USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > The memorial history of Boston : including Suffolk County, Massachusetts, 1630-1880, Vol. III > Part 47
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When the "True Blooded Yankee " arrived in France from one of her cruises, she was laden with the following spoils: 18 bales of Turkey carpets, 43 bales of raw silk weighing 12,000 pounds, 20 boxes of gums, 46 packs of the best skins, 24 packs of beaver skins, 160 dozen of swans' skins, 190 hides, copper, etc. In 1813, during a cruise of thirty-seven days, she captured
34 1
THE NAVY, AND THE CHARLESTOWN NAVY YARD.
dore Broke, and sailing again on the 2d of August she returned on the 30th, having in her cruise of less than a month captured four brigs, mounting thirty guns, and H. B. M. frigate "Guerrière," of forty-nine guns.
On the Ist of September a rendezvous was opened to ship a crew for the frigate " Chesapeake," Captain Evans, - which ship sailed from Boston on the 13th of December. The frigates "United States " and " President" also sailed on the 8th of October, the latter returning to Boston on the 31st of December.
From a detailed report made by Commodore Bainbridge, it appears that the expenditures for accommodations, repairs of buildings, etc., for the years 1811-1812 only amounted to $5,752.43; but during the first year of the war nearly $250,000 were expended principally for the repairs of vessels.1
About this time Captain Isaac Hull, having obtained his meed of glory and desiring to attend to his private affairs, was relieved of the command of the " Constitution ; " and Captain William Bainbridge at his own request was transferred to the command of that frigate.2 A small squadron, con- sisting of the "Constitution," "Essex," and "Hornet," was placed tinder the command of Bainbridge, and Sept. 15, 1812, he hoisted his broad pennant as Commodore on board the "Constitution " at Boston, and sailed thence on the 26th of October, in company with the "Hornet."3 The "Constitution" on this cruise captured H. B. M. frigate " Java," and returned to Boston on the 27th of February, after an absence of only four months. Bainbridge landed the next morning on the end of Long Wharf, and amidst the roaring of can- non was received by the officers and citizens of distinction, and escorted up
I wenty-seven vessels and made two hundred and seventy prisoners; and also took possession of an island on the coast of Ireland, and held it six days. She also took a town in Scotland, and burned seven vessels in the harbor. In 1814 she cruised in the British Channel in company with the privateer " Bunker Hill," of fourteen guns and one hundred and forty men, with orders lo divest her prizes of their valuable articles and then to sink them and destroy them, but not to send them into port. Such was'the terror she inspired, that it is said a reward was offered for her capture and that of her captain dead or alive. Captain Thomas Oxnard settled in France after the war, having married a French lady, and died at Marseilles, June 14, 1840; on his death-bed he requested that his body should be shrouded in the American Flag.
1 The following vessels of war were repaired at the Yard at the following costs : "John Adams," $33,579-33; "Chesapeake." $105.991 .- 07; "Constitution," $46,638.46; " President," $14,928.0.1 ; " United States," $21, 589.85 ; "Con- gress," $5,681.51 ; " }lornet," $5,430.73; "Nau- tilus," $400.8.4 ; " Argus," $9,052.94; Four gun- boats, etc., $1,932.31,-total, $245,225.13. These repairs were done at daily wages, at the fol-
lowing rates : master carpenter from $3.50 10 $4.00 a day ; sawyers at $1.50 a day; join- ers at $1.25 a day ; laborers at $1.00 a day. The working hours were from sunrise to sunset.
2 The secretary, September 8, wrote to Bain- bridge : "Captain Hull having asked to be re- lieved of the command of the ' Constitution,' you will immediately take command of that frigate and prepare her for service. Until your re- turn to the yard, Captain Hull will relieve you in the command. Should this command be incon- venient to Captain Hull, you will appoint Mr. Morris [Lieutenant, afterwards Commodore Charles Morris, the greatest man our navy has yet produced] to that station." Mr. Morris had been the first lieutenant of Ifull on the recent cruise of the "Constitution." [An autobiogra- phy of Morris, with a photograph of a portrait of him by Ary Scheffer, is given in No. 12 of the U. S. Naval Institute Proceedings. - ED.] It has also been reprinted in a separate pamphlet. Mr. Corcoran is now having an extensive biography of the Commodore, his father-in-law, prepared.
