A history of the United States navy

Preface

In preparing this volume the writer has been animated by a desire to tell, in one convenient volume, that might be sold at a moderate price, the whole story of our navy — to describe all the important naval battles, and to show how the nation has been affected at certain times by the work of its naval ships, and at other times by the want of such a force.

All battles that have had any influence upon the wars in which the nation has been engaged, or upon the evolution of ships of war, or upon the character of our naval men, or of the nation, have been deemed important herein. Any consideration of the facts shows that our sailors were animated, in most of their battles, by the knowledge that they were fighting for the very life of the nation, and it is therefore not too much to say that a description of such a fight must be a hero story, however told. Frankly, it was in the belief that every history of our navy claims attention first of all as a hero story that this one was written.

But while most of the space has been devoted to the battles, especial consideration has been given to the facts and conditions that have, from time to time, created public opinion in favor of, or against, the employment of a navy. In this point of view the building of the frigates early in the War of the Revolution, and the utter collapse of the young navy before the end of that war, have a new interest. Of still greater interest is the story of the navy building in the vi PREFACE

days when we paid tribute to African princes, and, while singing " Hail, ye heroes, heaven-born band," hesitated to send our warships to sea for the protection of our merchantmen lest the swarming pirates be thereby made "more acrimonious than ever"!

Still another story of the kind is that of the efforts to use "peaceable coercion" to compel the warring nations of Europe to treat us justly. The facts in that matter should be of particular interest to all who honestly believe that a strong navy incites a nation to go to war. For during a period of eleven years before the War of 1812 the American people strove with all their might to get on without a navy — with the result that they suffered every indignity, with enormous and even incalculable losses of property, and then were compelled to fight at last. That the influence of the American people has always been exerted for the promotion of peace is a statement that need not be supported by evidence, and that this influence has been effective in proportion to the strength of our navy is one of the propositions which it is hoped has been made good in this volume.

The work of our navy in the evolution of warships, though a matter of mechanics, is by no means devoid of popular interest. Thus the battle of the Constitution and the Guerriere, though it has been called elsewhere a mere naval duel, wrought a mighty change in the frigates of the world at the same time that it saved the American people from disasters that should never be forgotten. The battle of the Monitor and the Merrimac was of similar interest, for, in addition to its influence upon the war for the preservation of the Union, it led to the evolution of the modern battleship. And as for the battleship, there are some who believe that it has been worth its cost aside from its political influence — as shall appear.

Finally, a consideration of the effect of our naval battles upon character is a matter that brings us back again to

PREFACE vii

the hero stories, and makes such stories worth the teUing. It is worth while, is it not, to recall that John Paul Jones said while on a sinking ship, "I have not yet begun to fight," and that Commodore Perry, when going out to the battle of Lake Erie, said, "To windward or to leeward, they shall fight to-day" ? Though their names are nowhere recorded, we are not likely to forget the work of the men who, during the Civil War, deliberately met death in the "davids" at Charleston. The story of the cable-cutters of the War with Spain is inspiring far inland from the littoral. Indeed, this volume might very well have been dedicated to all who face the enemy — every enemy — with the spirit of the fighting men of our navy.

J. R. S.

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I. Organizing the First Navy .... 1

II. The First Battle of Lake ChampluVIn 8

Chapter I Organizing The First Navy

The destruction of the British war schooner Gaspe by a band of patriots under the lead of Captain Abraham Whipple, near Providence, R. I., before daylight in the morning of June 10, 1772, was the first stroke afloat for American liberty. The Gaspe, acting as a revenue cutter, had been destroying the commerce of the colony.

The capture of the British war schooner Margaretta, off Machias, Me., on June 12, 1775, by patriots under Jeremiah O'Brien (they had been inspired by the story of Lexington), was the next, and it led to the destruction of Falmouth (now called Portland), Me., on October 18, 1775.

