1815. where it ought to have fallen; and, in the unpleasant task of detailing, what, the more it is investigated, the more it will show itself to be, the most blundering piece of business recorded in these six volumes, we should neither have had our statements called in question nor our motives misunderstood.

hears

Hornet On the 20th of January, six days after the Preof the sident and store-brig Macedonian had escaped from peace New-York, the Peacock, Hornet, and store-brig falls in Tom-Bowline succeeded also in getting to sea.

and

with

Pen

On

the 23d the Hornet parted company from her two guin. consorts, and proceeded straight to the island of Tristan-d'Acunha, the first rendezvous for the squadron. On the 20th of March captain Biddle was informed of the peace by a neutral; and on the 23d, at 11 A. M., when just about to anchor off the north end of the above island, the Hornet fell in with the british brig-sloop Penguin, of 16 carronades, 32pounders and two sixes, captain James Dickinson.

New mode

Hornet

was

Before narrating the action that ensued, it will, in we consider, prove useful to point out a few of the which circumstances under which the parties met. The armament of the Hornet has already, on more than fitted. one occasion, been shown:* she now carried, in lieu of her two long twelves, two long 18-pounders; and, as these, owing to their great length, could not conveniently be fought through the foremost or usual long-gun ports, they were mounted amidships. She had musketoons in all her tops, each piece throwing 50 buck-shot at a discharge, and upon each quarter à 3 or 4 pound brass swivel, fitted on a chock. All this had been done to bring the Hornet nearer to an "equality" with the Loup-Cervier, in case the challenge, to which we have already alluded, had been accepted. Her crew, consisting at this time of 165 men, (eight absent in a prize,) had also, it may be presumed, been well culled preparatory to the

* See p. 275.

expected contest. Each man had a boarding-helmet, 1815. similar to those we described as worn by the crew of the Constitution.*

missi

of Pen

guin.

The Penguin was commissioned, for the first time, Comin November, 1813; and, as a proof how much oning brigs of her class were wanted in the british navy, there were but 81 in commission on the 1st of the succeeding January. January. After having been run up by the contract-builder in the usual slight and hurried manner, to be ready on the emergency, (there being, as already stated, no more than 81 such vessels in commission,) the Penguin was to be manned with equal recklessness about consequences. In respect to captain and officers generally, the Penguin might compete with any brig of her class; but, as to men, when she did get them all on board, which was not until June, 1814, they were, with the exception, probably, of not being disaffected, a worse crew than even the Epervier's. Her 17 boys, poor little fellows, might do very well six or seven years to come. Her men, her misnamed "british seamen,' consisted, except a portion of her petty officers, of very old and very young individuals; the latter, pressed men, the former discharged ineffectives. Among the whole number, thus obtained, 12 only had ever been in action.

brig

foreign

One might suppose, that a vessel so "manned," The especially after a knowledge of the fact, that four of is sent the same description of sloops had been captured, on a each by an american sloop of the same nominal, station. whatever may have been her real, force, would have been sent to escort some convoy from the Downs along the english coast; a service in which, as against the pickaroons that usually infested the Channel, the appearance of a force was almost as effective as its reality. Oh, no. The aforesaid emergency required, that the Penguin should be sent to the Cape of Good Hope, to traverse the very track in

* See p. 476.

1815. which the Java had met, and been captured by, the Constitution. Accordingly, in the month of September, the Penguin sailed for her distant destination. While on the Cape station, she lost several of her men by sickness; and, previously to her being despatched by vice-admiral Charles Tyler, the commander in chief at the Cape, in pursuit of the american privateer ship, Young-Wasp, the Penguin received on board from the Medway 74, as a loan for that special service, 12 marines: thus making her complement 105 men and 17 boys, or 122 in the whole.

