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tempts were made. The two most remarkable were those against the Ramilies, off New London, and against the Plantagenet, off Cape Henry, at the mouth of the Chesapeake bay.

10. The attempt on the Ramilies was made on the 25th of June. The schooner Eagle was loaded at New York with a number of flour barrels filled with gunpowder, in one of which was fixed a gun-lock, with a string to the trigger made fast to the bottom of the vessel. Over these were placed a few barrels of damaged flour. Thus prepared, she threw herself in the way of the boats of the blockading squadron off New London, and on their coming up to take possession of her, the crew took to their boat, and made their escape. It was expected that the schooner would be taken along-side of the Ramilies to unload; but the wind and tide being against them, and night coming on, it was determined to unload as much of the flour in the boats as could conveniently be done. When they came to the barrel of powder in which the gun-lock was placed, and hooked the tackle to hoist it on deck, it sprung the trigger, and blew up the schooner and all on board and around her, and in a few seconds not a vestige of them was to be seen.

The attempt on the Plantagenet was made in the month of July, by means of a torpedo. On the night of the 18th, Mr. Mix, of the United States navy, accompanied by two persons who volunteered for the purpose, proceeded from Norfolk down to the Plantagenet, in a large open boat, and from previous observations found no difficulty in ascertaining her position. When Mix had got to within 40 fathom of her, he dropped the torpedo over, in the very instant of doing which he was hailed by one of the enemy's guard boats. The machine was speedily taken into the boat again, and he made his way off in safety. On the night of the 19th he made another attempt, and was again discovered ere he could accomplish his purpose. On the night of the 20th he succeeded in getting within 15 yards of the ship's bow, and directly under her jib-boom. There he continued making his preparations for 15 minutes, when a centinel from the forecastle hailed "boat ahoy!" and he had once more to decamp. The centinel not being answered, fired his musket, which was followed by a rapid discharge of small arms. Blue lights were made to find out the boat, but failed; they then threw rockets in different directions, which illuminated the water for a considerable width as far as they were thrown, and succeeded in discovering the position of the nocturnal visitor; when the ship commenced a rapid fire of heavy guns, slipped her cables, and made some sail, while her boats were despatched in pursuit. The daring intruders, however, escaped un

VOL. II.

hurt. The visit was repeated on the nights of the 21st, 22d, and 23d, without success, as the ship, having taken the alarm, changed her position every night. On the night of the 24th, however, Mr. Mix succeeded in finding her out, and having taken his position within 100 yards distance, in a direction with her larboard bow, he dropped the fatal machine into the water just as the centinel was crying all's well. It was swept along with the tide, and would have completely effected its errand, it is said, had it not exploded a few seconds too soon. The scene was awfully sublime. It was like the concussion of an earthquake, attended with a sound louder and more terrific than the heaviest peal of thunder. A pyramid of water 50 feet in circumference was thrown up to the height of 30 or 40 feet; its appearance was a vivid red, tinged at the sides with a beautiful purple. On ascending to its greatest height, it burst at the top with a tremendous explosion, and fell in torrents on the deck of the ship, which rolled into the yawning chasm below, and had nearly upset.-Impervious darkness again prevailed. The light occasioned by the explosion, though fleeting, enabled Mr. Mix and his companions to discover that the forechannel of the ship was blown off, and a boat which lay alongside with several men in her, was thrown up in the dreadful convulsion of the waters. Terrible, indeed, must have been the panic of the ship's crew, from the noise and confusion which appeared to our adventurers to prevail on board; and they are certain that nearly the whole ship's crew hastily betook themselves to the boats.

CHAPTER VII.

§ 1. Cruises on lake Erie. § 2. Capture of the British squadron. § 3. Evacuation of Malden and Detroit. §4. Capture of the British army. § 5. Moderation of the conquerors. § 6. Expedition to the Peoria lake. §7. Inactivity of the army at Fort George. §8. Chauncey's cruises on lake Ontario. § 9. Engagement with the Royal George under Kingston batteries. 10. Engagement with Yeo's squadron. § 11. Yeo chased round the lake. 12. Chauncey's second engagement with Yeo. 13. Capture of the British transports.

§ 1. MEANWHILE the utmost exertions were used by captain Perry, to increase the naval armament on lake Erie. Two twenty gun brigs were launched at Erie, the American port on the lake, about the middle of June, and shortly after Perry arrived there from Black Rock with the Caledonia, and the small schooners. The brigs being now equipped and manned, Perry, on the 4th of August, sailed as commodore of the squadron, and succeeded in getting them over the bar at the mouth of the harbour, in the face of the British squadron, who fortunately made no attack, which might have been attended with serious consequences, as the water on the bar being but five feet deep, the large vessels had to be buoyed over. The following day Perry sailed in quest of the enemy, but returned on the 8th without meeting him. He was again about to sail on the same day, when he received intelligence of captain Elliot's arrival at Cataraugus with a reinforcement of sailors, on which the cruize was delayed, and a vessel immediately despatched to bring them on.