In the meantime the Rhode Island Assembly, moved, perhaps, by the men who had been connected with the Gaspe affair, had unanimously declared "that the building and equipping of an American fleet as soon as possible" would "greatly and essentially conduce to the preservation of the liberty " of the colonies. When this resolution came before the Congress of the Colonies, then in session at Philadelphia, although Washington had already been authorized to borrow armed ships from Massachusetts to capture supplies from the British transports, it was ridiculed as "the maddest idea in the world," and it was with difficulty that "its friends procured the consideration of the question to be left open a little while." (John Adams ) On October 13, however; the navy builders got these resolutions adopted:

"That a swift-sailing vessel, to carry ten carriage guns, and a proportionable number of swivels, with eighty men, be fitted, with all possible despatch, for a cruise of three months, and that the commander be instructed to cruise eastward for intercepting such transports as may be laden with warlike stores and other supplies for our enemies.

"That a committee of three be appointed ... to fit out the vessel.

"That another vessel be fitted out for the same purpose."

On October 30 the subject of a navy came up again. It was agreed that the second ship already ordered should carry fourteen guns, and then two more ships were ordered, one of which was to carry twenty guns and the other "not exceeding thirty-six." The committee provided for in the resolutions of the 13th included Deane, Langdon and Gadsden. To these were now added Hopkins, Hewes, R. H. Lee and John Adams. Then, on November 1, " a letter from General Washington by express, with an account of the burning of Falmouth, was read." Vice-Admiral Graves had thought to frighten the colonists into submission by burning Falmouth, but the Congress immediately ordered copies of Washington's letter sent to all the colonies, and then adopted resolutions saying that it had been the deliberate intent of the British to disperse "at a late season of the year hundreds of helpless women and children, with a savage hope that those may perish under the approaching rigor of the season who may chance to escape destruction from fire and sword." And it was then declared that "these colonies . . . have determined to prevent as much as possible a repetition thereof, and

ORGANIZING THE FIRST NAVY 3

to procure some reparation for the same, by fitting out armed vessels and ships of force." To this end the sum of $100,000 was immediately (November 2) appropriated.

Thereafter the Congress proceeded rapidly with the work of providing "an American fleet." On November 25 and 28 " Rules for the Regulation of the Navy of the United Colonies' were considered and adopted, and in this title the Congress used for the first time the term " Navy of the United Colonies." A remarkably large space in these rules is given to the provision of food, and to the care of the sick and wounded and to the property rights of the blue-jackets. And it was not for nothing that those grave legislators were concerned to provide that "a proportion of canvas for pudding bags, after the rate of one ell for every sixteen men" should be served out at proper intervals.

In the meantime Washington had fitted out the Massachusetts cruiser Lee, Captain John Manly, on October 5. She carried '^ a flag with a white ground, a tree in the middle, the motto ' Appeal to Heaven ! ' " She was the first vessel to sail under the central authority, but her commission and that of Manly were signed by Washington, not by Congress. Moreover, she was not the property of the United Colonies. Her cruise proved exceedingly fortunate, for she captured the large transport Nancy, that had been loaded with material for the British army at Boston, and on her return to port "such universal joy ran through the whole camp as if each one grasped victory in his own hands."

The joy spread to the hall of the Congress. The messenger sent by Washington to carry the news arrived at Philadelphia at a moment when the Congress was in secret session, considering how to secure the supplies needed to keep Washington's army together. When he knocked at the hall door the delegates ordered him to wait, but he was insistent and they let him in. They listened with breathless interest while he told his story, and then John Adams arose and said with the solemnity of a prophet:

"We must succeed — Providence is with us — we must succeed!"

The delegates were at last awakened to an appreciation of what Ruskin first called sea power, and they resolved:

"That a committee be appointed to devise ways and means for furnishing these colonies with a naval armament, and report with all convenient speed."

The committee appointed for this purpose (it was the second naval committee of the Congress) included Bartlett, Samuel Adams, Hopkins, Deane, Lewis, Crane, Robert Morris, Read, Paca, R. H. Lee, Hewes and Gadsden. They made haste, as directed, and in two days (on December 13, 1775) reported:

"That five ships of thirty-two guns, five of twenty-eight guns, three of twenty-four guns, making in the whole thirteen, can be fitted for the sea probably by the last of March next (1776).

