USS Hornet

“ But the puzzle was, if it were the Hornet, why she did not shorten sail. Still this might be accounted for, by her either wishing to make out what we were before she engaged us, or she might be clearing for action. At this moment a whole cloud of studding-sails were blown from the yards as if the booms had been carrots; and to prove that the chase was keeping a bright lookout, she immediately kept away, and finally bore up dead before the wind, under the impression, no doubt, that she would draw ahead of us, from her gear being entire, before we could rig out our light sails again. ”

“ At 3 P.M., as he had about made up his mind that the vessel105 at anchor and the Hornet were surely to try conclusions, Lawrence discovered another sail on his weather-quarter and edging down towards him.
In a few minutes over an hour the new-comer hoisted English colors also, and was seen to be a large man-o’-war brig. The Hornet cleared for action. As was usual in all naval actions when the wind was the sole motive power, both vessels manoeuvred for a time, the Hornet trying to win the advantage of the weather-gage from her antagonist. ”

“ Captain Biddle of the “Hornet” instantly made chase, and Captain Dickinson of the “Penguin” bore up and stood for the enemy. According to British authority the vessels differed only by a “trifling disparity of force.” [92] In truth the American was somewhat superior in size, metal, and crew, although not so decisively as in most of the sloop battles. The “Hornet” carried eighteen thirty-two-pound carronades and two long twelve-pounders ”

“ A very excellent revision of an old proverb says that “all things come to him who ‘rustles’ while he waits.” It is a fact that the active aggressive men of the navy in that war did not have much bad luck.
Decatur, when in command of the President, was ordered to take the little sloop-of-war Hornet, Captain James Biddle, and the new Yankee corvette Peacock, Captain Lewis Warrington, and go on a cruise to the East Indies, as Captain Bainbridge with the Constitution, the Essex, and the Hornet had started to do. ”

“ As soon as the submarine came to the surface, the electric motors were stopped, and the surface engines started so that every knot could be got out of them.
"All clear!" had been reported to him by the lieutenant, and as regards the narrow horizon which can be surveyed from the periscope of a submerged vessel, all was indeed clear, for they had not seen the hornet which was buzzing overhead, silently dipping and nose-diving with her engines shut off, and rapidly manoeuvring like an angry wasp, waiting but an opportunity to get at its victim. ”

“ In continuation of the brilliant achievements of our infant Navy, a signal triumph has been gained by Captain Lawrence and his companions in the Hornet sloop of war, which destroyed a British sloop of war with a celerity so unexampled and with a slaughter of the enemy so disproportionate to the loss in the Hornet as to claim for the conquerors the highest praise and the full recompense provided by Congress in preceding cases. ”

“ Not a shot was fired until the enemies were dashing past each other, going in opposite directions. The first broadsides were exchanged at half pistol-shot, with very unequal effects. The shot of the "Hornet" penetrated the hull of her antagonist, doing terrible execution; while the broadside let fly by the "Peacock" whistled through the rigging of the American ship, cutting away the pennant, and killing a topman, who was struck by a round shot, and dashed from his station in the mizzen-top, to fall mangled and lifeless into the sea. ”

“ The Penguin had her commander, boatswain, and four men killed; her second lieutenant (John Elwin) , master’s-mate, one midshipman (John Noyes, who lost a leg) , and twenty-nine men wounded, four of whom mortally. The Hornet received a few shot in the hull, one of which was so low down as to keep her men constantly at the pumps. She had, by the acknowledgment of her officers, only two men killed and eleven wounded; but several of her crew told some of their former shipmates, whom they discovered among the Penguins, that the Hornet had ten men killed by the first and second broadsides. ”

“ The shot and shell whistled about the Hornet, the enemy came closer, and every American prepared to submit as gracefully as possible to the inevitable. Captain Biddle addressed his men feelingly, telling them to show the same restraint in misfortune that they had in victory, and then the gallant officer coolly awaited the moment when he should be obliged to haul down his flag to save the lives of his brave crew. ”

