Capture of USS President
Encyclopedia
The Capture of USS President
was the result of a naval action fought at the end of the Anglo-American War of 1812
. The frigate President tried to break out of New York Harbor, but was intercepted by a British squadron of four frigates and was forced to surrender.
commanded President. In 1812, while in command of the frigate USS United States
, he had captured the British frigate in a famous action. After his return, the British instituted a strict blockade of the American coast.
In 1813, Decatur tried to break out of New York in the United States and USS Macedonian (which had been taken into the United States Navy), but encountered a powerful British squadron which drove him into New London, Connecticut
. To lighten the two frigates sufficiently to tow them far enough up-river to be safe from British cutting-out expeditions, they were effectively hulk
ed, or demilitarized.
Decatur tried to break out in the United States in early 1814, but turned back when he feared that pro-British local civilians (the so-called Blue light federalists
) were burning lights to alert the blockaders. Decatur and the crew of the United States were transferred to the President, which had been refitted in New York. (The crew of the Macedonian were transferred to the Great Lakes
.)
On 13 December 1814, the President and some smaller warships (the sloops-of-war USS Peacock
and USS Hornet, and the schooner-rigged tender USS Tom Bowline
) were in New York Harbor
, preparing to break out past the British blockade to embark on cruises against British merchant shipping. The British squadron blockading New York consisted of the former ship of the line
Majestic
which had been razee
d i.e. cut down to a single deck to create a heavy frigate, and the frigates HMS Endymion
, HMS Pomone
and HMS Tenedos. They were under the overall command of Commodore John Hayes
, who was captain of the Majestic.
On 13 January, a blizzard blew up from the north-west. The British ships were blown off their station, to the south-east. Decatur determined to take advantage of the situation by breaking out with the President alone. (He may have been accompanied by a merchant brig, also named Macedonian, carrying extra rations as a tender, but the brig does not feature in any subsequent events.) The plan was that the smaller warships would break out later and rendezvous with President off Tristan da Cunha
in the South Atlantic.
Decatur immediately met with disaster. He had ordered harbor pilots to anchor boats to mark the safe passage across the bar at the mouth of the harbor, but they failed to do so properly. The President grounded on the bar and remained stuck there for almost two hours, enduring a pounding from the wind and heavy sea. By the time the frigate worked free it was heavily damaged. Some copper had been stripped away from the hull; the masts were twisted and some of them were "sprung" i.e. had developed long cracks; the hull was also twisted and "hogged" i.e. the bow and stern had sagged. Nevertheless, it was impossible for Decatur to return to port as the gale was still blowing and he was forced to put to sea. He headed east, keeping close to the Long Island shore before heading south-east.
passage and headed north to watch the Long Island
passage, rather than head back to the harbor entrance. At dawn on 14 January, they sighted President. Decatur immediately turned down-wind and tried to gain speed by lightening his ship by throwing stores and boats overboard and pumping out drinking water, but the damage he had received on the bar had fatally slowed the President.
After Majestic had fired some ranging shots which fell short, Pomone overtook her and led the pursuit but Tenedos appeared unexpectedly to the south and Hayes sent Pomone to investigate. As afternoon wore on, the wind eased to a breeze and Endymion overtook Majestic and overhauled the President.
By late afternoon, Endymion and President were exchanging fire using their bow- and stern-chase cannon respectively. By nightfall, the Endymion had closed to President's quarter, where Decatur could bring no guns to bear. Endymion was a very fast ship and her Captain, Hope, yawed to fire a broadside into President's quarter, before turning again to follow and regain his position. The Long Island shore was too close for Decatur to steer northwards to put the Endymion astern.
After Endymion had repeated this maneuver for the third time, causing considerable loss aboard President, Decatur abruptly turned to starboard to cross Endymion's bows. He had mustered boarding parties in case the British were taken by surprise, but Endymion also turned to starboard and the two ships headed south, exchanging broadsides. Decatur had no time to batter the British vessel into surrender, as the other three British ships would almost certainly be in range before long, so his gunners fired high into Endymion's rigging to disable her, using chain shot and "dismantling shot" (bars of iron linked by a ring), while the British gunners fired low into the hull of the President. However, the shooting was poor on both sides while the President's powder was defective.
After two hours, Endymion was indeed crippled, with her sails "stripped from her yards" but President was badly damaged as Endymion had a main armament of 24-pounder long guns, which had more effect than the 18-pounder guns of ships such as the Macedonian, which Decatur had captured in 1812. The American ship ran downwind again but both Pomone and Tenedos were in sight, and two hours later, Pomone had caught up. Decatur had already decided that escape was impossible and hailed that he surrendered, but Pomone fired two destructive broadsides before the crew of President hauled down a lantern above the stern.
