James Barnes

“ In the stern sheets sat the lieutenant disconsolately.
He turned to watch the brig as she came about and headed off shore. At that moment down came the English flag and the Spanish took its place. And it was just at this minute that Captain Conyngham, looking aloft, spoke to his first mate.
“We’ll have a flag of our own soon,” he said, “and avast with this masquerading, say I.”
The crew, as if they had heard his words, suddenly burst into a spontaneous cheer. Their voices, carried by the wind, reached the Englishmen slowly pulling in for the distant headlands. ”

“ Poor Hart was embarrassed now and no mistake.
"Oh, never mind," said Miss Hollingsworth, "I know you are really better than that. Don't let's dance; let's go out on the veranda."
They went through the doorway and found seats together where the air was cool and fresh. Hart had not spoken and now could imagine nothing to start the talk with. Suddenly Miss Hollingsworth began.
"Mr. Bliss told me something about you, Mr. Hart," she said. "Now, I should say that you had a great deal before you. You see, women divide men into two classes at first, men who are usual, and men who are different." ”

“ Lying low in the water, all awash from the break of her topgallant-forecastle to the lift of her high poop-deck, the green seas running under her bridge and about her superstructure, swayed a great mass of iron and steel of full five thousand tons! Ship without a soul! A wisp of a flag, upside down, still floated in her slackened rigging; swinging falls dangled from her empty davits. Then the fog closed in, and, as a picture on a lantern-slide fades and disappears, she vanished and was gone!
A white-faced boy looked up into Miss Dorn's frightened eyes. ”

“ A spare anchor, that had been on deck close to the bulwarks, caught the eye of Amos Jordan. "Here, bear a hand!" he cried, and with the help of three others he hove the heavy iron over the bulwarks. It struck full on the cutter's bows, and crushed them as a hammer would an eggshell. The shock threw most of the occupants from off the thwarts; the boat filled so quickly that in an instant they were struggling in the water—one man gained the deck, but a blow on the head from the butt of Captain Dewey's pistol laid him out senseless. ”

“ If during the naval war of 1812 any one man won laurels because he understood his ship, and thus triumphed over odds, that man was Captain Hull, and the ship was the old Constitution.
Returning from a mission to Europe during the uncertain, feverish days that preceded the declaration of war between England and America, Hull had drawn into the Chesapeake to outfit for a cruise. He had experienced a number of exciting moments in European waters, for everything was in a turmoil and every sail suspicious—armed vessels approached one another like dogs who show their fangs. ”

“ The breeze, which had been from the eastward, was rapidly dying down.
111 The big stranger, carrying the new wind, grew larger and larger. Through the glass Conyngham could make out three rows of ports, and the billowing canvas rising above the dark hull looked like a cloud hanging low in the sky. It was almost dead calm, and the Revenge swung lazily up and down, with her steering sails dipping uselessly in the water, while the brig, that had now caught the wind, bore down nearer and nearer. The men looked back at the quarter-deck with frightened, white faces. ”

“ The college had not gone crazy as might, at first, have appeared; nor was it a prearranged émeute, or an open rebellion. It was merely the greeting accorded to the Yale Game Day, and the undergraduate pulse was high and feverish. Steam was at top pressure; and this was a preliminary blow-off, as it were, for the sake of health. No one is late for breakfast on this morning, be it put on record.
At the same early hour Newton Wilberforce Hart awoke in a room in a hotel on Fifth Avenue. He looked across at the other bed and saw that Minton, the half-back, was fast asleep, doubled up like a ball. ”

“ The flames of powder scorched the enemy's bows. All at once there came a crash. The jibboom of the Englishman swept across the deck, tearing away the shrouds and braces, and then with a heave and a lurch the vessels came together, grinding and crunching with a sound of splintering and tearing of timbers as they rolled in the heavy sea.
There was not a man on board the Wasp that did not expect to see the English sailors come swarming over the bow of their vessel, and drop down to fight in the old-fashioned way, hand to hand and eye to eye. ”

“ But when we think that there were kept unwillingly on English vessels of war almost as many American seamen as were giving voluntary service to their country in our little navy, we can see on which side the great proportion lies.
It is easy to see that the American mind was a pent furnace. It only needed a few more evidences of England’s injustice and contempt to make the press and public speech roar with hatred and cry out for revenge. So when in June, 1812, war was declared against Great Britain, it was hailed with approbation and delight. ”

“ To Conyngham’s inquiry whether he knew of a safe entrance to the little cove at which they were heading he vouchsafed no reply. But as they drew near the line of breakers his wails increased.
“We shall all be drowned!” he cried over and over. “Better a prison than the bottom of the sea.”
But Conyngham, with one eye ahead and the other on the approaching cutter, held his course. In another moment he had crossed the Englishman’s bows, and as the latter fired a parting shot the yawl was in the midst of the smother of tumbling waters. ”

