The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1880-10-16 00:00:00

DEATH OF A VETERAN.

"We have to record the death, at Montrose, on
October 1, of James Coull, the old tar who steered the
Shannon into the memorable action with the Chesapeake
off Boston Harbour, on the Ist of June, 1813. James
Coull was born in the fishing village of Ferryden, near
Montrose, on the 7th of January, 1786, so that he was
in his 0- th year. On account of the death of his father,
and the poverty of his mother, James started life as a
cabin-boy in one of the local vessels at the early age of
six years. He was afterwards indentured as an
apprentice in the brig Concord, of Montrose, in the year
180, and while lying at Copenhagen was pressed for
the navy the same year. James was sent on board the
Centaur, 74 guns,commanded by Captain Broughton, in
which vessel he first saw active service, having been at
the bombardment of Copenhagen on the 2nd of April,
1801. After the treaty of Amiens, James received his
discharge, and was sent on board his old ship to finish
his apprenticeship, which he completed, and then
sailed as an A.B. in another local vessel. While lying
at the Nore in this ship, he was again pressed for the
navy, and again sent on board the Centaur, where he
was shortly afterwards appointed assistant-quarter-
master, and was present in this vessel at the battle of
Trafalgar, on 21st Oct., 1805. From this time onward
he was retained in the service, and by the time he
was twenty-one was a circumnavigator. His most
notable engagement was the tussle of the Shannon
with the Chesapeake off Boston Harbour on the Ist
of June, 1813, which only lasted 15 minutes, from the
firing of the first gun to the running up of the Union
Jack over the Stars and Stripes. Coull, being then a
petty officer and a volunteer from the Actmon, had
the honour of steering the Shannon into action; and
while doing so he received a musket-ball in his left
wrist, which traversed his arm and came out at the
elbow. Coull, however, stuck to his post, and after
the vessels had got entangled, by the Shannon's anchor
catching hold of the Chesapeake, he formed one of the
boarding party led by Captain Broke, receiving a
severe scalp wound while scrambling on board. The
scalp wound was quickly patched up, but owing
to the bullet wound Coull was invalided in 1814,
and finally the arm was taken off at the
elbow in 1816. Coull was then discharged on
a pension of £l6 per annum, which was augmented
some 14 years ago by £l3 165., so that he had
been a pensioner for the unusually long period of
sixty-six years. Although thus disabled he sailed for
twenty years as cook in the whalers belonging the
port of Montrose, besides acting in the same capacity
for some fourteen voyages across the Atlantic in sail-
ing vesiels. He was married in early life, but left no
child n. His remains were interred at Montrose
with Tull military honours by detachments from both
branches of the service on the 4th instant, the coffin
being borne to the grave on the shpulders of the Coast
Guard, and the farewell volley fired by the sergeants
composing the permant staff of the Forfar and Kin-
cardine Artillery Militia. As an additional mark of
respect, the shipping in the harbour exhibited their
colours at half-mast."—Obituary of The Times.