During the whole fight, the President lost 24 men killed (including three of the frigate's lieutenants), and 55 wounded, including Decatur who had been wounded by a splinter. The British lost 11 killed and 14 wounded, all aboard HMS Endymion.
. They encountered a violent storm that dismasted both. However, both reached safety. Official notification of the end of the war came soon afterwards. The British took the President briefly into the Royal Navy as HMS President but broke up the badly battered ship in 1818. They later built a Fourth Rate
frigate, which they also named HMS President
, as an exact copy of the American vessel.
The British press noted the good conduct of both British and American captains and sailors, though they caused some ill-feeling by claiming that Endymion had defeated President in a straightforward stand-up fight. President had had a crew of 447 and a broadside of 828 pounds against Endymion's crew of 346 and broadside of 664 pounds. In 1847 the British Admiralty authorized the issue to any still surviving crew from Endymion of the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "ENDYMION WH. PRESIDENT".
The British briefly held Decatur and his crew prisoner in Bermuda. After their release, a court martial board acquitted Decatur, his officers and his men of any wrongdoing in the surrender of President. Decatur was quickly appointed to command an American squadron dispatched to the Mediterranean to protect American merchant ships against corsairs. He was later mortally wounded in a duel, the cause of which lay in a pre-war quarrel.
The smaller American ships still in New York sortied before hearing of the capture of the President, and had their own adventures near Tristan da Cunha. The Hornet sank the British brig of war HMS Penguin
before Peacock joined her. The two American ships then mistook the British ship of the line HMS Cornwallis
for an East Indiaman. The Hornet narrowly escaped after jettisoning all her guns and most of her stores. The Peacock subsequently captured several British merchant ships in the Indian Ocean
until receiving confirmation that the War had ended.
USS President (1800)
USS President was a nominally rated 44-gun wooden-hulled, three-masted heavy frigate of the United States Navy. She was named by George Washington to reflect a principle of the United States Constitution. Forman Cheeseman was in charge of her construction, and she was launched in April 1800 from a...
was the result of a naval action fought at the end of the Anglo-American War of 1812
War of 1812
The War of 1812 was a military conflict fought between the forces of the United States of America and those of the British Empire. The Americans declared war in 1812 for several reasons, including trade restrictions because of Britain's ongoing war with France, impressment of American merchant...
. The frigate President tried to break out of New York Harbor, but was intercepted by a British squadron of four frigates and was forced to surrender.
Prelude
At the time of the battle Commodore Stephen DecaturStephen Decatur
Stephen Decatur, Jr. , was an American naval officer notable for his many naval victories in the early 19th century. He was born on the eastern shore of Maryland, Worcester county, the son of a U.S. Naval Officer who served during the American Revolution. Shortly after attending college Decatur...
commanded President. In 1812, while in command of the frigate USS United States
USS United States (1797)
USS United States was a wooden-hulled, three-masted heavy frigate of the United States Navy and the first of the six original frigates authorized for construction by the Naval Act of 1794...
, he had captured the British frigate in a famous action. After his return, the British instituted a strict blockade of the American coast.
In 1813, Decatur tried to break out of New York in the United States and USS Macedonian (which had been taken into the United States Navy), but encountered a powerful British squadron which drove him into New London, Connecticut
New London, Connecticut
New London is a seaport city and a port of entry on the northeast coast of the United States.It is located at the mouth of the Thames River in New London County, southeastern Connecticut....
. To lighten the two frigates sufficiently to tow them far enough up-river to be safe from British cutting-out expeditions, they were effectively hulk
Hulk (ship)
A hulk is a ship that is afloat, but incapable of going to sea. Although sometimes used to describe a ship that has been launched but not completed, the term most often refers to an old ship that has had its rigging or internal equipment removed, retaining only its flotational qualities...
ed, or demilitarized.
Decatur tried to break out in the United States in early 1814, but turned back when he feared that pro-British local civilians (the so-called Blue light federalists
Blue light federalists
Blue-light Federalist was a derogatory term used by those who believed certain Federalists to have made friendly signals to British ships in the War of 1812 to warn the British of American blockade runners, the specific event supposedly happening in 1813, in New London, Connecticut, when Commodore...
) were burning lights to alert the blockaders. Decatur and the crew of the United States were transferred to the President, which had been refitted in New York. (The crew of the Macedonian were transferred to the Great Lakes
Great Lakes
The Great Lakes are a collection of freshwater lakes located in northeastern North America, on the Canada – United States border. Consisting of Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, they form the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth by total surface, coming in second by volume...
.)
