USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Old landmarks and historic fields of Middlesex > Part 4
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Hull was one of the early commanders of the yard. The receiving-ship Ohio, now at this station, carried his flag in the Mediterranean in 1839. Bainbridge was commandant at the time of Lafayette's visit in 1824. These two men, famous in the annals of the American Navy, could conquer their invinci- ble adversaries yard-arm to yard-arm, and afterwards gain their hearts by the most kindly offices to them while prisoners. Dacres, whom Hull captured in the Guerrière, became his friend in after time. We may here relate an episode of Bainbridge and the Java.
Early in 1845 the Constitution, then commanded by Mad Jack Percival, cast anchor in the roadstead of Singapore. She had on her way taken out Henry A. Wise, our minister to Brazil, and was on special service in the East Indies and Pacific. The vertical rays of a tropic sun and the deadly breezes of the African coast had made a hospital of the ship ; her gun-deck on the starboard side was hung with cots and hammocks. The captain had given up the forward cabin to the sick. The exterior of the old invincible responded mourn- fully to the interior. Her hull had been painted a dull lead- color at Rio, faintly enlivened by a red streak; but a long pas- sage across the Indian Ocean had brought her old sable color here and there into view, while the streaks of iron-rust down her sides told her condition but too plainly.
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Before the anchor was let go a boat with an officer from H. B. M. frigate Cambrian came alongside with the compliments and friendly offers of Commodore Chads. The officer's return brought the gallant commodore on board the Constitution. He was a fine-looking man of about fifty, more than six feet, per- fectly erect, and as he stepped over the gangway he simulta- neously saluted the officers who received him, at the same time surveying the ship fore and aft, and alow and aloft. The spar- deck of the old ship looked passing well, and the commodore's scrutiny was not at all mortifying. He then descended to the cabin, where Captain Percival received him on crutches.
"I have hastened on board your ship," said Commodore Chads, "to offer my services, having heard you were sick, as well as many of your people ; and I have brought my surgeon, who has been long out here, and is familiar with the diseases of India."
He then inquired if this was the same ship called the Con- stitution in 1813. Having been told that she was the same in model, battery, and internal arrangements, although rebuilt, he said he was very glad to meet her again; that she was an old acquaintance ; and that in the action of the Java he had the honor to fight her after Captain Lambert was disabled ; and that, although he had hauled down his colors to the Constitu- tion, there were no reminiscences more pleasing to him than those resulting from the skill, gallantry, and bravery of the noble Bainbridge during and after the action. "The Constitu- tion, sir, was manœuvred in a masterly manner, and it made me regret that she was not British. It was Greek meet Greek, for we were the same blood, after all." These particulars are from a letter supposed to have been from the pen of Mr. Ballestier, our Consul at Singapore. Mrs. Ballestier, who accompanied her husband to the East Indies, was a daughter of the famous Paul Revere.
Commodore Hull was rather short and thick-set, with a countenance deeply bronzed by long exposure to sun and weather, he having gone to sea when a boy. He was a man of plain, unassuming manners, and rather silent than loquacious.
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Cooper, who knew him well, describes him as one of the most skilful seamen of history, remarkable for coolness in moments of danger. He seldom mentioned his exploits, but sometimes, when the famous action with the Guerrière was alluded to, he would speak with enthusiasm of the beautiful day in August on which that battle was fought.
The two Commodores Hull, uncle and nephew,* married sis- ters belonging to the family of Hart, of Saybrook, Connecticut, and remarkable for their beauty. Another sister married Hon. Heman Allen, of Vermont, at one time minister to Chili ; while still another was the wife of Rev. Dr. Jarvis of St. Paul's, Boston. The most beautiful of the sisters, Jeanette, never mar- ried, but went to Rome and became a nun. She is said to have been, in her day, the handsomest woman in America. Another nephew of Isaac Hull was the late Admiral Andrew Hull Foote, who was so greatly distinguished in the early part of the Rebellion, receiving, at Fort Donelson, a wound that eventually contributed to cause his death.
It appears, from excellent authority, that the original draft of the Constitution was changed at the suggestion of Colonel George Claghorn, who ought therefore to be regarded as the person most entitled to the credit of having created the pride of the navy, as it was to him her construction was confided. The subject of an alteration in her dimensions had been verbally broached to the Secretary of War - who also presided over our infant marine at that time - when he was in Boston in 1794. General Knox consented, in presence of the agent, Gen- eral Jackson ; but Claghorn, having been a soldier, was not satisfied until he obtained the authority in writing.