“ If he attends to duty he sees but two things—the man opposite and the slippery oblong ball.
When it is all over, his heart is lead or feathers, as the case may be, and he wonders where the black and blue marks came from, and who it was that gave him that frightful crack on the jaw,—but during the game he thinks of how much he wants to win—that's all.
As the team clambered down from the coach, upon their arrival at the grounds, and elbowed their way through the roaring multitude, Hart had a grin on his face that fixed the corners of his mouth as if they had been moulded. ”

“ At a sudden lurch of the vessel, he almost pitched forward down to the deck. Then as McGovern watched him, he appeared to give up hope, and, twisting his hand into the bight of a rope, he lay there without moving. But no man could live there long! Splinters were flying from the masts; blocks were swinging free and dashing to and fro; new holes were being torn every second in the roaring, flapping sails. It may have been that no one else had time to think about it; but McGovern did not hesitate. He threw down the sponge and jumped into the slackened shrouds. ”

“ Hull came immediately from his cabin. He was a large, fat man, whose excitable temperament was held in strong control. His eye gleamed when he saw the distant speck of white. Immediately the Constitution’s course was altered, and with her light sails set she was running free, with kites all drawing, and the chase looming clearer and clearer each anxious minute of the time. At three o’clock it was plainly seen that she was a large ship, on the starboard tack, close-hauled on the wind, and under easy sail. ”

“ It was lucky that the water was smooth and that the Charming Peggy was on her best tack, otherwise the frigate that was now dropping fast astern would have overhauled her ere she had been well clear of the capes. The gun that the Englishman had fired had had a ring of disappointment in it, an admonition more of warning than of threat. Captain Conyngham, looking back over the low taffrail, waved his hand as he saw her haul her wind. ”

“ Miss Hollingsworth was finding a great deal out about her new acquaintance. She had been given by nature the strange gift of being able to draw out the best from people,—to make them interested and interesting.
Hart was telling something of the life in a new town, of the emigrant farmers, their ignorance and suffering. From that he had come to speak of his early youth.
He had grown away from any awkwardness and no man ever forgets a conversation of this kind, or a woman who has once eased the awkwardness of new surroundings. ”

“ Poor Abbott, who had been trying to urge his comrades to hasten, was among the first to fall, shot through the lungs. As no one told of his exchange of names, he was buried under the name he had assumed, Harvey Rich. And what of the real owner of that name? Alas, he, poor fellow, also, did not live to see his home in the New Hampshire hills, for he died at sea not long after the cartel in which he was returning had set sail. He was sent overboard in the sailor's canvas shroud, and the name "George Abbott" was stricken from the list of liberated ones. ”

“ There was a large crowd lining the shores as the little boat rowed up, and as Captain Conyngham, on whom all eyes were centered, climbed up the ladder to the wharf a large man bent over and extended a helping hand. There was a greeting in the grasp also, and a ring of welcome in his voice.
“Back so soon, eh?” exclaimed the elder Ross, for it was he. “We hardly expected you for a week or more to come. And you have got her! The news is about the town; don’t stop to parley here. My brother and Hodge and Allan are waiting. There is much to do. What have you there?” ”

“ For a year the Essex cruised up and down the coast of South America, extending her voyages far to the westward, to the various islands, which were visited then infrequently by traders and whaling vessels.
During this cruise she frightened British commerce entirely from these waters, and the strange spectacle of seeing one ship in control of a vast territory was presented to the eyes of the world. The British Admiralty were vexed and astounded beyond measure. Here one day and there the next, Porter appeared to be in command of a fleet instead of a single frigate. ”

“ ALLEN, OF THE CHESAPEAKE
Give a ship an unlucky name, and it will last throughout the whole of her career. A sailor is proverbially superstitious, and he clings jealously to tradition.
It is told that when the frigate Chesapeake was launched she stuck fast on the ways, and did not reach the water until the following day, which was Friday. Although she was a fine vessel to look at, she grounded upon the bar upon her first attempt to sail, and, when once free, behaved herself in such a lubberly fashion that those who witnessed her starting out declared she was bewitched. ”

“ It is easy to imagine the feelings of Perry at this moment. The smaller vessels of his fleet had not come within firing distance; there was absolutely nothing for him to do on board the flagship except to lower his flag. Yet there was one forlorn hope that occurred to the young commander, and without hesitation he called away the only boat capable of floating; taking his flag, he quit the Lawrence, and rowed off for the Niagara. The most wonderful accounts of hair-breadth escapes could not equal that of Perry upon this occasion. ”