On 13 December 1814, the President and some smaller warships (the sloops-of-war USS Peacock
USS Peacock (1813)
The first USS Peacock was a sloop-of-war in the United States Navy during the War of 1812.Peacock was authorized by Act of Congress 3 March 1813, laid down 9 July 1813 by Adam & Noah Brown at the New York Navy Yard, and launched 19 September 1813. She served in the War of 1812, capturing twenty ships...
and USS Hornet, and the schooner-rigged tender USS Tom Bowline
USS Tom Bowline (1814)
USS Tom Bowline was a schooner in the United States Navy during the War of 1812.Tom Bowline was purchased by the Navy in late 1814 at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, for use as a storeship, Lieutenant B. V. Hoffman in command...
) were in New York Harbor
New York Harbor
New York Harbor refers to the waterways of the estuary near the mouth of the Hudson River that empty into New York Bay. It is one of the largest natural harbors in the world. Although the U.S. Board of Geographic Names does not use the term, New York Harbor has important historical, governmental,...
, preparing to break out past the British blockade to embark on cruises against British merchant shipping. The British squadron blockading New York consisted of the former ship of the line
Ship of the line
A ship of the line was a type of naval warship constructed from the 17th through the mid-19th century to take part in the naval tactic known as the line of battle, in which two columns of opposing warships would manoeuvre to bring the greatest weight of broadside guns to bear...
Majestic
HMS Majestic (1785)
HMS Majestic was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line launched on 11 December 1785 at Deptford. She fought at the Battle of the Nile, where she engaged the French ships Tonnant and Heureux, helping to force their surrenders...
which had been razee
Razee
A razee or razée is a sailing ship that has been cut down to reduce the number of decks. The word is derived from the French vaisseau rasé, meaning a razed ship.-Sixteenth century:...
d i.e. cut down to a single deck to create a heavy frigate, and the frigates HMS Endymion
HMS Endymion (1797)
HMS Endymion was a 40-gun fifth rate that served in the French Revolutionary Wars, the Napoleonic Wars, the War of 1812 and during the First Opium War. She was built to the lines of the French prize captured in 1794...
, HMS Pomone
HMS Pomone (1811)
The Astrée was a 44-gun Pallas-class frigate of the French Navy, launched at Cherbourg in 1809. In December of the next year she captured HMS Africaine. The Royal Navy captured Astrée in 1810 and took her into service under her French name, but then in 1811 recommissioned her as HMS Pomone...
and HMS Tenedos. They were under the overall command of Commodore John Hayes
John Hayes (Royal Navy officer)
Rear-Admiral John Hayes, CB was a prominent British Royal Navy officer of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Hayes was best known for his skill at seamanship and his interest in the design and construction of naval vessels, beginning with his childhood education at Deptford...
, who was captain of the Majestic.
On 13 January, a blizzard blew up from the north-west. The British ships were blown off their station, to the south-east. Decatur determined to take advantage of the situation by breaking out with the President alone. (He may have been accompanied by a merchant brig, also named Macedonian, carrying extra rations as a tender, but the brig does not feature in any subsequent events.) The plan was that the smaller warships would break out later and rendezvous with President off Tristan da Cunha
Tristan da Cunha
Tristan da Cunha is a remote volcanic group of islands in the south Atlantic Ocean and the main island of that group. It is the most remote inhabited archipelago in the world, lying from the nearest land, South Africa, and from South America...
in the South Atlantic.
Decatur immediately met with disaster. He had ordered harbor pilots to anchor boats to mark the safe passage across the bar at the mouth of the harbor, but they failed to do so properly. The President grounded on the bar and remained stuck there for almost two hours, enduring a pounding from the wind and heavy sea. By the time the frigate worked free it was heavily damaged. Some copper had been stripped away from the hull; the masts were twisted and some of them were "sprung" i.e. had developed long cracks; the hull was also twisted and "hogged" i.e. the bow and stern had sagged. Nevertheless, it was impossible for Decatur to return to port as the gale was still blowing and he was forced to put to sea. He headed east, keeping close to the Long Island shore before heading south-east.
Action
Once the gale had abated, the British regrouped. Realizing that American ships might have taken the opportunity to leave port unobserved, Hayes left Tenedos to watch the Sandy HookSandy Hook
Sandy Hook is a barrier spit along the Atlantic coast of New JerseySandy Hook may also refer to:-Places:United States* Sandy Hook , a village in the town of Newtown, Connecticut* Sandy Hook, Kentucky, a city in Elliott County...
passage and headed north to watch the Long Island
Long Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
passage, rather than head back to the harbor entrance. At dawn on 14 January, they sighted President. Decatur immediately turned down-wind and tried to gain speed by lightening his ship by throwing stores and boats overboard and pumping out drinking water, but the damage he had received on the bar had fatally slowed the President.
After Majestic had fired some ranging shots which fell short, Pomone overtook her and led the pursuit but Tenedos appeared unexpectedly to the south and Hayes sent Pomone to investigate. As afternoon wore on, the wind eased to a breeze and Endymion overtook Majestic and overhauled the President.