“ The Hornet actually only skims the atmosphere, entering at a very shallow angle. The entire delta-wing of the ship is a control surface. That much area, even at such extreme heights, gives a certain amount of control, and the pilot can pull up out of the atmosphere again before heating has become too extreme. He has also been considerably slowed by the same friction which causes the heating. Do you follow me?"
"Yes, I suppose so, but it seems pretty tricky."
"It is tricky, Cressey, and you never want to forget it. It takes a very considerable amount of piloting skill, but it can be done." ”

“ That set the Yankees working for life. The anchors and cables, the spare spars, the ship’s launch, and the six cannon and some hundreds of round shot were tumbled into the sea. The Hornet drew out of range then, but the wind hauled to the east, favoring the enemy, and once more the crew went at the work of lightening ship. ”

“ Medal Awarded to James Biddle for the Capture of the Penguin by the Hornet.
But to a student of history at the end of the nineteenth century there never was a sea-duel where the comparison of the weights of metal in the two broadsides was more ridiculous than in this one between the Hornet and the Penguin. For not one solid shot from the Penguin struck the Yankee—not one; and what is worse still, not one solid shot struck the Yankee’s spars. Moreover, the storm of British projectiles was281 hurled so high that the injury to the Yankee’s rigging was worse above the top-sails than below them. ”

“ Her brave little consort, the Hornet, she had left blockading the Bonne Citoyenne, a British sloop of war, in the harbor of Bahia. Every day the Hornet dared the Englishman to leave her anchorage and meet her, broadside to broadside, in the open sea beyond the neutral limits and the protection of Brazilian guns. Writes Captain Lawrence of the Yankee sloop to Captain Green of the Bonne Citoyenne: “I pledge my honor that neither the Constitution nor any other American vessel shall interfere.” ”

“ The American hoisted her colors as an invitation to the stranger to declare her nationality. Shortly after, the report of a gun came booming over the water, and there was a shout of exultation among the crew of the Hornet, as through the vapor they descried the ensign of St. George. The commander of each vessel, however, was too good a seaman not to be aware that the wind was too high, and the sea too rough, for a fair encounter. Each one, brave himself, doubted not the valor of his adversary. ”

“ We will not stain the memory of gallant but unsuccessful men by stating in extenuation of defeat that they were unskilful, negligent and physically inferior to their opponents.” And that370 is a very proper view to take of the whole matter. Even the British historian Allen says “no disgrace attached to the vanquished.”
For the consolation of the American patriot, however, it is worth comparing this fight with that between the Hornet and the Peacock. ”

“ Similarly, while the Cyane and Levant did well, the Constitution did better; and Sir George Collier's ships certainly did not distinguish themselves when in chase of Old Ironsides. So with the Hornet in her two encounters; no one can question the pluck with which the Penguin was fought, but her gunnery was as bad as that of the Cornwallis subsequently proved. And though the skirmish between the Peacock and Nautilus is not one to which an American cares to look back, yet, regarding it purely from a fighting stand-point, there is no question which crew was the best trained and most skilful. ”

“ As the Hornet came to anchor the Cormorant saluted her, and she replied instantly. Customs officers who were watching the craft from the shore or from their boats put down their marine glasses contentedly when they saw and heard the salutes. But two went out to the Hornet, were received graciously by Captain Shewell, who, over a glass of wine in his cabin- appropriately hung with pictures of Nelson and Collingwood—said that he was proceeding to Alaska to rescue a crew shipwrecked which had taken refuge on a barren island, and that he was leaving the next day as soon as he could get some coal ”

“ The hornet carried two Lewis guns, with plenty of ammunition, for when an aerial patrol sets out on a flight, one never knows what duels he may have to engage in before he returns. The hornet had this advantage over the other machines, which were of an older pattern: she had a higher speed, was a better climber, and with her improved controls she could manoeuvre more quickly than any other machine yet made. ”

