1812. day."* One reason for doing this, might be to Oct. render more alluring the offer of liberty made to those who would turn traitors. Being perfectly aware, that all the British, whom they could persuade to enter, would fight in the most desperate manner, rather than be taken and turned over to their certain as merited fate, captain Hull and his officers, as well while the Constitution was steering for Boston, and after she had arrived there, used every art to inveigle the late Guerrière's crew to enlist in the american service. Eight Englishmen, however, were all that remained in the United States; and only two of those entered on board the Constitution.

Court

on

On the 2d of the succeeding October a courtmartial martial assembled on board the Africa 64, Halifax captain harbour, to try the captain, officers, and late crew his offi- of the Guerrière; when, as may be anticipated from

Dacres,

cers,

&c.

the details already given, the following sentence of acquittal was pronounced: "Having attended to the whole of the evidence, and also to the defence of captain Dacres, the court agreed, that the surrender of the Guerrière was proper, in order to preserve the lives of her valuable remaining crew; and that her being in that lamentable situation was from the accident of her masts going, which was occasioned more by their defective state than from the fire of the enemy, though so greatly superior in guns and men. The court do, therefore, unanimously and honourably acquit the said captain Dacres, the officers and crew, of his majesty's late ship the Guerrière, and they are hereby honourably acquitted according. The court, at the same time, feel themselves called upon to express the high sense they entertain of the conduct of the ship's company in general, when prisoners, but more particularly of those who withstood the attempts made to shake their loyalty, by offering them high bribes to enter into the land and sea service of the enemy, and they will represent their merit to the commander in chief."

* Brenton, vol. v. p. 54.

from

cres's

trial.

In his official letter, dated at Boston, September 1812. 7, captain Dacres compliments captain Hull and his Oct. officers, for their treatment of his men, "the greatest Excare being taken to prevent them losing the smallest tract trifle." But, considering perhaps that, in an enemy's captain country, it would be unwise to commit complaints to Dathe chance of leading to further oppression, captain address Dacres remained silent about the attempts to at his inveigle his crew, until he addressed the members of his court-martial at Halifax. The concluding passage of that address is in the following words: "Notwithstanding the unlucky issue of this affair, such confidence have I in the exertions of the officers and men who belonged to the Guerrière; and I am so well aware that the success of my opponent was owing to fortune, that it is my earnest wish, and would be the happiest period of my life, to be once more opposed to the Constitution, with them under my command, in a frigate of similar force to the Guerrière."

Bren

That the captain of the Guerrière should have expressed such an opinion on such an occasion is allowable enough; but we are surprised to find that opinion seconded by the captain of the Spartan, a frigate of the same force as the Guerrière, a frigate which the Constitution herself had just come from seeking when she fell in with the latter. "Thus far," says captain Brenton, "the two ships had Capt. fought with an equal chance of success, when the ton's day was decided by one of those accidents to acwhich ships of war are ever liable, and which can rarely be guarded against."* He then describes the fall of the Guerrière's mizenmast. We are stopped, however, in the comments we were going to make, by observing, at the conclusion of the account of the Guerrière's capture, the following paragraph, whether in confirmation or contradiction of the former passage, let others decide: "The inference is erroneous, (that

* Brenton, vol. v. p. 50.

count.

Sept.

1812. our navy was declining and our officers and men deficient in their duty,) founded on a supposition, that, if two ships happen to be called frigates, the lesser one, being manned and commanded by Englishmen, ought to take the greater, though a ship very nearly double her force, in size, guns, and men: we need scarcely enter into any argument to prove the fallacy of such an expectation."*

Frolic sails

with

On the 12th of September the british 18-gun brigfrom $loop Frolic, captain Thomas Whinyates, quitted the Hon- bay of Honduras, with about 14 sail of merchantmen duras under convoy, for England. On arriving off Havana, Convoy the master of a Guernsey ship informed captain Whinyates of the war with America, and of the Guerrière's capture. Having been five years in the West Indies, and being very sickly in her crew, the Frolic was by no means in a fit state to encounter an enemy's vessel of a similar class to herself. However, there was no alternative; and the brig proceeded on her voyage along the coast of the United States.

Gets

dis

gale.

