“ Away drifted the wrecked hulk, followed by the jeers of the American sailors, who were only sorry that the treacherous pirate had not been scuttled and sent to the bottom of the sea.
When it reached Tripoli the Bashaw was mad with rage. Instead of the plunder and the white slaves he had looked for, he had only a dismantled hulk.
The old captain showed him his wounds and told him how hard he had fought. But his fury was not to be appeased. He had the white-bearded commander led through the streets tied to a jackass—the greatest disgrace he could have inflicted on any Moor. ”

“ At length Dewey spoke,—
"You may fire when you are ready, Captain Gridley," he said. Captain Gridley was ready and waiting. In an instant a great eight-inch shell from the Olympia went screaming through the air.
This was the signal. The Baltimore and the Boston followed, and before five minutes had passed every ship was pouring shot and shell on the Spanish squadron and forts. Great guns and small guns, slow-fire guns and rapid-fire guns, hand guns and machine guns, all boomed and barked together, and their shot whistled and screamed, until it sounded like a mighty carnival of death. ”

“ At once there began a fierce battle between the British tars and the haymakers of Maine, who sprang wildly and with ringing cheers for the schooner's deck. Weapons of all sorts now came into play. Cutlasses, hand-grenades, pistols and boarding pikes were used by the schooner's men; muskets, pitchforks, and axes were skilfully handled by the crew of the sloop. Men fast fell dead and wounded; the decks grew red with blood; both sides fought fiercely, the men of Machias striving like tigers to gain a footing on the schooner's deck, the British tars meeting and driving them back. ”

“ The Moors were bitterly punished for their treachery. Their deck ran red with blood; men and officers lay bleeding in throngs; the cries of the wounded rose above the noise of the cannon. The flag was down again, but no heed was paid to that. The infuriated sailors were bent on sending the pirate craft to the bottom. [105]
At length the corsair captain, an old man with a flowing white beard, appeared at the side of his ship, sorely wounded, and, with a low bow, cast his flag into the sea. Then Captain Sterrett, though he still felt like sinking the corsair, ordered the firing to stop. ”

“ With these words his memory has become immortal. "Don't give up the ship!" is the motto of the American navy, and will not be forgotten while our great Republic survives. So Captain Lawrence gained greater renown in defeat than most men have won in victory.
The capture of the Chesapeake was a piece of wonderful good fortune for the British, to judge by the way they boasted of it. As Captain Pearson had been made a knight for losing the Serapis, so Captain Broke was made a baronet for taking the Chesapeake. ”

“ It looked as if the whole affair was at an end and the Margaretta safe. But the men of Machias were not yet at the end of their rope. There lay the lumber sloops, and where a schooner could go a sloop could follow.
Early Monday morning four young men climbed to the deck of one of the sloops and cheered in a way that soon brought a crowd to the wharf. One of these was a bold, gallant fellow named Jeremiah O'Brien.
"What is in the wind?" he asked.
"We are going for the King's ship," said Wheaton, one of the men. "We can outsail her, and all we want is guns enough and men enough to take her." ”

“ Oh, what a dreadful time there was on Perry's flagship during those sad two hours. The great guns roared, the thick smoke rose, the balls tore through her sides, sending splinters flying like sharp arrows to right and left. Men fell like leaves blown down by a gale. Blood splashed on the living and flowed over the dead. The surgeon's mates were kept busy carrying the wounded below, where the surgeon dressed their wounds.
Captain Perry's little brother, a boy of only [184] thirteen years, was on the ship, and stood beside him as brave as himself. ”

“ But the most of them were landsmen, chiefly haymakers, for Machias lay amid grassy meadows and the making of hay was its chief business. And there were some woodsmen, who knew well how to swing an axe. They were all bold men and true, who cared more for their country than for the King.
When Captain Moore saw the sloop coming with its deck crowded with men he must have wondered what all this meant. What ailed these countrymen? Anyhow, he would not fight without knowing what he was fighting for, so he raised his anchor, set his sails, and made for the open sea. ”

“ Never was there a ship in so desperate a strait, and there was hardly a man on board, except Captain Jones, who did not want to surrender.
But the British were not having it all their own way. The American tars had climbed the masts and were firing down with muskets and flinging down hand grenades, until all the British had to run from the upper deck. A hand grenade is a small, hollow iron ball filled with powder, which explodes when thrown down and sends the bits of iron flying all around, like so many bullets. ”

“ CHAPTER VI CAPTAIN BUSHNELL SCARES THE BRITISH The Pioneer Torpedo Boat and the Battle of the Kegs
MANY of us, all our lives, have seen vessels of every size and shape darting to and fro over the water; some with sails spread to the wind, others with puffing pipes and whirling wheels.
And that is not all. Men have tried to go under water as well as on top. Some of you may have read Jules Verne's famous story, "Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea." That, of course, is all fiction; but now-a-days there are vessels which can go miles under the water without once coming to the top. ”