At the festival in Faneuil Hall given to Captain Hull on his return from the fight with the Guerrière, Ex-President Adams, who, on account of his infirmities was unable to be present, sent the following toasts, which were read by Hon. Samuel Dexter : -
" May every commodore in our navy soon be made an admiral, and every captain a commodore, with ships and squadrons worthy
* Commodore Joseph B. Hull.
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of their commanders and worthy of the wealth, power, and dignity of their country. Proh dolor ! Proh pudor !"
" Talbot, Truxtun, Decatur, Little, Preble, - had their country given them the means, they would have been Blakes, Drakes, and Nelsons."
On her return to port from this cruise the Constitution spoke the Dolphin and Decatur, privateers, the latter of which, think- ing she was pursued by an enemy, threw her guns overboard. It is at least a coincidence that the news of the surrender of Detroit by General Hull should have reached Boston only a few hours after the arrival of his nephew, Captain Hull, from his successful combat. Shubrick commanded the yard in 1825, Crane in 1826, and Morris from 1827 to 1833, when he was succeeded by Jesse D. Elliott.
The park of naval artillery bears as little resemblance to the cannon of a century ago as do the war-ships of to-day to those commanded by Manley, Jones, or Hopkins. No event will better illustrate the advance in gunnery than the battle be- tween the Kearsarge and Alabama, off Cherbourg. The naval tactics of the first period were to lay a ship alongside her ad- versary, and then let courage and hard fighting win the day. But nowadays close actions are avoided, or considered unneces- sary, and instances of individual gallantry become more rare. Ships toss their heavy shot at each other a mile away, without the least knowledge of the damage they inflict, and Old Shy- lock is now only half right when he says,
" Ships are but boards, sailors but men,"
for iron succeeds oak, though no substitute is yet found for bone and muscle.
In the beginning of the Revolution cannon was the most essential thing wanted. Ships were built and manned with . alacrity, but all kinds of shifts were made to supply them with guns. A fleet of privateers was soon afloat in the waters of Massachusetts Bay, and public vessels were on the stocks, but how they were armed may be inferred from the following extract from a letter dated at Boston, September 1, 1776 :
2 * C
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HISTORIC FIELDS AND MANSIONS OF MIDDLESEX.
" There is so great a demand for guns here for fitting out priva- teers that those old things that used to stick in the ground, particu- larly at Bowes's Corner,* Admiral Vernon, etc., have been taken up, and sold at an immoderate price ; that at Mr. Bowes's was sold by Mr. Jones for fifty dollars. I imagine it will sp.it in the first attempt to fire it."
The Hancock, which was the second Continental frigate launched, and was commanded by Captain Manley, as well as the Old Boston frigate, Captain McNeill, were both armed with guns, chiefly nine-pounders, taken from the works in Boston harbor, and furnished by Massachusetts. The Hancock was built and launched at Newburyport, and not at Boston, as has been stated. Manley, the first sea officer to attack the enemy on that element, received in 1792 a compensation of £ 150, and a pension of £ 9 per month for life.
Unlike the celebrated English dockyard and arsenal at Wool- wich, our dockyards are only utilized for naval purposes, while the former is the depot for the royal horse and foot artillery and the royal sappers and miners, with vast magazines of great guns, mortars, bombs, powder, and other warlike stores. The Royal Military Academy was erected in the arsenal, but was not completely formed until 1745, in the reign of George II. £ It would seem that the same system might be advan- tageously carried out in this country, so far as the corps of engineers and artillery are concerned, with the benefit of com- bining practical with theoretical instruction upon those points where there exists an identity of interest in the military and naval branches of the service.
The area of the great British dockyard is about the same as that of the Charlestown yard, but in depth of water in front the latter has greatly the advantage, the Thames being so shal- low at Woolwich that large ships are now chiefly constructed at the other naval ports. We may here mention that Woolwich is the most ancient arsenal in Great Britain, men-of-war having been built there as early as the reign of Henry VIII., when the Harry Grace de Dieu was constructed in 1512. The Royal
* South Corner of State and Washington Streets.
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George, in which Kempenfelt went down at Spithead, and the Nelson, Trafalgar, and other first-rates, were also built at Wool- wich.
