The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-06-24

thing when she knows she Is certain TO get
the worst of it. The battle is not always
to the strong, when strength is counted by
the number Of cannon or of soldiers. 1t
requires daring men, however, to stand up
and try the issue out when the show of
odds is heavily against them. America
has never been a warlike nation, but she
has been favored in every crisis with men
having the nerve to face anything on sea or
land.
1t was to have been supposed that the
long war of the Revolution had exhausted
the fighting courage of the patriots, and
doubtless France took this view of it when
she violated neutrality laws in American
waters and allowed her priVateers TO ruin
our commerce by Selling merchant ships.
as she did at the close of the last century.
Such was not the case, though, and when
diplomacy failed to redress the wrong,
the newly established department of the
navy took up the quarrel After providing
for coast defense four squadrons were
sent to the French cruising grounds in the
West Indies. One squadron of five vessels,
headed by the frigate Constellation and
commanded by Comm odore Thomas Trux-
tun, roamed in the vicinity of Porto Rico,
and two fights of the Constellation alone,
against crack vessels of the enemy's navy,
displayed the virtue of simple nerve in de-
Gliding which is the better of two antago-
nists.
France was a strong naval power; Amer
lea had nothing to depend on but her forests
and her heroes. The merchants, whose
business was in danger, supplied the money
to bring the hearts of oak" and ribs of oak
together, and then the beginning OF the
navy-for that is what it amounted to-
stood ready to face the first class war ves-
sells of the Old World.
The Constellation was a first class vessel
for that day, but she hadn't proved it yet
when her commander sighted her first
enemy. 1t was in February, 1899, off the
island of Nevis. Truxtun bore down on
the stranger, paying no attention TO her
halls and signals until his vessel was abeam
Of the Frenchman, and then delivered a
broadside. The enemy proved to be the
frigate FInsurgente, one of the fastest
ships in the world, and as good fighter as
sailer. She answered the Constellation,
the vessels drifting and keeping up sharp
cannonade.
Truxtun proved an able seaman and
managed to rake the Frenchman several
times and escape her return fire. The rig
ring of the Constellation suffered badly,
however, and early in the fight the fore
topmast was cut and was in danger of fall
ing from overweight of yards and sails.
Midshipman David Porter, then lad of
eighteen, was in the wounded foretop, and
when he found that in the heat of action
on the deck below his signals were I'M
noticed he climbed to the top under fire
of bullets, cut away the fastenings and re-
leased the weight so as TO prevent the fall
of the mast. The fire of the Constellation
was low, or what is called 'hull Shots"
and was doing bloody execution among
the crew of the Frenchmen. After close
combat, during which Truxtun's ship
poured two or three raking broadsides
into her antagonist, the affair was decided
by bold stroke of seamanshp. While the
smoke obscured the scene the Constella-
ton was brought across the stern of the
Insurgente and was prepared to rake her
lengthwise with full broadside, when she
struck her colors.
The French crew had suffered terribly,
having % killed and IL wounded. The
Constellation lost men.