"That the cost of these ships, so fitted, will not be more than 66,666f dollars each, on the average.

" That the materials for fitting them may all be furnished in these colonies except the articles of canvas and gun powder."

The Congress was advised to "direct the most speedy means of importing" the two articles needed — 7,500 pieces of canvas and 100 barrels of powder — and it was thereupon resolved "That a committee be appointed with full powers to carry this advice into execution with all possible expedition. "

This, the third, naval committee included Bartlett, Hancock, Hopkins, Deane, Lewis, Crane, Robert Morris, Read, Chase, R. H. Lee, Hewes, Gadsden, and Houston.

Chase, of Maryland, who had led in the ridicule of the

ORGANIZING THE FIRST NAVY 5

idea of "an American fleet," was now on a committee to aid in the fitting out of ships built for war purposes. On December 16 the sum of $500,000 was voted to pay for these warships.

In the meantime the original naval committee (on which Deane was first named), appointed to fit out four armed ships, had selected four merchantmen from among those laid up in the Delaware, as follows:

Two ships (large vessels rigged with three masts on which yards were crossed), one of which was named the Alfred, after Alfred the Great, and the other the Columbus, after the great explorer; two brigs, one of which was called the Andrew Doria, after one of the heroes of the battle of Lepanto, and the other the Cabot, after Sebastian Cabot, the explorer who had sailed under the British flag. The two ships were rated as 24-gun frigates, but the Alfred carried thirty guns at that time, and the Columbus twenty-eight. The main deck battery on each was probably composed chiefly of 9-pounders, but there is some reason for supposing that a few 12-pounders were procured. (Force, IV, 964). On poop and forecastle they carried 6-pounders. European frigates of that day usually carried 12-pounders on the main deck with 9-pounders on poop and forecastle. The Doria carried sixteen and the Cabot fourteen 4-pounders.

On December 19, these vessels being "nearly ready to sail," the Congress borrowed four tons of powder and 400 muskets of the Pennsylvania committee of safety. And now that they were fitted out the Congress, on December 22, 1775, formally organized the first "American fleet" by ordering that commissions be granted to the following officers who had been selected by the committee: Esek Hopkins, Esq., Commander-in-Chief of the fleet; Dudley Saltonstall, Captain of the Alfred; Abraham Whipple, Captain of the Columbus; Nicholas Biddle, Captain of the Andrew Doria; John Burroughs Hopkins, Captain of the Cabot. Thirteen lieutenants were also appointed, the first of whom was John Paul Jones.

In addition to the vessels thus far named the naval committee had purchased an 8-gun schooner — the Fly — used as a despatch boat, and they had secured and commissioned at Baltimore two other vessels, the sloop Hornet, of ten guns, and the schooner Wasp, of eight.

Thus the first naval committee appointed had procured eight armed vessels for the use of the United Colonies. These were not all the armed vessels in the service; on November 16 the Congress had ordered " that two swift-sailing vessels be provided for packets." Robert Morris was directed to secure them, with Lynch and Franklin to aid him. By this committee two swift brigs were fitted out. One was named the Lexington and Captain John Barry, an Irish-American, noted in the annals of the navy, was appointed to command her. The other was named the Rep'isal and Captain Lambert Wickes was her master. Barry and Wickes were commissioned on December 7, 1775, but their brigs were reserved for other uses when the first "American fleet" was organized.

