpiipments, which was immediately recognised as the pinnace of Mr. Oldham, who had sailed with a crew of two white boys and two Narragansctt Indians. Gallop hailed on approaching the other craft, but got no answer, and, running still nearer, no less than fourteen Indians were discovered lying on her deck. A canoe, conveying goods, and manned by Indians, had also just started for the shore. Gallop now began to suspect that Oldham had been overpowered by the savages; a suspicion that was confirmed by the Indians slipping their cable, and standing ofl" before the wind, or in the direction of Narragansctt Bay. Satisfied that a robbery had been committed. Gallop matle sail in chase, and running alongside of the pinnace, in a spirited manner, he fired a volley of duck-shot at the savages. The latter had swords, spears, and some fire-arms, and they attempted a resistance, but Gallop soon drove them below to a man. Afraid to board in the foce of such odds, Gallop now had recourse to a novel expedient to dislodge his enemies. As the pinnace was drifting with no one to manage her, she soon fell to leeward, while the sloop hauled by the wind. As soon as the two vessels were far enough asunder. Gallop put his helm up and ran directly down on the weather quarter of the pinnace, striking her with so much violence as to come near forcing her over on her side. The shock so much alarmed the Indians, who were on an element and in a craft they did not understand, that six of them rushed frantically on deck, and leaped into the sea, where they were all drowned. The sloop again hauled off", when Gallop lashed an anchor to her bows in such a manner, that by running down on the pinnace a second time, he forced the flukes through the sides of the latter, which are represented as having been made of boards. The two vessels were now fast to each other, and the crew of the sloop began to fire through the sides of the pinnace, into her hold. Finding it impossible, however, to drive his enemies up. Gallop loosened his fasts, and hauled up to

VOL. I. 2 windward a third time, when four or five more of the Indians jumped overboard and shared the fate of those who had preceded them. One Indian now appeared on deck and offered to submit. Gallop ran alongside, and received this man in the sloop, when he was bound hands and feet, and put into the hold. Another soon followed this example, and he was also received on board the sloop and bound, but, fearful if two of his wily foes were permitted to commune together, that they would liberate themselves, the second prisoner was thrown into the sea. Only two Indians noAV remained in the pinnace. They had got into a small apartment below, and being armed, they showed a disposition to defend themselves, when Gallop i-emoved all the goods that remained, into his own sloop, stripped the pinnace of her sails, took her in tow, and hauled up for the islands again. But the wind increasing, the pinnace was cut adrift, and she disappeared in the direction of Narragansett Bay, where it is probable she was stranded in the course of a few hours.

On board the pinnace, Gallop found the body of Mr. Oldham. The head had been cleft, the hands and legs were much mangled, and the flesh was still warm. The corpse was thrown into the sea.

Thus terminated this extraordinary conflict, in which Gallop appears to have shown as much conduct as courage, and which in itself illustrates the vast superiority that professional skill gives on an element like the sea. As it was of the last importance to create a respect for the English name, with a view to protect small parties while trading with the savages, the report of the conqueror on this occasion induced the government of Massachusetts to send an expedition against the offenders, under Mr. Endecott, one of the assistants, which did the Indians much injury in the destruction of their dwellings and crops, though the savages themselves took to flight. This expedition, however, was followed up by others that met with greater success.

The French in Acadie, also, gave rise to two or three unimportant armaments, which led to no results worthy of being recorded.

Notwithstanding the frequency of the Indian conflicts, and the repeated visits to the settlements of the French, the first regular cruisers employed by the American colonists appear to have owed their existence to misunderstandings with the Dutch of the New Netherlands. The colony of New Haven had so far increased as to cause a vessel of one hundred and fifty tons to be built in Rhode Island, as early as the year 1646, but the ship was lost at sea on her first passage. Shortly after, a small cruiser, carrying ten guns, and forty men, was employed by the united colonies of Hartford and New Haven, to cruise in Long Island Sound, with a view to prevent the enchroachments of the Dutch, and to keep open the communication with the settlements they had made on the opposite shore. In 1654, orders were received from Parliament to treat the Dutch as enemies, but both communities were still too young and fi'eble to •engage in a warfare that was not considered of paramount necessity.

Nothing effective appears to have been done under these instructions.

At a later day, or in 1665-6, Connecticut kept another small vessel cruising off Watch Hill, in order to prevent the Narragansett Indians from crossing to attack the Montauk tribe, which had been taken under the protection of the colony.

In 1645, a ship of some size was built at Cambridge, Massachusetts, and receiving an armament of fourteen guns, and a crew of thirty men, she sailed for the Canary Isles. This vessel fell in with a rover, supposed to belong to Barbary, of twenty guns, and i n^enty men, when an action took place that continued the entire day. The rover receiving some serious injury to her rudder, the New England ship was enabled to escape. Although the conflict between Gallop and the Narragansetts is, in one sense, entitled to the precedency, this action may be set down as the first regular naval combat in which any American vessel is known to have been engaged.

An important change occurred, in 1664, in the situation of the American colonies, by the capture of New Netherlands from the Dutch. The vessels employed on this service Avere under the orders of Sir Robert Carr, while Colonel Richard Nicoll commanded the troops. No resistance was made. In consequence of this accession of territory, and the submission of the Swedish settlements on the Delaware, the English Colonies now had entire possession of the coast, between the Bay of Fundy and the Floridas. It had been computed, in 1660, that the English settlements contained about eighty thousand souls, and this increase of numbers made a total of more than one hundred thousand inhabitants of European extraction. New England paid the most attention to navigation, however; and it appears by Hutchinson, that in 1676, or just a century before the declaration of Independence, the following vessels had been constructed in Boston, or its vicinity, and then belonged to the ports of that neighbourhood, viz:

30 vessels between 100 and 250 tons. 200 vessels between 50 and -100 tons. 200 vessels between 30 and 50 tons. 300 vessels between 6 and 10 tons.

Most of the small vessels were employed in the fisheries, and the ordinary communications between the settlements on the coast were kept up by water. The principal building stations were Boston, Charlestown, Salem, Ipswich, Salisbury, and Portsmouth, and there were even at that early day, thirty master shipwrights.