Stories of Our Naval Heroes Part 11

"No," said the modest tar. "Just let somebody else hand out the hammocks to the men when they are piped down. That's something I don't like."

Decatur consented; and afterwards, when the crew was piped down to stow hammocks, Reuben walked among them as free and independent as a millionaire.

That is all we have here to say about the Tripolitan war. The next year a treaty of peace was signed, and Captain Bainbridge and the men of the _Philadelphia_ were set free from their prison cells.

In 1812, when war broke out with England, the gallant Decatur was given the command of the frigate _United States_, and with it he captured the British frigate _Macedonian_, after a hard fight.

Poor Decatur was shot dead in a duel in 1820 by a hot-headed officer whom he had offended. It was a sad end to a brilliant career, for the American Navy never had a more gallant commander.

CHAPTER XII

THE GALLANT "OLD IRONSIDES" AND HOW SHE CAPTURED THE "GUERRIERE"

A FAMOUS INCIDENT OF THE WAR OF 1812

WHEN did our country win its greatest fame upon the sea? I think, when you have read the story of the War of 1812, you will say it was in that war. It is true, we did not do very well on land in that war, but the glory we lost on the sh.o.r.e we made up on the sea.

You should know that in 1812 England was the greatest sea-power in the world. For years she had been fighting with Napoleon, and every fleet he set afloat was badly whipped by British ships. Is it any wonder that the people of that little island were proud of their fleets? Is it any wonder they proudly sang--

"Britannia needs no bulwarks, No towers along the steep; Her march is o'er the mountain waves, Her home is on the deep."

They grew so vain of their lordship of the sea that they needed a lesson, and they were to get one from the Yankee tars. As soon as war began between England and the United States in 1812, a flock of British war-hawks came flying bravely across the seas, thinking they would soon gobble up the Yankee sparrows. But long before the war was over, they quit singing their proud song of "Britannia rules the waves," and found that what they thought was a Yankee sparrow was the American eagle.

There were too many great things done on the ocean in this war for me to name them all, so I will have to tell only the most famous. And first of all I must give you the story of the n.o.ble old _Const.i.tution_, or, as she came to be called, _Old Ironsides_.

The _Const.i.tution_ was a n.o.ble ship of the old kind. That royal old craft is still afloat, after more than a hundred years of service, and after all her companions have long since sunk in the waves or rotted away. She was built to fight the French in 1798. She was Commodore Preble's flagship in the war with the Moorish pirates. And she won undying fame in the War of 1812. So the story of the _Const.i.tution_ comes first in our list of the naval conquerors of that war.

I fancy, if any of you had been living at that time, you would have wanted to fight the British as badly as the Americans then did. For the British had for years been taking sailors from American ships and making them serve in their own men-of-war. Then, too, they had often insulted our officers upon the seas, and acted in a very insolent and overbearing way whenever they had the opportunity. This made the Americans very angry and was the main cause of the war.

I must tell you some things that took place before the war. In 1811 a British frigate named the _Guerriere_ was busy at this kind of work, sailing up and down our coast and carrying off American sailors on pretence that they were British. Just remember the name of the "_Guerriere_." You will soon learn how the _Const.i.tution_ paid her for this shabby work.

I have also a story to tell about the _Const.i.tution_ in 1811. She had to cross the Atlantic in that year, and stopped on some business in the harbor of Portsmouth, an English seaport.

One night a British officer came on board and said there was an American deserter on his ship, the _Havana_, and that the Americans could have him if they sent for him.

Captain Hull, of the _Const.i.tution_, was then in London, so Lieutenant Morris, who had charge of the ship, sent for the man; but when his messenger came, he was told that the man said he was a British subject, and therefore he should not be given up. They were very sorry, and all that, but they had to take the man's word for it. Morris thought this very shabby treatment but he soon had his revenge. For that very night a British sailor came on board the _Const.i.tution_, who said he was a deserter from the _Havana_.

"Of what nation are you?" he was asked.

"I'm an American, sor," said the man, with a strong Irish accent.

Lieutenant Morris sent word to the _Havana_ that a deserter from his ship was on the _Const.i.tution_. But when an officer from the _Havana_ came to get the deserter, Morris politely told him that the man said he was an American, and therefore he could not give him up. He was very sorry, he said, but really the man ought to know to what country he belonged. You may be interested to learn that Lieutenant Morris was the man who had been first to board the _Philadelphia_ in the harbor of Tripoli.

This was paying John Bull in his own coin. The officers in the harbor were very angry when they received this answer. Next, they tried to play a trick on the Americans. Two of their warships came up and anch.o.r.ed in the way of the _Const.i.tution_. But Lieutenant Morris got up anchor and slipped away to a new berth. Then the two frigates sailed up and anch.o.r.ed in his way again. That was the way matters stood when Captain Hull came on board in the evening.