From first to last the salt-water navy of the Revolution included forty-seven vessels — ships, brigs, schooners and sloops. The first navy ships, properly so-called, were the thirteen frigates ordered on December 13, 1775. These ships were armed with 12-pounders, at best, on the gun deck, and with 9-pounders, 6-pounders or smaller yet, on poop and forecastle. In 1777 a frigate was built at Amsterdam and called the Indien. She carried thirty 36- pounders and fourteen 9-pounders and was therefore a most formidable vessel of her class for that day. The Alliayice, built at Salisbury, Mass., during that year, was perhaps the best frigate built at home during the war. She carried at first twenty-six 12-pounders and ten smaller

ORGANIZING THE FIRST NAVY 7

guns. Later she carried twenty-eight 18-pounders and twelve 9-pounders. In this year, moreover, two other frigates of thirty-two guns, one of twenty-eight, a sloop-of-war of twenty guns and two of eighteen were built. In 1778 only one vessel, a sloop-of-war, was added to the navy. It was in this year that the French loaned a squadron to John Paul Jones. Finally, in 1782, a line-of-battle ship named America was built at Portsmouth, N. H. That was the end of the building, but several prizes captured from the British were taken into the service.

Of the ships thus provided, the frigate Randolph, the sloop Ranger and the converted merchantman Bonhomme Richard did the work of most interest to this history, but there was one fight on fresh water that had a great influence on the course of the war.

Of the work of the squadron organized under Esek Hopkins it need only be said that it went to the Bahamas, captured some stores and came back. Then it was disbanded and the vessels were sent hunting British merchantmen with more or less success, but they did nothing of vital importance in the war.

Chapter II The First Battle Of Lake Champlain

As the reader remembers, an American army invaded Canada in September, 1775, and during the subsequent wmter they held Governor Guy Carleton cooped up in Quebec. The arrival of a British fleet with an army of 13,357 men (including many Hessians) drove the Americans back. They reached Crown Point on July 3. The British, with Governor Carleton in command, followed, for "the design was," says the "Remembrancer," that this army and that of General Howe, then in New York, "should join about Albany and thereby cut off all communication between the northern and southern colonies." But when Carleton reached St. John's, a post standing at the foot of ship navigation of the lake, he found there was no road on either side of the lake, and that the lake route of travel was held by the Americans because General Arnold had taken and armed such vessels as he had found afloat there the year before. It was therefore necessary tor the British to construct a fleet suflSciently powerful to sweep the lake.

The work of building the warships was assigned to Captarn Charles Douglass, R.N., and the fact that he was able to set afloat a full-rigged ship carrying eighteen 12-pounders after only twenty-eight days of labor, indicates that the tacihti^ were satisfactory. The ship was named Meo;- ible. Two schooners, a huge scow called a radeau, another large scow that was called a gondola and was propelled by sails, at least twenty gunboats and four long

THE FIRST BATTLE OF LAKE CHAMPLAIN 9

boats from the fleet were also provided and armed for the occasion.

To meet the powerfid British fleet Arnold was able to muster a sloop, two little schooners, eight gondolas and four galleys. One of the galleys (the Congress) was chosen by Arnold for his flagship because it was on the whole the most efiicient vessel he had. This galley was built on "the Philadelphia model" — it was about fifty feet long on the keel by thirteen wide and four and one-half deep. It could bring into action at best an 18-pounder,a 12 and two 6-pourtders. In short, the British ships engaged in the first day's battle could throw 546 pounds of shot to the American's 265. They probably had two inches of wood in their walls to one inch in the American. For crews they had 697 picked ofiicers and men from the British fleet, beside an unstated but large number of trained artillerymen from the army (Pausch's "Journal," p. 84), and "a large detachment of savages under Major [Thomas] Carleton." [Lieutenant Hadden's ' Journal,' p. 19]. Moreover, there were twenty-four transports in the British fleet from which supplies of men and ammunition could be drawn.

To man his flotilla Arnold needed 936 men, but he had only 700, and these were made up for the most part of landsmen, the "refuse of the army."

These details seem necessary in connection with this, the first squadron battle fought by Americans, in order to set forth the disparity between the two sides, for by any just comparison the British were three times as powerful as the Americans.

In spite of this disparity, Arnold sailed down the lake to get as near the enemy as possible, and with a clear perception of what the enemy must do he took a position behind Valcour Island. Having square sails the British were sure to come with a fair (north) wind. Because the water was shoal at the north end of his channel Arnold was well assured that they would pass his island and then beat up to attack him, and in such a narrow channel they could not bring their full force to attack him in line.