3 The " Essex " sailed from the Delaware to join him at sea, but never did; her subsequent adventurous career and honorable capture in the Pacific it is unnecessary to repeat here.
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
State Street by the New England Guards to the Exchange Coffee-house, greeted all along the route with loud huzzas. The streets through which he
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U.S.NAVY YARD BOSTON. 1823.
passed and the merchant ships in the harbor were decorated with flags, and a public dinner was given to him on the 2d of March by the citizens.
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THE NAVY, AND THE CHARLESTOWN NAVY YARD.
Before Commodore Bainbridge's return Congress had authorized the building of three line-of-battle ships. One of these was to be laid down at the Boston Yard, and he was ordered to superintend its construction. Having, like his compeer Hull, obtained his victory, Bainbridge resigned the command of the "Constitution," March, 1813, and resumed charge of the Navy Yard and the Eastern naval station, which included at that time all the floating force in Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Maine. On the 25th of February preceding, the secretary had informed Captain Hull that his command extended to every gunboat eastward of Boston, and to all the floating force attached to Portsmouth and Portland, but that the Navy Yard at Portsmouth was in charge of the Navy Agent there.
Early in 1813 preparation was made at the Yard, under a contract with the Harts, father and son, to build a seventy-four. Her frame had been moulded in 1798-1800, in conformity with a draft then made. Commo- dore Bainbridge had suggested improvements in her form and dimensions which were found under the circumstances impracticable. The result was as he predicted; she was found when launched to carry her lower deck ports too low, and was finally razeed into one of the finest sailing frigates ever produced in our own or any other service. Her keel was laid Aug. 18, 1813, and work was pushed on her so that she was ready for launching the following June.
The Columbian Centinel of the 18th of June, 1814, says : -
"The 'Independence' of seventy-four guns will be launched this day from the Navy Yard in Charlestown. Those who wish to see the launch will do well to be in the vicinity by half-past eleven o'clock to avoid disappointment. We have no doubt of the strength of Charlestown bridge ; but prudence requires that the numbers admit- ted thereon should be limited if possible. It is recommended that the eastern side be appropriated to the ladies. We think the view from Copp's Hill will be the best."
The launch, however, was not successful on that day, for the Centinel announces that owing to the accidental removal of the tallow from a part of the ways the ship was only advanced about seventy-six feet. An attempt to launch her the following day by mechanical power also failed ; and her ways had to be relaid. At last, on the 22d, at three o'clock P.M., she moved grandly off, and was welcomed by a Federal salute from the frigate "Constitution " and the acclamations of many thousands of spectators. The salute was re- turned by the Navy-Yard battery, and subsequently the workmen employed in her construction "were sumptuously entertained in the rigging-loft, and spent the day in hilarity." An officer of the "Constitution," whose name is not given, had the honor of christening this the first line-of-battle ship added to our navy.1
1 The good old ship still exists, though no more fit for the sea; and after a variety of active service has long been the receiving-ship at the Mare Island Navy Yard, California. The " In- dependence " was not the first vessel of war
launched from the Boston Yard, the sloop-of- war " Frolie " having been launched on Sept. 11 preceding. The " Frolic " sailed from Boston Feb. 18, 1814, commanded by Master Comman- dant Joseph Bainbridge (a brother of the com-
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
In a letter to the secretary, dated Aug. 21, 1813, Commodore Bainbridge proposed to construct houses over the ships then building at Charlestown and Portsmouth. The men thus protected he thought would work with more celerity, neatness, and efficiency, and the vessels might remain on the stocks until required without suffering material deterioration, - an opinion which has been supported by the results.1 The advantages were made so apparent to the secretary, that on the 26th he authorized the erection of ship-houses (as they are called) not only at Portsmouth and Boston, but at all the navy yards in the United States. Sir Robert Seppings, the distinguished British naval architect, learned from this experiment the great advantage of such structures, and at his suggestion the Board of Admiralty directed similar buildings to be erected in the principal dock- yards of the United Kingdom.