When we look around upon the wonderful progress of the steam marine during the past quarter of a cen- tury, and reflect upon its possibil- ities, the predic- tion of the cele- brated Dr. Dio- nysius Lardner, that steam could never be profit- ably employed in ocean naviga- THE GREAT HARRY. tion, seems incredible. Thirty years ago this was demonstrated by the Doctor with facts and figures, models and diagrams.
In the summer of 1781 the port of Boston was almost sealed by the constant presence of British cruisers in the bay, who took many valuable prizes and brought several mercantile houses to the verge of ruin. The merchants accordingly besought Ad- miral Le Compte de Barras to send some of his frigates from Newport round to Boston ; but the Count replied that the efforts already made to induce his men to desert and engage on board privateers compelled him to refuse the request. The merchants then sent a committee composed of Messrs. Sears, Broome, Breck, and others, to assure the Count that his men should not be taken under any circumstances.
The Count's compliance resulted in the loss of one of his ships, the Magicienne, of thirty-two guns, which was taken by the Assurance, a British two-decker, in Boston harbor. The action was so plainly visible from the wharves of the town, that the French colors were seen to be struck and the English hoisted in their stead. The French ships Sagittaire, fifty guns, Astrie, thirty-two, and Hermione, thirty-two, were in the
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THE NAVY-YARD IN 1873, FROM EAST BOSTON.
harbor when the battle commenced, and immediately got under weigh to go to the assistance of their consort ; but the wind being light and the Sagittaire a dull sailer, the enemy escaped with his prize. Many Bostonians went on board the French ships as volunteers in the expected ac- tion. Colonel Da- vid Sears was among the number who joined the Astrie in the expectation of enjoying some di- version of this sort. The merchants of Boston afterwards gave a splendid din- ner to the Marquis de Gergeroux, the commander of the French fleet, and his officers, for the ser- vices rendered in keeping the bay clear of the enemy's cruisers.
· Nelson, who in 1782 was ordered to cruise in the Albemarle on the
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American station, fell in with a fishing schooner on our coast, which he captured, but the master, having piloted the cruiser into Boston Bay, was released with his vessel and the following certificate : -
" This is to certify that I took the schooner Harmony, Nathaniel Carver, master, belonging to Plymouth, but on account of his good services have given him up his vessel again.
" Dated on board His Majesty's ship Albemarle,
17th August, 1782.
" HORATIO NELSON."
The grateful man afterwards came off to the Albemarle, at the hazard of his life, bringing a present of sheep, poultry, and other fresh provisions, - a most welcome supply, for the scurvy was raging on board. Nelson exhibited a similar trait of nobility in releasing two officers of Rochambeau's army, who were captured in a boat in the West Indies while on some ex- cursion. Count Deux-Ponts was one and Isidore Lynch the other captive. Nelson gave them a capital dinner, and the wine having got into their heads, the secret imprudently came out that Lynch was of English birth. The poor prisoners were thunderstruck at the discovery, but Nelson, without appearing to have overheard the indiscretion, set both at liberty.
It sounds somewhat strangely at this time to recall the fact that the United States once paid tribute to the ruler of a horde of pirates, to induce him to hold off his hands from our com- merce ; and that our captured crews were sold into slavery or held for ransom at the behest of a turbaned barbarian. Six thousand stand of arms, four field-pieces, and a quantity of gunpowder was the price of the peace granted by the Dey of Algiers to America in 1795. In May, 1794, an exhibition was given at the Boston Theatre for the relief of our countrymen, prisoners in Algiers, which realized about nine hundred dollars. Dominie Terry & Co. advanced $3,000 for the maintenance of these prisoners, without security.
Of the early commanders of our navy Hopkins was de- scribed in 1776 as an antiquated-looking person, with a strong
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HISTORIC FIELDS AND MANSIONS OF MIDDLESEX.
ideal resemblance to Van Tromp. He appeared at first an- gelic, says our authority, until he swore, and then the illusion vanished. Hopkins commanded the first American squadron that set sail from our shores, and carried the colony flag at his gaff.
NAVY-YARD IN 1858.
