The National Register.
London, England, 1811-07-14 00:00:00

AMEBIC/IN
anima; 4C6OUNT OF •,TIIE

A4:110)1
• • LITITZ AgL;r•

tots 4::;.iirriit Attie COJAMODOIt eittioctlF Tab .fai;
• 4
• • t, • • 4111CIRETARY OT THE NAVY.
t
United States' Frigate President, off Sandy-.
1100 k, 2341 May, 181 1.
Stil44iegvetentremely being under the necessity of repre-
tenting to you an event that occurrtd on the tiiht of the Iti,th
instant, between the ship under my command, and his Britannic
iMajisty'a ship of war the Little Belt, commanded b' Captain
bipghant; the result of which has given the much paid, us Weil

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en account of the injury she sustained, as that I shairal have been
compelled to the tueosure that produced it, by a vessel of her
infeder force. The circumstances ate' as follow :—On the 16th
instaist,at 2.5 minutes past meritllanvin.seVenteen fathoms water,
Cape Henry bearing S.W. distant 'fourteen or fifteen leagues, a
sail was discovered from Our mist' head in the east, standing
towards as under a press of sail. At half past Inc the symmetry
.f her upper sails (which wereoat..thiS tirrf, distinguishable
•-• front our deck), and her makinciignale, showed bur to be a
man of war. .At forty-five minutes past one k. ns. hoisted our.:
ensisn.sod pendant; when finding her signals noranswered, she
wore and stood to the southward. Being desirous of speaking.

Der; ind.dascertaining what she was, I now made.sail iii chas,r;

and by half past three, p. ns found we were coming up with. hers
as by this time the upper part of her sternbegan to show itsa
above the horizon. The wind now. been, and continued gra-

dually to decrease, so as to prevent my being able to approach
her sufficiently before sun-set to discover her actual force (Which
the position she preserved during the chase was caleteated to
conceal) or to Judge even to what nation she belonged, as she
• apii.reitstUdiciusly to decline showing her. cOlours. At fifteen
• ortorenty minutes past seven, p. m. the chase took in her
• difig sails, and Solinifter hauled up her course', and
.hautedl;y
the Wind on the starboard tack ; she at the same time hoisted,
an ensign or flag at her mizen-peak, but it was too dark for me.
• to discover what nation it represented; how for the first time
her broadside was presented to our view ; but night had so far
' progressed, tho: although her appearance:iptlic-ated she was a
frigate, I was unable to determine her ace al force.
At fifteen minutes before eight p. 116. being about a mile and a
ball front her,the wind at the time very light, I ditected Capt.
LudiOut to take a position to witulwasd of her, and ore the
same tack, within short speaking distance. 'I kris, however, the
Commander of the chase appear d, from his mancetwas, to he
anxious to prevent, as Lee _wort arid nauled by the wind on drift!.
rent tacks four daises sucoissireiy between this period and -the
time of our arriving at the positiou which I had ordered to be•
taken. At fifteen or twenty minutes past eight, being a little •
forward of her weather beaus, awl distant tram 4evt•nty .tu a
hundred yard*, I hailed" I,Vhat ship is that t" to Otis inquiry no
answer was given, but I was hailed by her Commander and
asked " What ship is that I"—Having asked the first question
of course considered myself entitled, by the common rules:of
politeness, to the first antivt r; after a pause of fifteen or iwa,,,