The " Chesapeake " having returned to Boston April 9, 1813, Captain Evans was soon after relieved by Captain James Lawrence, who, having recruited her crew and refitted her, sailed from President Roads on June I, and was captured the same day in sight of the port by H. B. M. ship " Shannon," which she had gone out to encounter.2
When the "Constitution" had returned from the cruise in which she captured the "Java," Captain Charles Stewart relieved Bainbridge, who then resumed command of the Yard. The ship having been thoroughly repaired, the Department on September 19 wrote to hurry her departure; she did not, however, get to sea until December 30, when she ran the
modore) ; and after making one or two prizes was herself captured by H. B. M. frigate " Or- pheus " and schooner "Shelbourne," April 20, 1814, after a chase of sixty hours.
1 The house from which the "Independence " was launched -the first of the kind ever erected -is marked No. I on the plan of 1823. The " Vermont" (74) was built in it, and launched from under it in 1848, after which it was pulled down, and a portion of its material used in the construction of additions to the officers' houses in the northeastern extremity of the yard. There is now a smaller house erected over the same ways from which in 1874 the iron torpedo-boat " In- trepid," the first vessel of the kind added to our navy, was launched.
2 The inhabitants of Boston watched the bat- tle with intense and anxious interest from the house-tops and adjoining eminences ; they could see the smoke and hear the distant cannonade. Some of the citizens who went outside the har- bor hurried back sadly when they saw the result. It was the last, as it was the only, sound of hos- tile cannon heard in Boston for the last hundred years. This is not the place, nor is there room, to describe the action in full, which the writer has narrated elsewhere. [See The United Ser- vice, October, 1879, for "The Chesapeake and Shannon," by G. H. Preble. Fac-similes from
Lawrence's last letter written just before leav- ing port, and from the British Captain Broke's challenge (which did not reach Boston by way of Salem till after the "Chesapeake " had gone out to sea) are given in Lossing's account of the action in his Field-book of the War of 1812, p. 702. A memoir of Lawrence was written at the time by Washington Irving in the Analectic Magazine, then edited by him, and it is now in- cluded in his Spanish Papers, etc., ii. 37 ; Irving had the advantage of a conference with an officer of the "Chesapeake" who survived the fight. See also Harper's Monthly, xxiv. A portrait of Captain Lawrence in uniform, by Stuart, is owned by his granddaughter, Mrs. William Red- mond, Newport, R. I. Mason's Stuart, p. 212. -ED.] By the loss of the "Chesapeake " our naval signals fell into the hands of the enemy, which rendered a new code necessary; and Commodores Bainbridge, Decatur, and IInll were appointed to perform that duty. His as- sociates being otherwise occupied on important duties, Commodore Bainbridge prepared and transmitted the new code, which was approved and adopted by the Department. He also, with Commodore Hull, about the same time prepared rules and regulations for the govern- ment of officers in repairing and equipping the vessels of the navy.
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THE NAVY, AND THE CHARLESTOWN NAVY YARD.
blockade of seven of the enemy's ships. After a short cruise, in which she captured the schooner " Pictou " of fourteen guns and three merchant vessels, she was finally chased into Marblehead.1
Rumors and reports of large ships of war having been seen off the coast kept the town in a continual state of ferment. Captain Sullivan, of the New England Guards, presented a statement of the defenceless condition of the harbor to the selectmen, which caused them to announce that a com- mittee of the board would attend every day at 11 o'clock A.M. at Faneuil Hall to receive communications and suggestions. The Adjutant-General of the Commonwealth also gave notice that in case of an attack during the day two guns would be fired rapidly, and a red flag hoisted in the Navy Yard; and if at night, three guns would be fired, two lanterns hoisted at the Navy Yard, and the church bells tolled for half an hour.2 The Navy Yard was so defenceless that little resistance could have been offered, and fears were expressed for the " Independence," then ready to be launched; and in June, when the enemy appeared in force off the harbor, Commodore Bainbridge entered into correspondence with General John Brooks, the Adjutant-General of Massachusetts, suggesting measures for its defence. In consequence of which the following General Order was issued : -
" HEADQUARTERS, Boston, June 13, 1814.
"Commodore Bainbridge having solicited the services of the Company of New- England Guards, commanded by Captain George Sullivan, for the defence of the Navy Yard in Charlestown, and that corps having voluntarily expressed their ready dispo- sition to meet the wishes of the Commodore, the Commander-in-Chief consents to the arrangement, and orders Captain Sullivan to march without delay to that post, where he will continue his command until further orders ; or otherwise until the object for which the services were requested is accomplished.
" By his Excellency's command,
"J. BROOKS, Adjutant-General."