Paul Jones had the honor not only of hoisting with his own hands the American flag on board the Alfred, in 1775, which he says was then displayed for the first time, but of receiving in the Ranger the first salute to that flag by a foreign power from M. de la Motte Piquet, who, with a French squadron, on board of which was Lafayette, was lying in the bay of Quiberon, ready to sail for America. This occurred February 13, 1778.
Next comes a half-acre of round-shot and shell arranged in pyramids, and waiting till the now torpid Dahlgrens or Parrotts shake off their lethargy and demand their indigest- ible food. Some of the globes are painted black, befitting their funereal purpose, while we observed that others had received a coat of white, and now looked like great sugar- coated pills, - a sharp medicine to carry off the national bile.
To the field of deadly projectiles succeeds a field of anchors, the last resource of the seaman, the symbol of Hope in all the civilized world.
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The invention of the anchor is ascribed by Pliny to the Tyrrhenians, and by other writers to Midas, the son of Gor- dias, whose anchor Pausanias declares was preserved until his time in a temple dedicated to Jupiter. The most ancient an- chors were made of stone, and af- terwards of wood which contained a great quantity of lead ; some- times baskets filled with stones, or shingle, and even sacks of sand were used. STANCH AND STRONG. The Greeks used much the same anchor as is now in vogue, except the transverse piece called the stock. Many of the an- chors used by our first war-vessels came from the Old Forge at Hanover, Mass.
If we might linger here, it would be to reflect on which of these ponderous masses of metal the fate of some good ship with her precious burden of lives had depended ; with what agony of suspense the tension of the stout cable had been watched from hour to hour as the greedy waves rushed by to throw themselves with a roar of baffled rage upon the flinty shore. Remember, O craftsman, in your mighty workshop yon- der, wherein you wield forces old Vulcan might have envied, that life and death are in every stroke of your huge trip-ham- mer; and that a batch of rotten iron may cost a thousand lives.
" Let's forge a goodly anchor, - a bower thick and broad; For a heart of oak is hanging on every blow, I bode; And I see the good ship riding all in a perilous road, - The low reef roaring on her lee; the roll of ocean poured " From stem to stern, sea after sea ; the mainmast by the board ; The bulwarks down ; the rudder gone ; the boat stove at the chains ; But courage still, brave mariners, - the bower yet remains ! And not an inch to flinch he deigns, save when ye pitch sky high; Then moves his head, as though he said, 'Fear nothing, here am I !'"
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HISTORIC FIELDS AND MANSIONS OF MIDDLESEX.
We can compare the granite basin, fashioned to receive the great war-ships, to nothing else than a huge bath wherein some antique giant might disport himself. It seems a miracle of intelligence, skill, and perseverance. When Loammi Baldwin was applied to to undertake the building of the Dry Dock, he hesitated, and asked Mr. Southard, then Secretary of the Navy, " What if I should fail ?" " If you do," replied the Secretary, "we will hang you." It proved a great suc- cess, worthy to be classed among the other works of this dis- tinguished engineer.
The foundation rests upon piles on which is laid a massive oaken floor. We cannot choose but admire the great blocks of hewn granite, and the exact and elegant masonry. Owing to some defect, when nearly completed, a rupture took place in the wall, and a thundering rush of water came in and filled the excavation, but it was soon pumped out and effectually repaired.
After an examination of the records of the tides in Bos- ton harbor for the previous sixty years, Mr. Baldwin fixed the height of the capping of the dock several inches above the highest that had occurred within that period. In the gale of April, 1851, however, the tide rose to such a height as to overflow the dock, falling in beautiful cascades along its whole length. The basin occupied six years in building ; Job Turner, of Boston, being the master mason, under Colonel Baldwin. It was decided that Old Ironsides should be the first vessel admitted ; and upon the opening of the structure, June 24, 1833, Commodore Hull appeared once more on the deck of his old ship and superintended her entrance with- in the dock. The gallant old sailor moved about the deck with his head bare, and exhibited as much animation as he would have done in battle. The Vice-President, Mr. Van Buren, the Secretary of War, Mr. Cass, Mr. Southard, and other distinguished guests graced the occasion by their pres- ence, while the officers at the station were required to be pres- ent in full uniform.