Proba

ble be

our of

had

guin

been a

Had the vessel in sight to-windward been rigged havi with three masts instead of two, and had she, on her captain near approach, proved by her signals to be a british Biddle cruiser, captain Biddle would have marked her Pen- down in his log as a "frigate," and have made off with all the canvass he could spread. Had the ship, ship- nevertheless, overtaken the Hornet, and been, in sloop. reality, a trifle superior in force to her, captain Biddle, we have no doubt, would have exhausted his eloquence in lauding the blessings of peace, before he tried the effect of his artillery in a struggle for the honours of war. However, the vessel approaching was evidently a brig; and the utmost extent of a brig-sloop's force was thoroughly known. When she first descried the Hornet in the northchases west by west, the Penguin was steering to the eastHornet ward, with the wind fresh from the south-southaction west. With all the promptitude that was to be mences expected from the gallant first lieutenant of the

Pen.. guin

and

com-

Cerberus in the action off Lissa, captain Dickinson bore up in chase. At 1 h. 45 m. P. M., Tristan d'Acunha bearing south-west distant three or four miles, the Penguin hoisted her colours, a St.-George's ensign, and fired a gun, to induce the stranger to show hers. The Hornet immediately luffed up on the starboard tack, hoisted american colours, and discharged her broadside; and the Penguin, on rounding to upon the same tack, fired hers in return. Thus the action commenced, within about pistol

shot distance. The Hornet's star and bar shot soon 1815. reduced the Penguin's rigging to a state of disorder; and a tolerably well-directed discharge of round and grape, meeting no adequate return, especially as the carronades, owing to their insecure mode of mounting, turned half round almost every time they were discharged, made a sensible impression upon the Penguin's hull. At 2 h. 15 m. P. M., as the Penguin drifted nearer, the Hornet bore away, with the semblance of retiring from the contest, but in reality to take a more favourable position for doing Death execution with her gunnery. Captain Dickinson, on Dick this, bore up with the intention to board. Before, inson. however, this gallant officer could put his plan into execution, he received a mortal wound.

of capt.

board

her

fore

Lieutenant James M'Donald, who now succeeded Penguin to the command, aware of the brig's disabled state, tries to saw that the only chance of success was to attempt bot his captain's measure. Accordingly, at 2 h. 25 m., loses the Penguin ran her bowsprit between the Hornet's main and mizen rigging on the starboard side. The mast. heavy swell lifting the ship ahead, the brig's bowsprit, after carrying away the Hornet's mizen shroud, stern-davits, and spanker-boom, broke in two, and the foremast went at the same moment, falling in-board directly upon the foremost and waist guns on the larboard or engaged side. These guns becoming, in consequence, completely disabled, and the after guns being equally so from the drawing of the breeching-bolts, an attempt was made to bring a fresh broadside to bear; but the Penguin was in too unmanageable a state to be got round. In this dilemma no alternative remained; and at 2 h. Surren35 m. P. M. lieutenant M'Donald hailed to say, that the Penguin surrendered. After a lapse of 25 minutes, an officer from the Hornet came on board to take possession.

ders.

board

Out of a crew, as already stated, of 105 men and Loss on 17 boys, the Penguin lost her commander, boat- of her. swain, and four seamen and marines killed, four

1815. others mortally wounded, and her second lieutenant, (John Elwin, very severely,) one master's mate, (John Holmes Bond,) one midshipman, (John Noyes, each of whom lost a leg,) purser's clerk, and 24 seamen and marines wounded, for the most part slightly. Even the Hornet was beginning to fall off in her gunnery. Most of the Penguin's men were wounded by musketry; and the bowsprit, and the foremast along with it, fell chiefly owing to the two vessels getting foul in the manner they did, while so heavy a sea was running.

Da

and

The Hornet received a few shot in the hull; one mage of which was so low down as to keep her men conloss on stantly at the pumps. Out of a crew of 163 men Hornet and two boys, the Hornet lost, by the acknowledg

board

ment of her officers, only two seamen killed and II wounded; but, according to the observation of the british officers, her loss was much greater. Just as Mr. Edward B. Kirk, one of the Penguin's midshipmen, and the very first prisoner that reached the Hornet, was stepping upon her deck, the crew were in the act of throwing a man overboard; but a struggle or convulsive twitch in the body occasioned his being hauled in again. The poor man's lower jaw had been nearly all shot away; yet he lived, and was walking about the deck in the course of a few days. This shows the hurry in which the american officers were, to get their killed out of the way before the arrival of the prisoners; and the time necessary to remove every appearance of blood and carnage contributed to the delay in sending for them. Even when the British did come on board, buckets of water were dashing about and brooms at work on all parts of the deck.. The Penguin's second lieutenant counted 16 of the Hornet's men lying in their cots; and several of her men told some of their former shipmates, whom they discovered among the Penguin's crew, that the Hornet had 10 men killed by the first and second broadsides.

We cannot, with any consistency, offer the trifling