In response to this order, on the afternoon of the 13th the Guards assembled to the number of sixty-one, and with their six-pounders and bag- gage encamped in the evening on the eminence above the magazine. Two eighteen-pounders and the company's six-pounders were planted to com-
1 On April 3, when the news came from the commandant of the Navy Yard that the "Con- stitution " was threatened by three frigates of the enemy, the New-England Guards of Boston volunteered to march to her defence. Leaving their armory af 7 o'clock, P. M., they halted in front of the commandant's house, where they were informed by Commodore Bainbridge that he would proceed at i o'clock A. M. with heavy artillery, and requested them to go on in ad- vance; they were, however, overtaken by his verbal order and directed to return, when, it hav- ing been ascertained that the " Constitution " was safe in Salem harbor, the company was dis- missed, - not, however, before it was discovered VOL. III. - 44
that in their haste they had marched on without a supply of ammunition. One of the company was Abbott Lawrence, afterward our minister to England; and when the company was hastily summoned, Lawrence, unwilling to be left be- hind, started on the march in pump-soled shoes. which soon became so uncomfortable that when the company was halted on Chelsea Bridge he bartered them with a countryman for a thick pair of brogans, giving him five dollars additional in exchange.
2 [A statement of the protective measures taken at this time is given in General Palfrey's chapter on " Boston Soldiery in War and Peace" in the present volume. - ED.]
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
mand Chelsea Bridge, over which it was apprehended an attack might be made, and the camp of sixteen tents was fronted in the same direction. The next day was occupied in raising breastworks; sham-fights and drills followed for three days. A portion of each day was employed by them in raising an embankment, which was completed on Sunday, and named " The Guard's Fort." The Guards having assisted at the subsequent attempts to launch the seventy-four, they were dismissed by the Commodore the next day with his thanks for their services.1
No sooner was the " Independence " in the water, than Commodore Bain- bridge hoisted his broad pennant on her, and guns were placed on board. She was then anchored in connection with the " Constitution " so as to rake the harbor and enfilade any squadron of boats which might attempt to carry the Navy Yard. Twenty-four cannon were mounted on three small batteries on the eastern embankment of the Navy Yard, and a linc of palisades was stretched across the wharf. Some heavy cannon which commanded the entrance of the Yard were placed in the rear of them; guns were also placed so as to rake the entrance to the Mystic River.2
I [The New England Guards had been organ- ized September, 1812, with Samuel Swett for Captain. Proceedings at the Fiftieth Anniversary of the New England Guards, Oct. 15, 1862 .- ED.] 2 A committee from the governor and coun- cil waited upon the commodore and requested him to remove the "Independence " and " Con- stitution " below the fort ; but he declined doing so, as the fort could not co-operate with them, and because in that position they would be subject to the same fire as the fleet of the enemy. The com- mittee argued that the public ships being the exclusive object of attack, if they remained where he had placed them, would draw the fire of the enemy on the towns of Boston and Charlestown, and involve them in the ruin of the national property. Bainbridge replied with some warmth that Government had confided to him an impor- tant command, and no temporizing expedients would induce him to alter the system of defence which he had planned. He was asked, "Should the people of Boston decline all measures of de- fence in consequence of his refusing to move the ships to the places proposed, whether that would not induce him to yield?" He firmly replied, " No, nor any other consideration what- ever. If," he added, " the people of Boston should refuse to defend their houses and property, they would have themselves alone to blame." The public property did not belong to any particular administration, but to the nation, and he re- gretted to observe that a very small proportion of the citizens should, in manifesting a hostility to the one, give evidence of a want of proper zeal in their duty to the other; he as an Amer- ican would do all that was incumbent upon him as an officer of the United States. Bain-
bridge further informed the committee that he would defend his command to the last extremity, let the consequences be what they might. If the citizens chose to scparate their interests from those of the nation, the consequences must fall where they were deserved ; duty and honor dic- tated the course which he should pursue. In- dividual influence in vain was brought to bear upon him to induce him to change his plan of defence, and he continued to devote all his en- ergies to the organization and proper disposition of his force.