The Constitution was here rebuilt by Mr. Barker. He had
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served in the Revolution both in the army and navy. In the latter service he sailed with Captain Manley in the Hague, formerly the Deane, frigate, on a cruise among the West India Islands. His first ship-yard was within the limits of the pres- ent government yard, and here he began to set up vessels as early as 1795. Later, he removed his yard to a site near the state-prison. While naval constructor Mr. Barker built the Independence, Virginia, and Vermont, seventy-fours, and the sloops-of-war Frolic, Marion, Cyane, and Bainbridge. Thatcher Magoun, the well-known shipbuilder of Medford, received his instruction in modelling from Josiah Barker.
Before the Constitution was taken out of dock, a brand-new ship, a figure-head of President Jackson had been fixed to her prow by Commodore Elliott, who then commanded the yard. If it had been desired to test the President's popularity in the New England States no act could have been more happily devised. A universal shout of indignation went up from press and people ; for the old ship was little less than adored by all classes, and to affix the bust of any living personage was deemed an indignity.
In that immense crowd, which had witnessed the re-baptism of Old Ironsides, stood a young Cape Cod seaman. His father, a brave old captain in the 3d Artillery, had doubtless instilled some strong republican ideas into the youngster's head, for he had accompanied him to Fort Warren * during the War of 1812, and while there the lad had seen from the rampart the doomed Chesapeake lift her anchor, and go forth to meet the Shannon. He had heard the cannonade off in the bay, had noted the hush of the combat, and had shared in the anguish with which all hearts were penetrated at the fatal result.
Old Ironsides was moored with her head to the west, be- tween the seventy-fours Columbus and Independence. The former vessel had a large number of men on board, and a sen- tinel was placed where he could keep the figure-head in view ; another was posted on the wharf near at hand, and a third patrolled the forecastle of the Constitution ; from an open port
* Now Fort Winthrop.
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HISTORIC FIELDS AND MANSIONS OF MIDDLESEX.
of the Columbus the light fell full upon the graven features all these precautions were designed to protect.
On the night of the 2d of July occurred a thunder-storni of unusual violence. The lightning played around the masts of the shipping, and only by its lurid flash could any object be distinguished in the blackness. Young Dewey -he was only twenty-eight - uninoored his boat from Billy Gray's Wharf in Boston, and, with his oar muffled in an old woollen comforter, sculled out into the darkness. He had reconnoitred the position of the ships by day, and was prepared at all points. At length he found himself alongside the Independence, the outside ship, and worked his way along her big black side, which served to screen him from observation.
Dewey climbed up the Constitution's side by the man-ropes and ensconced himself in the bow, protected by the headboards, only placed on the ship the same day. He extended himself on his back, and in this position sawed off the head. While here he saw the sentry on the wharf from time to time looking earnestly towards the spot where he was at work, but the lightning and the storm each time drove the guard back to the shelter of his box.
Having completed his midnight assassination Dewey re- gained his boat, to find her full of water. She had swung under the scupper of the ship and had received the torrent that poured from her deck. In this plight, but never forgetting the head he had risked his life to obtain, Dewey reached the shore. We can never think of this scene, with its attendant circum- stances, without remembering Cooper's episode of the weird lady of the Red Rover.
If this act proves Dewey to have been a cool hand, the one we are to relate must cap the climax. After the excitement caused by the affair-and it was of no ordinary kind - had subsided, Dewey packed up the grim and corrugated features he had decapitated and posted off to Washington. At Phila- delphia his secret leaked out, and he was obliged to exhibit his prize to John Tyler and Willie P. Mangum, afterwards Presi- dent and acting Vice-President, who were then investigating
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the affairs of the United States Bank. These grave and rev- erend seigniors shook their sides as they regarded the colossal head, now brought so low, and parted with Captain Dewey with warm and pressing offers of service.
The Captain's intention to present the head to General Jackson himself was frustrated by the dangerous illness of the President, to whom all access was denied. He however obtained an audience of Mr. Van Buren, the Vice-President, who at once overwhelmed him with civilities after the manner in which that crafty old fox was wont to lay siege to the sus- ceptibilities of all who approached him. Upon Dewey's an- nouncing himself as the person who had taken off the Consti- tution's figure-head Mr. Van Buren gave a great start and was thrown off his usual balance. Recovering himself, he demanded the particulars of the exploit, which seemed to afford him no small satisfaction. Captain Dewey wished him to receive the head. "Go to Mr. Dickerson," said the Vice-President, “it belongs to his department ; say you have come from me." To Mahlon Dickerson, Secretary of the Navy, our hero accord- ingly went.
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