Complete Works. Henry Cabot Lodge
Capt. Lumly, and 18-pounder frigate Tenedos, Capt. Parker. 345 On the 14th of January a severe snow-storm came on and blew the squadron off the coast. Next day it moderated, and the ships stood off to the northwest to get into the track which they supposed the Americans would take if they attempted to put out in the storm. Singularly enough, at the instant of arriving at the intended point, an hour before daylight on the 15th, Sandy Hook bearing W.N.W. 15 leagues, a ship was made out, on the Majestic's weather-bow, standing S.E. 346 This ship was the unlucky President. On the evening of the 14th she had left her consorts at anchor, and put out to sea in the gale. But by a mistake of the pilots who were to place boats to beacon the passage the frigate struck on the bar, where she beat heavily for an hour and a half, 347 springing her masts and becoming very much hogged and twisted. 348 Owing to the severity of her injuries the President would have put back to port, but was prevented by the westerly gale. 349 Accordingly Decatur steered at first along Long Island, then shaped his course to the S.E., and in the dark ran into the British squadron, which, but for his unfortunate accident, he would thus have escaped. At daylight, the President, which had hauled up and passed to the northward of her opponents, 350 found herself with the Majestic and Endymion astern, the Pomona on the port and the Tenedos on the starboard quarter. 351 The chase now became very interesting. 352 During the early part of the day, while the wind was still strong, the Majestic led the Endymion and fired occasionally at the President, but without effect. 353 The Pomona gained faster than the others, but by Capt. Hayes' orders was signalled to go in chase of the Tenedos, whose character the captain could not make out 354; and this delayed her several hours in the chase. 355 In the afternoon, the wind coming out light and baffling, the Endymion left the Majestic behind, 356 and, owing to the President's disabled state and the amount of water she made in consequence of the injuries received while on the bar, gained rapidly on her, 357 although she lightened ship and did everything else that was possible to improve her sailing. 358 But a shift of wind helped the Endymion, 359 and the latter was able at about 2.30, to begin skirmishing with her bow-chasers, answered by the stern-chasers of the President. 360 At 5.30 the Endymion began close action, 361 within half point-blank shot on the President's starboard quarter, 362 where not a gun of the latter could bear. 363 The President continued in the same course, steering east by north, the wind being northwest, expecting the Endymion soon to come up abeam; but the latter warily kept her position by yawing, so as not to close. 364 So things continued for half an hour during which the President suffered more than during all the remainder of the combat. 365 At 6.00 the President kept off, heading to the south, and the two adversaries ran abreast, the Americans using the starboard and the British the port batteries. 366 Decatur tried to close with his antagonist, but whenever he hauled nearer to the latter she hauled off 367 and being the swiftest ship could of course evade him; so he was reduced to the necessity of trying to throw her out of the combat 368 by dismantling her. He was completely successful in this, and after two hours' fighting the Endymion's sails were all cut from her yards 369 and she dropped astern, the last shot being fired from the President. 370 The Endymion was now completely silent, 371 and Commodore Decatur did not board her merely because her consorts were too close astern 372; accordingly the President hauled up again to try her chances at running, having even her royal studding-sails set, 373 and exposed her stern to the broadside of the Endymion, 374 but the latter did not fire a single gun. 375 Three hours afterward, at 11, 376 the Pomone caught up with the President, and luffing to port gave her the starboard broadside 377; the Tenedos being two cables' length's distance astern, taking up a raking position. 378 The Pomone poured in another broadside, within musket shot, 379 when the President surrendered and was taken possession of by Capt. Parker of the Tenedos. 380 A considerable number of the President's people were killed by these two last broadsides. 381 The Endymion was at this time out of sight astern. 382 She did not come up, according to one account, for an hour and three quarters, 383 and according to another, for three hours 384; and as she was a faster ship than the President, this means that she was at least two hours motionless repairing damages. Commodore Decatur delivered his sword to Capt. Hayes of the Majestic, who returned it, stating in his letter that both sides had fought with great gallantry. 385 The President having been taken by an entire squadron, 386 the prize-money was divided equally among the ships. 387 The President's crew all told consisted of 450 men, 388 none of whom were British. 389 She had thus a hundred more men than her antagonist and threw about 100 pounds more shot at a broadside; but these advantages were more than counterbalanced by the injuries received on the bar, and by the fact that her powder was so bad that while some of the British shot went through both her sides, such a thing did not once happen to the Endymion, 390 when fairly hulled. The President lost 24 killed and 55 wounded 391; the Endymion, 11 killed and 14 wounded. 392 Two days afterward, on their way to the Bermudas, a violent easterly gale came on, during which both ships were dismasted, and the Endymion in addition had to throw over all her spar-deck guns.393
As can been seen, almost every sentence of this account is taken (very nearly word for word) from the various official reports, relying especially on the log of the British frigate Pomone. I have been thus careful to have every point of the narrative established by unimpeachable reference: first, because there have been quite a number of British historians who have treated the conflict as if it were a victory and not a defeat for the Endymion: and in the second place, because I regret to say that I do not think that the facts bear out the assertions, on the part of most American authors, that Commodore Decatur "covered himself with glory" and showed the "utmost heroism." As regards the first point, Captain Hope himself, in his singularly short official letter, does little beyond detail his own loss, and makes no claim to having vanquished his opponent. Almost all the talk about its being a "victory" comes from James; and in recounting this, as well as all the other battles, nearly every subsequent British historian simply gives James' statements over again, occasionally amplifying, but more often altering or omitting, the vituperation. The point at issue is simply this: could a frigate which, according to James himself, went out of action with every sail set, take another frigate which for two hours, according to the log of the Pomone, lay motionless and unmanageable on the waters, without a sail? To prove that it could not, of course needs some not over-scrupulous manipulation of the facts. The intention with which James sets about his work can be gathered from the triumphant conclusion he comes to, that Decatur's name has been "sunk quite as low as that of Bainbridge or Porter," which, comparing small things to great, is somewhat like saying that Napoleon's defeat by Wellington and Blucher "sunk" him to the level of Hannibal. For the account of the American crew and loss, James relies on the statements made in the Bermuda papers, of whose subsequent forced retraction he takes no notice, and of course largely overestimates both. On the same authority he states that the President's fire was "silenced," Commodore Decatur stating the exact reverse. The point is fortunately settled by the log of the Pomone, which distinctly says that the last shot was fired by the President. His last resort is to state that the loss of the President was fourfold (in reality threefold) that of the Endymion. Now we have seen that the President lost "a considerable number" of men from the fire of the Pomone. Estimating these at only nineteen, we have a loss of sixty caused by the Endymion, and as most of this was caused during the first half hour, when the President was not firing, it follows that while the two vessels were both fighting, broadside and broadside, the loss inflicted was about equal; or, the President, aiming at her adversary's rigging, succeeded in completely disabling her, and incidentally killed 25 men, while the Endymion did not hurt the President's rigging at all, and, aiming at her hull, where, of course, the slaughter ought to have been far greater than when the fire was directed aloft, only killed about the same number of men. Had there been no other vessels in chase, Commodore Decatur, his adversary having been thus rendered perfectly helpless, could have simply taken any position he chose and compelled the latter to strike, without suffering any material additional loss himself. As in such a case he would neither have endured the unanswered fire of the Endymion on his quarter for the first half hour, nor the subsequent broadsides of the Pornone, the President's loss would probably have been no greater than that of the Constitution in taking the Java. It is difficult to see how any outsider with an ounce