“ When Captain Lawrence took command of the Chesapeake, that ship lay in the harbor of Boston. Outside this harbor was the British frigate Shannon, blockading the port.
Now you must know that the American people had grown very proud of their success on the sea. They had got to think that any little vessel could whip an English man-of-war. So the Bostonians grew eager for the Chesapeake to meet the Shannon. They were sure it would be brought in as a prize, and they wanted to hurrah over it.
Poor Lawrence was as eager as the people. He was just the man they wanted. ”

“ Every man who is willing to fight go down the starboard gangway; all others can go down the larboard." Every soul of them took the starboard.
He manœuvered so that in a few minutes the vessels lay side by side. The Englishman opened with a broadside that did little damage. The Thorn replied with a destructive fire, and kept it up so hotly that within thirty minutes a loud cry came from the English ship:
"Quarters, for God's sake! Our ship is sinking. Our men are dying of their wounds."
"How can you expect quarters while your flag is flying?" demanded Captain Tucker. ”

“ The sailors grew curious, and a boat set out from a vessel and picked one of them up. In a minute it went off, with the noise of a cannon, sinking the boat and badly hurting the man.
This filled the British with a panic. Those terrible kegs might do frightful damage. They must be some dreadful invention of the rebels. The sailors ran out their guns, great and small, and began to batter every keg they saw with cannon balls, until there was a rattle and roar as if a mighty battle was going on. ”

“ The Wasp, after her battle with the Avon, could not fight two more, so she sailed away and left them to attend to their consort. They could not save her. The Wasp had stung too deeply for that. The water poured in faster than the men of all three ships could pump it out, and at one o'clock in the morning down plunged the Avon's bow in the water, up went her stern in the air, and with a mighty surge she sank to rise no more. But the gallant Wasp had ended her work. ”

“ Tucker came to the rescue. Taking the helm, he put it hard down and headed straight for the pirates. It looked as if he was sailing straight for destruction, but he knew what he was about. The Yankee schooner, if it could not sail as fast, could be handled more easily than the Algerines, with their lateen sails; and by skilful steering he got her into such a position that the pirates could not fire into him without hurting one another. ”

“ So, soon after sunrise, his fleet came sweeping on past Valcour Island. But all the sailors saw was a thicket of green trees, and they had got well south of the island before they looked back and saw the American fleet.
Here was an ugly situation. It would never do to leave the Americans in their rear. Down went the helms, round swept the sails, out came the oars, and soon the British fleet was making a struggle against the wind which had seemed so fair a few minutes before. So strong was the breeze that ten o'clock had passed before they reached the channel in which the Americans lay. ”

“ Soon after he came across the Peacock, a British man-of-war brig. The Peacock was as large as the Hornet and its captain was as full of fight as Captain Lawrence. He was the kind of man that our bold Lawrence was hunting for. When two men feel that way, a fight is usually not far off. That was the way now. Soon the guns were booming and the balls were flying. ”

“ At length a lieutenant came down to the wounded captain.
"We cannot handle the ship and are being cut to pieces," he said. "The rigging is in tatters and the fore-topmast in danger, and the carpenter reports two serious leaks. Eight or ten of our people are killed and more wounded. The case seems hopeless, sir; shall we strike the colors?"
"No!" roared Barry, sitting bolt upright. "Not on your life! If the ship can't be fought without me, then carry me on deck." ”

“ Then great bursts of flame shot out from the open hatchways. The loaded guns went off one after another, some of them firing into the town. It was a lurid and striking spectacle, such as is seldom seen.
Bainbridge and his fellow-officers saw the flames from their prison window and hailed them with lusty cheers. The officers of the Siren saw them also, and sent their boats into the harbor to aid the fugitives, if necessary. But it was not necessary. Not a man had been hurt. In an hour after the flames were seen, Decatur and his daring crew came in triumph out of the bay of Tripoli. ”

“ With two rowboats and thirty men he landed at Whitehaven, locked up the soldiers in the forts, fixed the cannon so that they could not be fired, set fire to one of the vessels that were in the harbor, and so frightened all the people that, though the gardener's son stood alone on the wharf, waiting for a boat to take him off, not a man dared to lay a hand on him. With a single pistol he kept back a thousand men. ”

“ No doubt the Spanish lookouts saw all this and told their admiral what they had seen. So, on that Sunday morning, with every vessel under full steam, the Spaniards raised their anchors and started on their last cruise.
Now let us take a look at the big ships outside. On these everybody was keeping Sunday. The officers had put on their best Sunday clothes, and the men were lying or lounging idly about the deck. Of course, there were lookouts aloft. Great ships like these always have their lookouts. A war-vessel never quite goes to sleep. It always keeps one eye open. ”

“ The people at Washington knew all about this ship and were very much alarmed. No one could tell what dreadful damage it might do if it got out to sea, and came up Chesapeake Bay and the Potomac River to the national capital. It might be much worse than when the British burnt Washington in 1814, for Washington was now a larger and finer city.
Something had to be done, and right away, too. It would not do to wait for a monster like the Merrimac. So Captain John Ericsson, a famous engineer of New York, was ordered to build an iron ship-of-war as fast as he could. ”