On the night of the 16th of October, in latitude 36° abled north, longitude 64° west, a violent gale of wind in a came on, which separated the Frolic from her convoy, carried away her main yard, sprung the main topmast, and tore both topsails to pieces. By dark on the evening of the 17th, six of the missing ships had joined; and on the 18th, at daybreak, while the Frolic, in a very turbulent sea, was repairing her damages, a sail hove in sight to-windward, which Falls in was at first taken for one of the convoy. But the near approach of the stranger, and her not answering Wasp. signals, soon marked her for an enemy: whereupon, removing her main yard from off the casks and lashing it to the deck, the Frolick hauled to the wind under her boom-mainsail, and (her fore topmast having been sprung previously to the gale) a closereefed fore topsail, in order to let her convoy pass sufficiently ahead to be out of danger.

with

the

* Brenton, vol, v. p. 54.

Oct.

to de

pursu

ceeds

on an

At a few minutes before 11A.M., apprehensive that 1812. the strange ship of war might pursue the merchantmen instead of himself, captain Whinyates hoisted spanish Endeacolours as a decoy; having two days before passed yours a convoy under the protection of a spanish armed coy her brig, and which convoy, it was imagined that the from strange vessel might also have seen. The latter, ing the which was the United States' 18-gun ship-sloop convoy Wasp, captain Jacob Jones, five days only from the Delaware, immediately hoisted her colours, and bore Sucdown for the Frolic, then awaiting her approach on and the larboard tack. On arriving within 60 yards of brings the Frolic, the Wasp hailed: whereupon, quickly action. exchanging her colours to british, the brig opened a fire of great guns and musketry. This was instantly returned by the Wasp; and, as the latter dropped nearer to her antagonist, the action became close and spirited. In less than five minutes after she had commenced firing, the Frolic shot away the Wasp's main topmast; and, in two or three minutes more, the latter's gaff and mizen topgallantmast also came down. The sea was so rough, that the muzzles of the guns of both vessels were frequently under water. Still the cannonade continued, with mutual spirit; the Americans firing, as the engaged side of their ship was going down, the British, when their engaged side was rising. rising. The consequence was, that almost every shot fired by the Wasp took effect in her opponent's hull; while most of the Frolic's shot passed among the rigging or over the masts of the Wasp.

incon

ence

loss of

Being in a very light state from a deficiency of Great stores, and being unable, on account of the sprung venistate of her topmasts and the want of a main yard, of the to steady herself by carrying sail, the Frolic laboured brig's much more than the Wasp, and experienced, in consequence, greater difficulty in pointing her guns with sail. precision. In a minute or two after the Wasp's main topmast had come down, the Frolic's gaff headbraces were shot away. Having now no sail whatever

after

1812.

upon the mainmast, the brig had lost the means of Oct. preventing the Wasp from taking a position on her larboard bow. A ship would not have been so circumstanced, even had she lost her mizenmast by the board; as she could still have set a trysail upon her mainmast.

Frolic

unma

Thus, in less than 10 minutes after the action had wholly commenced, chiefly by her previous inability to carry nage- sail, the Frolic lay an unmanageable hulk upon the and de. Water, exposed to the whole raking fire of her anfence tagonist, without the possibility of returning it with less. more than one of her bow guns. The Wasp conti

able

Ameri

cans

and

nued pouring in broadside after broadside, until, believing that he had so thinned the deck of the british brig, that no opposition could be offered, captain Jones determined to board and end the contest. The Wasp accordingly wore, and, running down upon the Frolic, soon brought the latter's jibboom between her fore and main rigging, and two of her own carronades in a direction with the bow ports of her defenceless antagonist. Having so fine an opportunity of further diminishing the strength of his opponent, captain Jones would not board until a raking fire was poured in: it was poured in, and swept the whole range of the Frolic's deck.

A british seaman belonging to the Wasp, named board Jack Lang, was now about to spring on the brig's bowsprit and put a stop to the carnage; but captain the Jones, observing that some one yet lived on the colours Frolic's deck, pulled him back, and ordered another

strike

broadside to be fired. At length, when the action altogether had lasted 43 minutes, and when the american ship had had nearly the whole firing to herself for 33 minutes, the officers and men of the Wasp, led by lieutenant George William Rodgers, boarded the Frolic. The Americans, according to their account, did not see a single man alive upon the Frolic's deck, except the seaman at the wheel and three officers. Two of those officers were captain Whinyates and his second lieutenant, Frederick