Seattle daily post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, W.T. [Wash.]) 1881-1888, 1882-09-05
TINE eESERAL ARMSTRONG RExxRe

l
ELL.
A bill. that has been before Congress
TOT q number of years, for the relief of
zoe owners and crew OF okhe privatser
oenetal Armstrong. and their heirs, Is
one OF the most extraordinary. in seve-
1di respects, that ever appeared In Con-
gress.
To begin with, the claim has been bs-
Tore the Government, in one form or
another, for sixty-six wears. In earlier
Gays, IT was tlIs basis Of demand for
Indemnity against Portugal, and the
diplomatic controversy on the subject.
enifvenin,g tie administrations of Mad
ispn, Monroe, Jackson. Tyler, Polk,
Taylor, and Fillmore, called forth the
best powers If the Secretaries of State
who served under these Presidents.
Next 1t appeared in Congress, where il
Is connected with the earliest recollec-
tons OF the most venerable members,
rs being then an ancient claim. During
IT'S eventfui career 1t has passed through
the Court OF Claims with great success,
but only to find the decision in its favor
reversed on reheariug by divided
cour. on a technical point. Both in the
Thirty third and the Thirty-fifth Con-
gresa, the Senate Committee ON Foreign
Relations unanimously reported in its
favor; and now, after the Captain, own
ers, officers, and crew are dead and
mostly forgotten, their children and
grandchildren are still knocking at the
door of Cong FEES for indemnification.
In the next place. the naval combat
out of wjistt the claim arose is one Of
the Iis'st extraordinary in history, and
des+r'es more prominent position than
1t now occupies in American naval an
mails. The narrative reads like 70
nance. In September. 1Sl4, the Gene
raj Armstrong, private-armed brig,
commanded by Capt. Sam G. Reid, put
into the neutral port of Fayal, belong
ing to Portugal. for fresh water. In
that port was British squadron, under
Commodore Lloyd, consisting Of the
Piantagenet, "a guns; the Kota, A, and
the CarnatiOn, IL, making force Of lS;
guns, With complement Of 1900 men
and officers. The Armstrong lrried Z
guns and 80 Office u and men. No SOON
or had she anchored under the guns of
the fort than four armed boats, contain
ing about 40 men each, approached, with
an obvious intent to board, when Capt.
Reid, after repeatedly warning them to
keep of, opened fire. A battle ensued
III which the boats were bea:el and re-
treated. This was in the early evening.
At midnight tho British renewed the at
tack with fourteen boats, containing
over 4OO men, but were repuIsed with
great slaughter, some of their boats be-
lug destroyed. At daylight the Carna-
ton attacked the Armstrong, but was
riddied III hull and rigging, and CON-
PEELED to haul OFF. Only then, when
Reid saw the entire squadron getting
ready for him, did he scuttle his shin
and land his officers and crew. The
bafiied British boarded aud burned her.
10 show that this Is not u prejudiced
account, the following extract from the
letter of All English eyewitness to Will
liam Cobbett may be cited from the doc
uinentary evidence in the case:
Inc termination was near abOut
total massacre. Three of the boats
were sunk, and but ono poor solitary
officer escaped death in boat that con-
tanned nifty souls. he was wounded.
The Americans fought with great finn
hess. some of the TO ITS were left with
out u single man to row them; others
with three and four. The most that
any one returned with was about ten.
bodies. With great reluctance | state
that they were manned with picked men,
and commanded by the First, Second,
Third and Fourth Lisutenants Of the
PlAntaGenet; First, Second, Third and
Fourth ditto of the frivate, and the first
officer Ut tue brig, together with great
number Of midshipmen. Orr whole
force exceeded four hundred men. But
three officers escaped, two of whom are
wounded. This bloody and unfortunate
oontes. lasted about forty minutes.
Nothing more was attempted until day
light next morning, when the Carnation
hauled In alongside and engaged her.
The privateef still continued to make q
most gallant defense. These veterans
reminded ne of L,wrence's dy ing words
ON the Chesapeake, Don't give up the
ship The Carnation lost one of her
tOpmasts, and her yards were shot away.
She WAS much Ont up IN her rigging, and
received several shots in her hull. This
Obliged her to haul off to repair and to
cease firing.
For three days after, we were en-
plOyed in burying the dead that washed
on shore in the surf. The number Of
British killed exceeds l2O, and 80 wound
cd. The enemy, to the surprise of man.
kind. lost but ono killed and seven
wounded. We inay we'll say, God de-
liver Us from our enemies ii this ia the
way the Americans fight"
Even this il not the whole of the
strange story. The squadron was do
tanned ten days at Fayal, repairing DAM
ages and buryinR the dead, and the
That's and Calypso, two slOOps of war
which had meanwhile arrived, were
sent back to England with the wounded.
Now, LlOyd's squadron was part of the
deet concentrating ut Jamaica to at
tack New Orleans. A British officers
narrative Of the campaign employs the
following languages:
"When Lloyd arrived, and it Was told
to Sir Admiral Cochrane and Generals
keaue and Packenham what had be-
fallen him, that he had sustained loss
of 100 Of his best men, and had in CON-
sequence been detained in Fayal ten
days, they were exceedingly indignant
and loaded Lloyd with bitter ie-|
proaches."
The crippled condition Of Lloyd's
command caused a further delay at ia
maica, and it is a well known fact in
history that Gen. Jackson reached New
Orleans only four days before the Brit
iah fleet arrived off the Chandelier Isl
ands, near the entrance of Lake Borgne.
Thus there is ground for claiming that
Reds battle at Fayal saved New Or
leans srom capture; for it was defence
less even week before Jackson's ar
rival.
The value Of the Armstrong, owned
and armed by American citizens, was,
~ settled in the Court Of Claims, &43,-
0 0; the losses, direct and indirect, Of
the officera and men were reckoned at
$27, 78-the total being e70,H This
has always been the sum fixed for tho
claim. Il only remains to consider Why
il has never been pvin.
To give the reasons very briefly, In
the first place, the claim very naturally
took the form at the outset OF q demand
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