On the arrival of the reinforcement, Perry again sailed on the 12th, and on the 15th arrived at Sandusky bay, where the army under general Harrison lay encamped. Thence he cruised off Malden, where the British squadron were anchored under the guns of the fort. The appearance of the American squadron is said to have created great alarm on shore; the women and children ran shrieking about the place, expecting an immediate attack. The enemy, however, not being prepared or disposed to give battle, though strongly urged thereto by the Indians, Perry returned to Sandusky.

§2. At sunrise on the morning of the 10th of September, the squadron of the enemy was discovered from Put-in-Bay, where

Perry lay at anchor with the squadron under his command. He immediately got under weigh and stood for him, with a light wind at south-west. At 10 o'clock the wind hauled to the south-east, which brought the American squadron to windward, on which Perry hoisted his union jack, having for a motto the dying words of captain Lawrence, "Don't give up the ship," which was received with repeated cheerings by the officers and crews. The line was now formed, and they bore up for the enemy, but, owing to the lightness of the wind, did not approach within long shot until 15 minutes before 12, when the enemy commenced firing on the Lawrence, the commodore's ship, which was considerably ahead of the others. The firing was received for ten minutes before it was returned, an advantage which the enemy derived from the superior length of their guns, and the lightness of the wind, which allowed Perry to approach them but slowly. Without waiting for his other vessels, however, Perry gallantly kept on his course, receiving the whole fire of the enemy, until, gaining a nearer position, he opened his fire.

Finding the fire of the enemy on the Lawrence very destructive, from the length of their guns, and its being mostly directed at that vessel, Perry again made sail, and directed the other vessels to follow, for the purpose of closing with the enemy. Every brace and bow-line, however, being soon shot away, the Lawrence became unmanageable, and in this situation sustained the fire of the British squadron for two hours within cannister distance, until every gun was rendered useless, and the greater part of the crew either killed or wounded.

At this critical moment, when the enemy must have counted the victory certain, Perry formed the bold resolution of shifting his flag. The wind fortunately sprung up, which enabled captain Elliot to bring his vessel, the Niagara, into close action, and Perry immediately went on board of her, under the broadsides and discharges of small arms of the enemy, two of whose vessels were within musket shot, and a third one nearer. As soon as Perry got on board, captain Elliot, anticipating his wish, volunteered to bring the schooners, which had been kept astern by the lightness of the wind, into close action.

At this moment the commodore, to his unspeakable pain, saw the flag of the Lawrence pulled down. The event was, however, unavoidable. All her guns were dismounted, and scarcely a man on board unhurt. In this situation, to have continued to make a show of resistance, would have been a wanton sacrifice of the remains of her brave crew. The enemy, however, was

not able to take possession of her, and subsequent circumstances soon permitted her flag again to be hoisted*.

At 45 minutes past two the signal was made for close action, and the Niagara being very little injured, Perry determined to break the enemy's line. He accordingly bore up, and passing ahead of their two ships and a brig, gave them a raking fire from his starboard guns, and from the larboard side to a large schooner and a sloop, at half pistol-shot distance. The smaller vessels now got within grape and cannister distance by the aid of their sweeps, and so well directed a fire was kept up, that the whole British squadron, consisting of two ships, two brigs, a schooner, and a sloop, was forced to surrender, the schooner and sloop making a vain attempt to escape.

This engagement lasted about three hours, and never was victory more decisive and complete. The captured squadron had more numerous crews, and exceeded the American squadron both in number of guns and weight of metal. The prisoners taken were more in number than their conquerors. The loss on both sides was very severe. That of the Americans was principally on board the Lawrence, where few indeed escaped unhurt; among those few were the commodore and his brother, a midshipman on board the same vessel. The number of the enemy's killed and wounded was not ascertained. It must, however, have been very great, their vessels being literally cut to pieces. Commodore Barclay, the commander of the British squadron, was twice carried below on account of his wounds. He had seen much service, having been desperately wounded in the battle of Trafalgar, and afterwards losing an arm in another engagement with the French. Two Indian chiefs had been stationed in the tops of the Detroit, the British commodore's ship, to shoot down the. American officers; but, when the action became warm, so panic struck were they with the terrors of the scene, and the strange perils that surrounded them, that they fled precipitately to the hold of the ship, where they were found after the battle in a state of utter consternation. The bodies of several other Indians are said to have been found next day on the shore of the lake, supposed to have been killed during the engagement, and thrown overboard.

Great as had been the public rejoicings on the former victories of the American navy, they were little to what took place on

Some of our wiseacre fault-finders have had the folly to represent the rehoisting of the flag of the Lawrence as an unjustifiable act, forgetful that it could not be for the purpose of joining in the action, as not a single gun remained mounted. The circumstances which enabled her to hoist her flag were undoubtedly the capture of the whole of the hostile fleet.

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