“ As soon as it was very dark two or three boats pushed out from the Hornet, and rowed swiftly to shore, passing a Customs boat as they went, which was saluted by the officers in command. After this, boats kept passing backward and forward for a long time between the Hornet and the shore, which was natural, seeing that a first night in port is a sort of holiday for officers and men. ”

“ The Peacock was a faster sailer than the Hornet, as the latter sat deep in the water, and, owing to the weight of metal she carried, was slow in stays. But it was evident, by six o’clock in the evening, three hours after Warrington had signalled Biddle to beware of approaching nearer, that the big fellow had turned the tables and was evidently the pursuer, with the intention of running down the Hornet. Every minute the sails rose higher and higher above the horizon until the great hull was in plain view. ”

“ The Constitution and Hornet being in Boston, and the Essex in the Delaware, it became necessary to appoint for the three a distant place of meeting, out of the usual cruising grounds of the enemy, in order that the ships, whose first object was to escape crippling, could pass rapidly through the belt of British cruisers then girding the coast of the United States. ”

“ The Hornet had nine men more than the Penguin, and it would be absurd to say that this gave her much advantage. In both the latter cases, the forces were practically equal, although, numerically expressed, the odds were in favor of the Americans. The exact reverse is the case in the last action of the Constitution. Here, the Levant and Cyane had all the men they required, and threw a heavier broadside than their foe. Expressed in numbers, the odds against them were not great, but numbers could not express the fact that carronades were opposed to long guns, and two small ships to one big one. ”

“ As the enemy approached nearly within musket-shot, the Englishman at last hauled on the starboard tack and hoisted his colors, firing a challenging gun. Biddle immediately luffed, flew his ensign, and gave the enemy a broadside. It was then about forty minutes past one. The action became brisk, and in fifteen minutes the Englishman came down again, bow foremost, as if he would fall on board the Hornet. Orders were given to prepare to repel the expected boarders, but the men could scarcely be restrained from tumbling over the bow of the Penguin as her jib-boom crossed the245 Hornet’s taffrail. ”

“ He was disturbed in his meditations by the cry of "sail ho!" from the foretop-crosstrees. He ordered the man at the helm to bear away for the strange craft. As the two vessels rapidly approached each other, she was soon hull above the water, and Morris perceived through his glass, that the stars and stripes floated at her mast-head. A thrill of pleasure, like that which one feels at meeting an old friend in a [Pg 260] distant land, shot through his veins. Signal-flags were shown and answered from each vessel, and the approaching sail proved to be the Hornet, of the American navy. ”

“ Meantime, on the day of the Constitution-Java fight, the American ship William, that the Java had taken, tried to make port at Bahia, and fell into the hands of Captain Lawrence who took out her prize crew and sent her on her way under her own.
However, having been driven off at last by a line-of-battle ship sent from Rio Janeiro for the express purpose of raising the blockade, the Hornet cruised to the north along the coast of South America, and having rounded Cape St. Roque, continued to keep along shore. ”

“ Cressey was silent for a moment, and Mackley continued in a softer voice. "Look here, son. I don't have to tell you all this. I could just as easily shoot you full of starry-eyed patriotism and send you out to save the world from the Bug-Eyed Monsters, but the military isn't doing things that way any more. There is a possibility that we've made a mistake, I'll admit that, but we're stuck with the consequences of the original action. We're defending our planet with everything we've got. The Hornets are the only weapon that has proven even remotely effective." ”

“ Captain Mackley, the glib Information Officer who'd told Cressey everything he was allowed to know about Hornets before he saw one.
I'll be frank with you, Mr. Cressey. Strategic Command has Hornets listed not as aircraft, but as portable launching racks. Their job is to take Stingers to the Outspace ships. There's a man in them because we can't build a computer as efficient as man at such light weight. ”