By late afternoon, Endymion and President were exchanging fire using their bow- and stern-chase cannon respectively. By nightfall, the Endymion had closed to President's quarter, where Decatur could bring no guns to bear. Endymion was a very fast ship and her Captain, Hope, yawed to fire a broadside into President's quarter, before turning again to follow and regain his position. The Long Island shore was too close for Decatur to steer northwards to put the Endymion astern.
After Endymion had repeated this maneuver for the third time, causing considerable loss aboard President, Decatur abruptly turned to starboard to cross Endymion's bows. He had mustered boarding parties in case the British were taken by surprise, but Endymion also turned to starboard and the two ships headed south, exchanging broadsides. Decatur had no time to batter the British vessel into surrender, as the other three British ships would almost certainly be in range before long, so his gunners fired high into Endymion's rigging to disable her, using chain shot and "dismantling shot" (bars of iron linked by a ring), while the British gunners fired low into the hull of the President. However, the shooting was poor on both sides while the President's powder was defective.
After two hours, Endymion was indeed crippled, with her sails "stripped from her yards" but President was badly damaged as Endymion had a main armament of 24-pounder long guns, which had more effect than the 18-pounder guns of ships such as the Macedonian, which Decatur had captured in 1812. The American ship ran downwind again but both Pomone and Tenedos were in sight, and two hours later, Pomone had caught up. Decatur had already decided that escape was impossible and hailed that he surrendered, but Pomone fired two destructive broadsides before the crew of President hauled down a lantern above the stern.
During the whole fight, the President lost 24 men killed (including three of the frigate's lieutenants), and 55 wounded, including Decatur who had been wounded by a splinter. The British lost 11 killed and 14 wounded, all aboard HMS Endymion.
Aftermath
The damaged Endymion and President sailed in company to BermudaBermuda
Bermuda is a British overseas territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. Located off the east coast of the United States, its nearest landmass is Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. It is about south of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and northeast of Miami, Florida...
. They encountered a violent storm that dismasted both. However, both reached safety. Official notification of the end of the war came soon afterwards. The British took the President briefly into the Royal Navy as HMS President but broke up the badly battered ship in 1818. They later built a Fourth Rate
Fourth-rate
In the British Royal Navy, a fourth rate was, during the first half of the 18th century, a ship of the line mounting from 46 up to 60 guns. While the number of guns stayed subsequently in the same range up until 1817, after 1756 the ships of 50 guns and below were considered too weak to stand in...
frigate, which they also named HMS President
HMS President (1829)
HMS President was ordered in May 1818 to be built as a 58-gun frigate to the exact lines of the previous President, captured from the Americans in January 1815; this prize ship was re-classed as a 60-gun fourth rate in February 1817 but was taken to pieces in June 1818...
, as an exact copy of the American vessel.
The British press noted the good conduct of both British and American captains and sailors, though they caused some ill-feeling by claiming that Endymion had defeated President in a straightforward stand-up fight. President had had a crew of 447 and a broadside of 828 pounds against Endymion's crew of 346 and broadside of 664 pounds. In 1847 the British Admiralty authorized the issue to any still surviving crew from Endymion of the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "ENDYMION WH. PRESIDENT".
The British briefly held Decatur and his crew prisoner in Bermuda. After their release, a court martial board acquitted Decatur, his officers and his men of any wrongdoing in the surrender of President. Decatur was quickly appointed to command an American squadron dispatched to the Mediterranean to protect American merchant ships against corsairs. He was later mortally wounded in a duel, the cause of which lay in a pre-war quarrel.
The smaller American ships still in New York sortied before hearing of the capture of the President, and had their own adventures near Tristan da Cunha. The Hornet sank the British brig of war HMS Penguin
HMS Penguin (1813)
HMS Penguin was a Royal Navy Cruizer-class brig-sloop launched in 1813. In 1815 the USS Hornet captured Penguin in a battle that took place after the end of the War of 1812. Hornet then scuttled Penguin as she was too damaged to merit keeping.-Service:Penguin was commissioned in November 1813 under...
before Peacock joined her. The two American ships then mistook the British ship of the line HMS Cornwallis
HMS Cornwallis (1813)
HMS Cornwallis was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 12 May 1813 at Bombay. She was built of teak. The capture of Java by USS Constitution delayed the completion of Cornwallis as Java had been bringing her copper sheathing from England.On 27 April 1815, Cornwallis...
for an East Indiaman. The Hornet narrowly escaped after jettisoning all her guns and most of her stores. The Peacock subsequently captured several British merchant ships in the Indian Ocean
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula ; on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and...
until receiving confirmation that the War had ended.