“ Every now and then the Long Tom would let go a half-bucketful of grape and scrap iron, hurling death into the boats. Every one of the privateer's crew seemed gifted with four arms. From one point of attack to another they chased about the deck. It seemed as if she numbered three times her complement. Bill Copeland was fighting like a demon. Twice had he run along the top of the bulwarks, exposed to every aim. ”

“ Whisht,” went on the captain, “listen, and I’ll prove it to ye. There’s a man sitting with his back to you, but facing me. Can you hear what he says?”
“He’s at the other end of the room,” responded Mr. Nesbit. “No man could hear what he says at that distance.”
“But I can see what he says,” answered Conyngham, “and he has just uttered a speech that would make King George shudder. Being a believer in soft language I will not repeat it. It’s all in watching a man’s lips. ”

“ In searching the history of our own country, when it stood together as a united nation, waging just war, we find England, our mother country, whose language we speak, arrayed against us. But, on account of this bond of birth and language, should we cease to tell about the deeds of those men who freed us from her grasp and oppressions, and made us what we are? ”

“ Had you been given the command of the Constitution, as was first intended and promised you, and were she in a condition to put to sea, I should say nothing but what would encourage you to exercise despatch."
"Ah, if I but had the Constitution and her crew," put in Lawrence, with a sigh; "if I but had them." Suddenly he brought his strong, clenched fist down upon the table with a crash: "Then this English captain would not be flaunting his flag at the harbor mouth, daring me to come on and fight him; shaming us all here where we lie at anchor! The Chesapeake is ready!" ”

“ Prompted by an impulse, Conyngham stepped to the color halyards, and with his own hands hoisted the Revenge’s colors to the masthead.
114 As if angered by the seeming insult, the big vessel swung off a point or two until, port after port, her broadside could be seen being brought to bear. It was the very thing for which Conyngham had been waiting. By doing so she lessened her speed and lost perceptible headway. ”

“ Our people thronged the sea-coast, and vessels made of American pine and live-oak were manned by American men. They had sought their calling by choice, and not by compulsion. They had not been driven from crowded cities because they could not live there. They had not been taken from peaceful homes and wives and children by press-gangs, as was the English custom, to slave on board the great vessels that Great Britain kept afloat by such means, and such alone. But of his own free-will the Yankee sailor sought the sea, and of his own free-will he served his country. ”

“ For fifteen minutes the Leopard fired steadily by divisions.
Covered with blood that had been dashed over him from the body of the man the round shot had killed, Allen ran aft. The ship was full of groans and shrieks and cursing. Forth from the cabin came Barron. He looked an aged, heart-broken man. When he saw the young Lieutenant, he stepped back a pace in horror. The scene of carnage on the deck unnerved him.
"The keys! the keys!" shrieked Allen, almost springing at his commander's throat. "Let us fight, if we must die!" ”

“ But one evening, just about dusk, Conyngham strolled down the edge of the wharf and stood watching some long boxes that were being slung on board and lowered over the side. A very short red-haired man came up to him and spoke to him in French.
“Good evening, monsieur,” he said. “A pretty little vessel this, eh?”
Conyngham turned at once and looked the speaker over. He knew him to be an Englishman who was supposed to be a Government spy. The man’s audacity in daring to approach him at that moment was rather startling, but Conyngham’s reply must have been more so. ”

“ Nevertheless, this was the age of honor, of gallantry, of the stiff duelling code, when men bowed, passed compliments, and fought one another to the death with a parade of courtesy that has left trace today in the conduct of the intercourse between all naval powers. In the duels of the ships in the past that have stirred the naval world, America has records that are monuments to her seamen, and that must arouse the pride of every officer who sails in her great steel cruisers today. ”

“ His entering on board the Constitution had been with the permission of his parents, who saw that the only way to hold him from following his bent would be to keep him at home forever under their watchful eyes.
A great war-ship is a small floating world, and, like the world, the dangers that beset a young man starting alone on his career are many. There are the good and the bad, the leaders and the led; the people who lift up others, and those who lean. It was rather well for the boy that he had met with old Renwick and conceived a friendship for him. ”

“ From his post of vantage in the bulwarks of the vessel he turned, and, taking off his hat, addressed the crowd that up to this minute, as we have said, had been nothing but amused spectators.
“Citizens of Dunkirk, people of France,” he said, “help yourselves. Here are bales of fine English cloth and English cutlery. Sure, they’re things ornamental and things beautiful. Help yourselves; they’re yours for the taking, and the gift of the United Colonies of America and Gustavus Conyngham, captain in the navy.” ”