The Daily Telegraph notices the death of James Conti in a
leader, in which the story of the combat between the
Shannon and the Chesapeake is thus recapitulated :
"The first few naval actions fought between
British and American ships, in 1812, may fairly be
said to have electrified the country. Again and
again duels were fought at sea, in each of which the
British Union Jack was hauled down in token of de-
feat, and replaced by the saucy 'Stars and Stripes,' a
flag which our seamen had never seen before. Thus
it came to pass that/ in the August of 1812, the
British frigate Guerriere, commanded by Captain
Dacres' was compelled to strike her colours to the
United States frigate Constitution' commanded by
Captain Hull; and the consequent mortification of
Englishmen at home was but slightly assuaged
when it was known that their vessel carried only
forty-six small guns in opposition to fifty-six guns of
larger calibre on board the American champion. In
the following October the Frolic and the Macedonian
struck to the American ships Wasp and United States,
and the year closed disastrously for our arms with
the tremendous conflict between the Java and our old
enemy the Constitution which ended, after an obsti-
nate struggle, in the caplure of the former. The new
year opened as inauspiciously as its predecessor had
concluded, seeing that, on the 26th of February, the
British sloop Peacock was disabled and sunk by the
American Hornet. Among those who chafed under
the strange and novel sensation of British inferiority
upon England's own element, Captain Philip Broke,
of the Shannon, was by no means the least con-
spicuous. It had long been his ambition to make-his
ship distinguished for the excellence and smartness of
her crew, and, unlike most British naval officers of
those days, he resolved to enforce discipline by winning
the affection of his sailors. When the Shannon
was first fitted, in 1806, Captain Broke had her guns
laid under his own directions, and nothing which
could conduce to their efficiency escaped his notice.
By constant training, the men were taught to
manage and work the guns properly, and were
frequently practised by firing at marks. The
guns themselves, with sponges, rammers, and all
other accessories in readiness, were accounted by
Captain Broke to be the brightest ornaments of
the Shannon's decks, and at a moment when
most other war ships of Great Britain, trading upon
the glorious memories of Trafalgar, were in a desperate
state of inefficiency, the American War broke out.
. . . . Stung by the humiliations and reverses inflicted
upon his native country, Captain Broke drew near to
the mouth of Boston Harbour in the early summer
of 1813. The most formidable cruisers that carried the
Stars and Stripes were in the habit of issuing from
this port, and some of the best American ships—as,
for instance, the Constitution—had been built in the
yards at Boston and Marblehead.
Captain Brooke had not peen lying long in the
Shannon off Boston Lighthouse before he became
aware that one of the finest American frigates, the
Chesapeake, was getting ready for sea in the harbour.
The English captain did not blind himself to the fact
that the antagonist whom he hoped to encounter was
•more than a match for his own vessel and crew.
Shortly before the action which made the two ships so
famous, Captain Broke addressed a letter to Captain
Lawrence, inviting him 'to try the fortunes
of their respective flags,' and bidding him
come forth to the combat. The American
captain—as gallant an officer as ever paced the
quarter-deck—had no desire to baulk the wishes
of his opponent, and shortly after noon on the Ist
of June, 1813, Captain Broke descried from his own
masthead that the Chesapeake was preparing to
come out of harbour. The two ships were about
equal in size, but the Chesapeake carried by far the
heavier armament, and had a complement of over
four hundred men, against three hundred and thirty
on board the Shannon. The American frigate bore
down upon her adversary in very handsome fashion,
and at half-past five in the evening hauled upon
the starboard side of the Shannon, which was
steered by the veteran sailor, James Coull, who has
just breathed his last in Scotland. The battle began
exactly at a quarter to six o'clock, and in fifteen
minutes the Union Jack was flying above the Stars
and Stripes at the mainmast of the Chesapeake. After
exchanging two or three broadsides, the two ships got
locked together, and Captain Broke, perceiving that
his enemy's men were flinching from their guns, called
upon his boarders to follow him as he leapt upon the
Chesapeake's deck. In a couple of minutes the enemy
were driven from every post, and although the firing
was maintained for awhile by the Americans from
below, the battle was over. Captain Broke was him-
self knocked down by the butt-epd of a musket,
and was almost scalped by the wound; and his first
lieutenant, Mr. Watt, was shot dead in the act of
hoisting the British colours; but on board the Chesa-
peake the slaughter was much heavier. Captain
Lawrence was mortally wounded, and died two days
later, and the total loss on board the American vessel
was sixty-nine men killed and over one hundred
wounded. Every hill and wharf at Boston which com-
manded a view of the action was crowded with
spectators of both sexes, who were in expectation
of seeing the British vessel brought into Boston Har-
bour with the United States flag flying above the
detested Union Jack. The disappointment with which
the result of the action was received at Boston still
lives in the memory of the few survivors who were
alive when it was fought, and in England the name
and fame of Captain Broke, as modest in the moment
of victory as he was free from arrogance in anti-
cipating it, were toasted by the associates of
Nelson and Collingwood. In fact, among the
glorious deeds enacted by British ships there is none
more worthy of enduring reputation than the triumph
by which the gallant commander of the Shannon
arrested the tide of victory gained by American ships
during that brief and eventful war which showed that
'the mistress of the seas' had at length found an
antagonist more worthy of her steel than the
Frenchmen and Spaniards whom she had crushed at
Trafalgar."