Part 6 (1/2)
Both captains now decided to board, and the men were ma.s.sed on the decks as they could be spared from the guns for the purpose. Dacres was on the point of sending his men across his bowsprit, but, finding the jackies of the ”Const.i.tution” ready to receive him, changed his mind. The sharpshooters in the tops of both vessels were firing into the black ma.s.ses of men, and every shot told. Lieutenant Morris, on the ”Const.i.tution,” while attempting to take a few turns of rope around the bowsprit of the ”Guerriere,” received a bullet through the body. William S. Bush, the first lieutenant of marines, while standing on the taffrail ready to board, was shot through the skull by a British marine, and instantly killed. John C. Alwyn, the sailing-master, at the same time received a ball through the shoulder. Captain Hull climbed up on the rail, when a Yankee seaman, putting his arms around him, dragged him down and out of danger.
”Not with them swabs on,” he said, pointing to Hull's big bullion epaulettes. He would have been a certain mark for one of the sharpshooters of the enemy.
At about this time the flag of the ”Const.i.tution,” which had been nailed at the mizzen-truck, was shot down. But a young topman, named Hogan, s.h.i.+nned up the spar far aloft, and, though fired at repeatedly by the British marines, succeeded in replacing it amid the cheers of his companions.
On the ”Guerriere” things were going badly. Captain Dacres had been shot in the back by one of the American marines, but he pluckily remained on deck. As the ”Const.i.tution” got clear again, both the mainmast and foremast of the ”Guerriere,” which had been repeatedly cut by American shot, went over with a crash, and she lay on the wave completely helpless.
This was less than half an hour after the ”Const.i.tution” sent in her terrible broadside.
The American s.h.i.+p drew off to a short distance to repair her damages, and in less than an hour returned, and sent Lieutenant Read in a cutter to discover if Captain Dacres had surrendered.
Dacres's humiliation was complete, and he felt that further battle would only be the butchery of his own brave fellows.
Lieutenant Read hailed him to learn if he had surrendered.
”I don't know that it would be prudent to continue the engagement any longer.”
”Do I understand you to say that you have struck?” asked Read.
”Not precisely; but I don't know that it would be worth while to fight any longer.”
”If you cannot decide,” said the American, ”I will return aboard my s.h.i.+p and resume the engagement.”
Dacres here called out hurriedly,--
”I am pretty much _hors de combat_ already. I have hardly men enough to work a single gun and my s.h.i.+p is in a sinking condition.”
”I wish to know, sir,” demanded Read peremptorily, ”whether I am to consider you as a prisoner of war or as an enemy. I have no time for further parley.”
Dacres paused, and then said, brokenly, ”I believe now there is no alternative. If I could fight longer I would with pleasure, but I--I must surrender.”
When Dacres went up the side of the ”Const.i.tution” to surrender his sword he was treated in the manner befitting his rank by a generous enemy.
Captain Hull a.s.sisted him to the deck, saying, anxiously,--
”Dacres, give me your hand; I know you are hurt.” And when the Englishman extended his sword, hilt forward, in formal surrender, Hull said, magnanimously,--
”No, no; I will not have the sword of a man who knows so well how to use it. But”--and his eyes twinkled merrily--”but I'll thank you for that hat.” He had not forgotten the wager, if Dacres had.
The transferring of prisoners was at once begun, for it was seen that the ”Guerriere” was a hopeless hulk, not fit to take to port. When this was all completed and every article of value taken from her, she was blown up, and the ”Const.i.tution” sailed for Boston.
She arrived at an opportune time. For Detroit had been surrendered without firing a shot in its defence, and the American arms on the Canadian frontier had otherwise met with disastrous failure. The ”Const.i.tution,”
gaily dressed in flags, came up the harbor amid the booming of cannon and the wildest of excitement among the people. A banquet was given to the officers in Faneuil Hall, and from that time the American navy gained a prestige at home it has never since lost. Congress voted a gold medal to Captain Hull, silver ones to the officers, and fifty thousand dollars as a bonus to the crew.
The statistics of the fight are as follows:
The ”Const.i.tution” had fifty-five guns, the ”Guerriere” forty-nine, sending shot weighing approximately seven hundred and six hundred pounds respectively. The ”Const.i.tution's” crew numbered four hundred and sixty-eight; that of the ”Guerriere” two hundred and sixty-three. The ”Const.i.tution” lost seven killed and seven wounded, and the ”Guerriere”
fifteen killed and sixty-three wounded. All authorities acknowledge that, other things being equal, the discrepancy in metal and crews hardly explains the difference in the condition of the vessels at the end of the battle.
THE ”WASP” AND THE ”FROLIC”