Alexandria daily gazette, commercial & political. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1808-1812, 1811-06-24

Of war, belonging to q beliigerent power
and extorting her name. When, here-
fore. we send our armed vessels to sea, IN
time Of peace, beyond our maritime !u
risdiction, their commanders cannot with
propriety, consider any armed vessels they
meet, as belonging to an enemy: Ana un-
der such circumstances, 1t must be alto
gether t,njustifiable to pursue ships OF war
without some special object, OF approach
them in a menacing manner, merely Tor
the purpose of gratifying an idle curicsl-
|ty.
1t appears, Sir, from your letter to the
Secretary of the Navy. that, beyond the
limits of the jurisdiction of the q. States,
! in the Atlantic ocean, you discovered a
vessel of war-that on her observing you,
and finding you did not answer her signals,
she changed her course so as to avoid you
that as you were DESTROYS Of speaking
her, and ascertaining what she was, you
made sail in chase-and that after pursu-
| ing her FIVE OF six hours, you came up
with her in the dark, and finally compelled
her to give an account of hersclf,-I say
you compelled her to give an account OF
HERSELF and this is evident from your
| own statement. You y in your letter,
that, cat Is minutes before p. Nj. be-
8. ing about mile and a half from her,
Z" the wind at the time very light, direct
E" ed Capt. Ludlow to take position to
" Windcard Of her, and on the same tack;
L;,, obos onou linn
lam not sufficientlyacquaintedwith naval
affairs to speak positively on the point, but
have been informed by persons, in whose
knowledge of the subject have confidence
that this was the strongest indication you
could have given, that you were approach
ing with hostile views. And it is plain,
that the commander Of the Little Belt so
understood the manoeuvre; for you 60
on to state, s'This," that is the advan-
tageous position you had ordered to be
taken, "This, however, the commander
of the chase appeared, from his manoeu-
vres to be anxious to prevent, as he wore,
and hauled by the wind on different tacks
four times successfully, between this Pc
riod and the time Of our arriUal at the po-
sition 7chich had ordered to be taken."
To be thus pursued. and thus approached
on the high seas, the commander Of the
chased vessel could not fora moment be-
lieve You to be the vessel of friendly ma
ton and under this impression, COM
mon Sense would dictate, independent of
positive regulations, that it was his duty
to conceal his name. Among various rea-
sons for armed vessels of belligerent ma
tons concealing their character, there is
enc which, to my mind is conclusive
When the vessels of war, Of belligerent
nations, meet at sea, they cannot always
distinguish accurately each others force,
even in the day time, and at night sup
pose, it is almost impossible. 1t must
therefore be the endeavor of each, either
to conceal their force, or to magnify it as
much as possible-which the disclosure
of their names would defeat. For III
stance, on the present occasion, you state,
that the appearance Of the vessel you
chased, indicated that she was a fiigate
though you could not determine her ac-
tual force. Whereas, upon your coming
up with her, and hailing her, she had
disclosed her name, it is probable you
would have known, she was only gun
brig, or sloop of war, rated at II guns
The Importance of concealment, there
fore, is 50 obvious, that there cannot be a
doubt Of the propriety Of it.
lam aware it has been said, and even
insinuated by yourself, that the comman-
der of the Little Belt, must have known
that you were an American, belonging to a
nation at peace with his own, and that
common politeness ought to have dictated
to him, the propriety of answering your
hail. To this l shall only observe, that
we have not the shadow Of proof that he
knew to what nation you belonged, of
course it is mere conjecture. There is no
reason to suppose he could distinguish
what colors you carried, any more than
you could distinguish his; and even if he
had, you, Sir, need not be told, that no.
thing is more common, than for armed