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seconds I reiterated my first inquiry of " What ship is that ?"
and before I had :erne to take the trumpet from my mouth, was
aasweeed boy a.sl4ot that pg. off one of onr maintop-Intuit breast
:hack stays, and went into ear nutintnast. At this instant Cap-
• talk Caldwell (of Marines), who. was standing very near to me
on the gangway, having observed,
.she has „fired at us,"
.caused me to pause for a • moment.; jest as I was the act of.
'giving an order to fire a shot. in return, and before I had time 'to .
reskinie tho repetition of the inteuded order, a shot was actually
fired from the eecond division of this snip, and Was scarcely
out of the gni before it was *flowered filen our assumed enemy
iby three others in quick succeslion, end soon after the rest of
'his. broadside and musketry. 'When 'Jae first shut was -fired;
being under an; imprecation that it. night possibly have proceed«
ed from accident and without the orders of the., Commarder, I
had determined at the moment to fire only a single shot is ree
turn ; but the immediate repetition of the previous unprovoked
" outrage induced me to believe that the insult was premeditated',
and that from our adversairbeitig at the time as ignorant of our
real force as I was of his, he thinight this, perhaps, a favourable
-opportuttity_of acquiring promotion, although at the expence
of violatincour neutrality and insulting our flag kaccordingly, .
with that degree of repugnance incident to feelings. equally de.
termined neither, to tse the aggress or to suffer the flag of my
country to be inaultid with impunity, guile a general order to
lire ; the effect of which in from four to six minutes, as near as.
can judge, having produced a partial silence of his guns. I gave.
orders to cease firing', discovering by the feeble ouposi; ,:n that
it rum.44,1,..e of very inferior force to what- I had Iv, posed, •
or that some untoward accident had happened to her. - - . .
My orders in this instance, howevcalthough they pro-
ceeded alone from motives 61 humanity apd a determination not
ti to spill iidrrip of blood unnecesvarily),-I had In less than four
• anintjtes'asarpe reason to.regret, as he renewed his fire, of which
~two 22-pound, skots ctE. oar one of our fore-shrOudis and injured. •
our fore-mast. It ware now that i found myself under thp paitt.
ul nece,:iity giving orders for a repetition of our fire against'a force which My .forbearance alone had, enableil todo us any.
injury df mcirtiera t• our Are was accordingly renewed, and • con.,
. touted fratn three to five tnintices longercrehen perceiving on;
opponert's gatf and colourre doivo, his melee-top-sail-yard upon
the cap, and his fire silenced, although it was so dark that
'could not discern any otber particular injury we bad done, or.
how far he was in a situation to do us farther harm, I.neverthea.
less embraced thp earift.lt moment to stop our fire arid
.prevent
the further effusion o Neve a pause of.liaK a minute or
more toek place, at the end of.wllich, eue•adverstacy not shevia
ing a further disposition ta fire, I -and again -asked,
What ship is that 1" • I karned, for the first'aime, that-it was,
. a ship of his Britannic Majeaty's; but, owing to .its ulowirsg
rather fresher than it had day, i was unable to 'elm. her. name.
• After having informed her Contrraan,:er of the name of thillVdPs
'I gave ordersao v ear, run under his lee and haul by the wind on
the starboard tack. and he.ve-to wider topealls, and repair
. wlmt little injury v had .sustained in 'our rigging,
.which watt
accordingly* executtd, and 'we continued lying-to -on- different
.tacks with a cumi,er of lights displ.lealt in order. that ,cittr
.ada
• Tertiary ittig.itt the heater discern our position,and cont.: sand our
. asalstance, in case,lit found it neceseaty during the Ir. •
At day light onabe 17th, lie was discovered sever • miles to
lerifs•arxic when I gave orders to bear ep•and run uown to him
.finder easy. sail: after bailing him I sent a boat on board .with
• Lit-lit, C;eightcia, to learn the name of the ship and her Com.-
. mander, with directions to ascertain the dasnate she bad silo-
' taioed,. and bafortu her Commander how much t regretted the
necessity on my part, which had led to such unhappy result;
t and at the ciao Case to 'offer all the assist.nce that the ship
'under my command afforded, in repairing' the damages; his had
sustained. At nine a. at. Lieut. Creighton returned with infer-
; matiuu, that it was his Britannic Majesty's ship Little. 13elt,
I commanded by Captain• flineham, who,. in 4.polits warmer, de.
Iclined the aeceptunce of alty assistance; saying, at tnalatTte time,
that he had on hoL,rd ail tte nesessary requisite.. to repair the
damages. sufficiently to Lai able him to return so Halifax.
This, however, %Vas not the mast ungeitsant.Patt of _Captain
Iliagttam's convmunir.otion :to Lieutenaut Creighton, aslre in-
formed biui, that in- alhfitiou to the, injury. his ship had sus-
tained, brrween twenty ;old thirty of hs cteve•bad been killed
and wounded.

The regret that this infrwrnation caused me was such, you
may be sure, its a, nun riti,ht Ise expected to feel, whose greatest
pride, is to prove, without hetentat4ni. by .ev,;ry public as well
as private act, that he posseaskis a humane and generous heart;
and these se.atiments, believe:me, Sir, ciat such a commu-
41icatiet)posstd cause the tht.tbost: acute pain titiring'the re-
' malittirr of my life, ;:td -I not tin; Consolation to-know that there
ixft me berwesmisitch sacrifice, and one
Whicli'vrotilsitirsTi-bewii dtiii grcater,) =ratty, to lave remained
a paiiiire.apre4ator;otisistik to the Rag of mrtcatntry, wblist it
vies eontiriest 49 pay • ptotec ti0n70•24 won* het. you to be

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