On October 11, 1776, the wind served and the enemy came snoring along with a full press of canvas and all eyes searching the eastern shores where Arnold was supposed to be in hiding. So they passed well alee of Valcour before they saw the American flotilla.

At the first alarm the ship and schooners tacked around to beat slowly up into the narrow channel, but the gunboats cut close around the south end of the island. For the moment these gunboats were unsupported by the larger vessels, and Arnold with his four galleys and the schooner Royal Savage made a dash at them. The fighting began at eleven o'clock. The Royal Savage was driven ashore on Valcour Island and Arnold was compelled to return to his original position where "at half -past twelve, the engagement became general and very warm. Some of the enemy's ships and all their gondolas beat and rowed up within musket shot of us." The schooner Carleton anchored there, and with springs on her cable trained her broadside on Arnold's galley. The shot fired point-blank struck home at every broadside, while the Indians that were with the British took post in the woods at each end of the American line, where they poured in a galling fire.

At his first view of the enemy Arnold had seen that he could not win against such odds, but, aiming the guns on the Congress, with his own hands he fought as one who sees victory within his grasp. The schooner Carleton was silenced and the boats that were held in reserve towed her out of range. The Maria came up to take her place and was in turn driven off. Last of all came the Inflexible, a ship fit to sweep the lake, but, as Hessian Pausch says, " the Inflexible took her place only to retreat as the others had done." One galley, the Philadelphia, was now in-

SCENE OI" ARNOLD'S BATTLE, OCTOBER 11, 1776. AND OF MACDONOUGH'S VICTORY, SEPTEMBER 11, ISU.

THE FIRST BATTLE OF LAKE CHAMPLAIN 11

jured so that, as Pausch says, she " began to careen over on one side, but in spite of this [she] continued her fire." ("Journal," p. 83.)

"They continued a very hot fire with round and grapeshot until five o'clock," wrote Arnold, "when they thought proper to retire to about six or seven hundred yards and continue the fire until dark." To this Lieutenant Hadden, of the Royal Artillery adds in his "Journal": "It was found that the boats' advantage was not to come nearer than about 700 yards, as whenever they approached nearer they were greatly annoyed by grapeshot."

In fact, one British boat that was driven by its Hessian commander, Lieutenant Dufais, to a closer range, was blown up. "The cannon of the Rebels were well served," says Pausch, "for, as I saw afterwards, our ships were pretty well mended and patched up with boards and stoppers."

In numbers and in concentration of gun power the British had three times the force of the Americans, but Arnold, with his scanty crews, fought them to a standstill. He had fought to delay the enemy, and he had succeeded, but he could not hope for victory over such a force, and that night when the usual fog spread over the lake, he slipped through the British line and pulled away toward Ticonderoga, sinking two of the gondolas as he went because they were beyond saving, and making such repairs as he could to the others. The British followed, and on the 13th they overhauled the remnant of the American flotilla near Split Rock Point. The ship and the two schooners were in the lead with the radeau and the big sailing gondola within range. The gunboats were not far behind, but they were more modest this time, as Hadden says. At least two of them came into the fight, however. Arnold was to meet seven of the best of the British fleet, although the ship alone, or even the radeau, was now far more than a match for his shattered flotilla. Moreover, at the first broadside of the enemy, the galley Washington was so badly cut up that she had to surrender.

But to surrender in time of battle was not in the heart of Benedict Arnold. In spite of overwhelming odds — undaunted by the fire of the whole British fleet that was soon concentrated on his galley — Arnold fought them off for four hours. And even then, when the enemy had closed in around him so that escape was impossible; when a third of his crew had been shot down and his galley was a wreck barely able to float, he would not surrender. Directing the gondola captains who had stood by him to beach their vessels, he covered them as best he could as they made for the shore, and then, after driving his galley upon the rocks, he kept his guns working until all were set on fire. He remained on board his own vessel until the flames were climbing the rigging "lest the enemy should get possession and strike his flag, which was kept flying to the last."