When the captain was told what had taken place, he saw that the British were trying to make trouble about the Irish deserter. But he was not the man to be caught by any trick. He loaded his guns and cleared the ship for action. Then he pulled up his anchor, slipped round the British frigates, and put to sea.

He had not gone far before the two frigates started after him. They came on under full sail, but one of them was slow and fell far behind, so that the other came up alone.

"If that fellow wants to fight he can have his chance," said Captain Hull, and he bade his men to make ready.

Up came the Englishman, but when he saw the ports open, the guns ready to bark at him across the waves, and everything in shape for a good fight, he had a sudden change of mind. Round he turned like a scared dog, and ran back as fast as he had come. That was a clear case of t.i.t for tat, and tat had it. No doubt, the Englishman knew that he was in the wrong, for English seamen are not afraid to fight.

Home from Plymouth came the _Const.i.tution_ and got herself put in shape for the war that was soon to come. It had not long begun before she was off to sea; and now she had a remarkable adventure with the _Guerriere_ and some other British ships. In fact, she made a wonderful escape from a whole squadron of war vessels. She left the Chesapeake on July 12, 1812, and for five days sailed up the coast. The winds were light and progress was very slow. Then, on the 17th, the lookout aloft saw four warships sailing along close in to the Jersey coast.

Two hours afterward another was seen. This proved to be the frigate _Guerriere_, and it was soon found that the others were British ships also. One of them was a great ship-of-the-line. It would have been madness to think of fighting such a force as this, more than six times as strong as the _Const.i.tution_, and there was nothing to do but to run away.

Then began the most famous race in American naval history. There was hardly a breath of wind, the sails hung flapping to the masts; so Captain Hull got out his boats and sent them ahead with a line to tow the ship. When the British saw this they did the same, and by putting all their boats to two ships they got ahead faster.

I cannot tell the whole story of this race, but it lasted for nearly three days, from Friday afternoon till Monday morning. Now there was a light breeze and now a dead calm. Now they pulled the ships by boats and now by kedging. That is, an anchor was carried out a long way ahead and let sink, and then the men pulled on the line until the ship was brought up over it. Then the anchor would be drawn up and carried and dropped ahead again.

For two long days and nights the chase kept up, during which the _Const.i.tution_ was kept, by weary labor, just out of gunshot ahead. At four o'clock Sunday morning the British ships had got on both sides of the _Const.i.tution_, and it looked as if she was in a tight corner. But Captain Hull now turned and steered out to sea, across the bows of the _Eolus_, and soon had them astern again.

The same old game went on until four o'clock in the afternoon, when they saw signs of a coming squall. Captain Hull knew how to deal with an American squall, but the Englishmen did not. He kept his men towing until he saw the sea ruffled by the wind about a mile away. Then he called the boats in and in a moment let fall all his sails.

Looking at the British, he saw them hard at work furling their sails.

They had let all their boats go adrift. But Captain Hull had not furled a sail, and the minute a vapor hid his ship from the enemy all his sails were spread to the winds and away went the Yankee ship in rapid flight.

He had taught his foes a lesson in American seamanship.

When the squall cleared away the British ships were far astern. But the wind fell again and all that night the chase kept up. Captain Hull threw water on his sails and made every rag of canvas draw. When daylight came only the top sails of the enemy could be seen. At eight o'clock they gave up the chase and turned on their heels. Thus ended that wonderful three days chase, one of the most remarkable in naval history.

And now we come to the greatest story in the history of the "Old Ironsides." In less than a month after the _Guerriere_ had helped to chase her off the Jersey coast, she gave that proud ship a lesson which the British nation did not soon forget. Here is the story of that famous fight, by which Captain Hull won high fame:

In the early morning of August 19, while the old ship was bowling along easily off the New England coast, a cheery cry of "Sail-ho!" came from the lookout at the mast-head.

Soon a large vessel was seen from the deck. On went the Yankee ship with flying flag and bellying sails. The strange ship waited as if ready for a fight. When the _Const.i.tution_ drew near, the stranger hoisted the British flag and began to fire her great guns.

It was the _Guerriere_. When he saw the Stars and Stripes, Captain Dacres said to his men:

"That is a Yankee frigate. She will be ours in forty-five minutes. If you take her in fifteen, I promise you four months pay."

It is never best to be too sure, as Captain Dacres was to find.

The _Guerriere_ kept on firing at a distance, but Captain Hull continued to take in sail and get his ship in fighting trim, without firing a gun.

After a time Lieutenant Morris came up and said to him:

"The British have killed two of our men. Shall we return their fire?"

"Not yet," said Captain Hull. "Wait a while."

He waited until the ships were almost touching, and then he roared out:

"Now, boys; pour it into them!"

Then came a roaring broadside that went splintering through the British hull, doing more damage than all the _Guerriere's_ fire.