It was proposed about this time to obstruct the entrances of the harbor by sinking ships, but this was strenuously objected to by Com- modore Bainbridge; and his course in this was approved by the Secretary of the Navy, who, in a long letter dated July 16, 1814, says : "It is difficult to imagine a case so absurd as the right of a State, much less a corporate body, to block up a harbor of the United States in which their naval arsenals are established and their fleets prepared to seek the enemy." He adds in conclusion : " What you have proposed to the town of Boston as a substitute for the ruinous measure contemplated by its marine committee appears to me to be well adapted to the occasion, and fully adequate to the end. You will therefore persevere in temperate ex- postulation, and the President trusts the commit- tee will ultimately see the superior advantages of your plan of defence, and the manifest objec- tions to the course they propose to pursue." If they still persisted, the commodore was ordered to report the nature and extent of the projected obstructions, and the probable time of their being placed.
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THE NAVY, AND THE CHARLESTOWN NAVY YARD.
The danger evidently increasing towards autumn, Major-General Dear- born received instructions from the President for the defence of the north- eastern military district; and there ensued a conflict of authority between him and the State authorities as to his right to call out and command the militia as garrisons of the forts on the seaboard. The variance of opinion between the State and national executives tended greatly to increase the general alarm. Meetings were called all along the seaboard to recommend strong measures for the common defence. The citizens of Boston were called upon to assemble ; and impressed by the eloquence of their chairman, the Hon. Harrison Gray Otis, they adopted without hesitation all the meas- ures which had been suggested to him in a letter from Commodore Bain- bridge, under date Sept. 3, 1811. The militia was called out, redoubts and breastworks were erected, and hulks were moored in the channel, prepared to be sunk. The British commanding officer, on learning of these prepara- tions, and that the spirit of the people was aroused, wisely withdrew from his contemplated attack, and turned his course to the South.
Relieved from these apprehensions of attack, the commodore urged on the completion of the "Independence ; " and on October 22 he wrote to the sec- retary unofficially : " I feel extremely anxious to get to sca this winter to establish the fact that we are able successfully to fight Great Britain in other classes of vessels than frigates and sloops of war. . . . It will take, compar- atively speaking, but a small sum to get the 'Independence' to sca; and if she is sent, I pledge my life you will be gratified with the cruise." Un- fortunately the guns of the " Independence " were at the Washington Navy Yard, and could not be transported by land in the winter, and the danger of their capture forbade a conveyance by sca ; and in consequence she did not get to sea until after the end of the war.1
Peace having been declared, there was a cessation of activity in all our navy yards, which was felt in Boston as elsewhere, and improvements in progress or projected came to a standstill.
The declaration of war with Algiers on March 2, 1815, created a tempo- rary excitement ; and Commodore Bainbridge, having been appointed to com- mand our Mediterranean squadron, was relieved by Commodore Isaac Hull as commandant of the station. Hoisting his broad pennant on the " In- dependence," Bainbridge sailed from Boston July 3, 1815, accompanied by the " Eric," " Chippewa," and "Lynx." A squadron which had sailed from New York under Commodore Decatur was united to his command ; so that after his arrival in the Mediterranean his force consisted of eigh- tecn or twenty sail, being the largest squadron which had ever been fit- ted out by the United States.
I We learn from an official source that dur- ing the war, notwithstanding the port was block- aded for a greater part of the time, the following United States vessels of war passed in and out of Boston, -namely, Frigates : " Constitution," seven times ; " President," four times ; " United
States," twice; " Chesapeake," three times ; "Congress," four times. Sloops of war : " Hor- net," twice ; " Frolic," once; " John Adams," once. Brigs of war : " Argus," Iwice; " Nau- tilus," four times ; " Rattlesnake " twice ; " Si- ren," twice.
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
Our difficulty with Algiers having been satisfactorily and honorably ad- justed, the squadron under Bainbridge - consisting of two frigates, seven brigs, and three schooners -sailed from Gibraltar October 6, and arrived at Newport, Rhode Island, Nov. 15, 1815. After distributing his force between Boston and New York where the vessels were to be laid up, Bain- bridge sailed in the " Independence " for Boston, where he arrived Dec. 7, 1815, having been absent five months. The " Independence " was retained in commission as a guard-ship, flying Bainbridge's pennant as Port Captain, which is the first instance of that office being created in our navy. He continued in command of her and of the Boston station for several years, Commodore Hull commanding at the Navy Yard. During this period the "Independence " was fully officered and two-thirds manned, and was kept in a perfect state of discipline and efficiency.
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