The American flotilla was destroyed, but the sacrifice was not in vain. No fight like that was ever made in vain. It was our battle of Bunker Hill afloat. Carleton sailed on until he came in view of Ticonderoga, but there he stopped. He had come intending to attack the American works at that point, but as Dodsley's "Annual Register" (London) says in reporting the affair, he had seen "the countenance of the enemy," and this with "other cogent reasons prevented this design from taking place."

By fighting on against overwhelming odds — by fighting blindly until the last gasp — the American flotilla turned back the invader, and thus made straight the way that led to the surrender of Burgoyne at Saratoga.

Chapter III With The Ranger And The Bonhomme Richard

With his name at the head of the register of lieutenants, John Paul Jones was made executive officer of the Alfred and he sailed with her to the Bahamas. Of his work after her return, and while in command of two other warships, nothing need be said here because, while it was well done, it had no influence on the war that is worth mention.

On June 14, 1777, by resolution of the Congress, Jones was ordered to take command of the sloop-of-war Ranger, then building at Portsmouth, N. H., and take her to Europe. A coincidence that no biographer has failed to mention is found in the fact that on the same day the Congress adopted the Stars and Stripes, " a new constellation," as the flag of the United States.

Hastening to Portsmouth, Jones hoisted on the Ranger the new flag and he claimed that she was the first ship so honored. Then with scanty, and in the matter of sails, unfit materials, he fitted her out, armed her with eighteen 6-pounders, "all three diameters of the bore too short," and on November 1, 1777, he sailed for France bearing despatches to the American envoys in Paris, and the news of the surrender of Burgoyne at Saratoga, which was to induce the French Government to acknowledge the independence of the United States.

In France, where he arrived on December 2, Jones strove to get command of a small squadron with which to cruise on the British coasts, "to surprise their defenceless places; and thereby divert their attention, and draw it from our coasts." Being unable to secure a squadron, he fitted out the Ranger for the work he had proposed. In her he received, February 14, 1778, the first foreign salute ever given to the new flag. Then, on April 10, he sailed from Brest for the British coasts. Arriving off Whitehaven at midnight on the 22d Jones landed, fired one ship in the harbor and frightened the wits out of half of the United Kingdom. He then sailed to the Isle of St. Mary, where he landed a force of men and surrounded the house of the Earl of Selkirk. It was the avowed object of this landing to carry away the earl, "and to have detained him until, through his means, a general and fair exchange of prisoners, as well in Europe as in America, had been effected."

Finding that the earl was not at home " some officers," says Jones, observed that "in America no delicacy was shown by the English who took away all sorts of moveable property, setting fire not only to towns and to the houses of the rich, but not even sparing the wretched hamlets and milch cows of the poor and helpless at the approach of an inclement winter." Remembering these facts of British outrage the officers urged Jones to carry away at least the silverware of the earl, and he permitted them to do so, although he did not fully approve the act.

The plate carried away was worth about £500. When it was sold as good prize in France Jones bought it with his own money, and at an expense of £1000 all told, returned it to the earl. The earl, to show how much he appreciated this sacrifice, wrote to Jones saying: "I have mentioned it to many people of fashion."

It appears that the earl never mentioned the return of the plate to any of the British naval historians; at any rate not one of them mentions the fact that it was returned.

Sailing north, Jones met the British sloop-of-war Drake, Captain G. Burden, off Belfast Lough.

It is a curious fact, illustrative of the naval conditions prevailing during the Revolution that, while waiting for the Drake to come within range, the executive officer of the Ranger was telling the men before the mast that "being American citizens, fighting for liberty, the voice of the people should be taken before the captain's orders should be obeyed." "The people" were on the point of rising in open mutiny, and Jones's life was in real danger, when the approach of a boat from the Drake, that had come out for a look at the Ranger, showed that a battle was at hand, no matter what the "vote" might decide, and "the people" concluded to fight under Jones.