The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-03-29

out the loss of man on the American
vessel.
ITO Captain Percival was assigned the
duty of circumnavigatingt the globe.
"1n December, 1845, the Constitution was
homeward bound and touched at Homo
lulu. Here Captain Percival found dis
patches from Commodore John D. Sloat.
commanding him to proceed to the Pacific
Coast to ioin the squadron.
upon the arrival here of the Consti-
tuition, quarterboat was sent into the har-
Dor, under command of Lieutenant James
Alden, who subsequently rose to the rank
OF admiral. was in the quarterboat, and
after skirting the shores of the bay we
returned to the vessel. Nothing but such
visual experience as had, when looked
across the peninsula that day. can give
even faint idea of the scene of desolation
presented to the eye. Not hut, not a
tree, or shrub, not living being in sight
Nothing but sand, sand, sand everywhere.
After satisfying ourselves that the
squadron was not here we set sail for the
bay OF Monterey, and there also our search
was in vain. Finally, in January, 46, we
found the fleet OF thirteen vessels, with the
frigate Savannah as flagship of Commo-
stitution remained till May of that year.
awaiting war with Mexico, which came in
the shape of the battle of Ell Moline del
Rey-the Kings Mill
"In the harbor of Mazatlan there was a
British fifty-gun ship, the America, com.
manded by Lord George Gordon, brother
of the Earl of Aberdeen, at that time
Prime Minister of England. During a
dinner at Mazatlan, at which there were
present many United States and British
naval officers, heard Lord George make
very in udicious remark. Becoming heated
with wine he said: IF Great Britain and
the United States go to war I wish nothing
better than to be placed midway between
the Savannah and Constitution As these
two ships carried, together, one hundred
guns, against his fifty, the remark was
specimen of brag of the tallest kind Lord
George had evidently forgotten that Com
modore Charles Stewart, or 'Old Iron
Sides had placed himself, in the Constitu-
ton, between the two British sloops-of-war.
OF superior armament, the Cyane and
Levant, and had captured them both
1.-The America was not originally a
British ship, but was Yankee born, having
been built at Portsmouth, N. H., and
given as present to France to replace the
gift o. line-of-battle ship which that
nation had presented to the American
colonies. In one of the Peninsular naval
battles the America was taken from the
French by the British and raced into
fifty gun ship.
81 believe the America when sent to
France was in command OF that celebrated
naval hero, John Paul Jones.
During our three years journey we
met with but two steam vessels of any
kind-one a Dutch man-of-war off the
island Tristan d Acunha, in the South At
lantic, and the other British sloop-of-
war attached to the squadron commanded
by Lord Cochrane, off the coast of Manila,
in the East Indies. This was in As, when
it was thought there might be trouble be-
tween Great Britain and the United States
over. the "a deg 4G min. boundary. but
which was settled by the so-called Ash
burton treaty.
1.-THE Constitution during this trip had
the same armament as when she cap
tured the Guerrero, Java, Cyane and Lee
want. She had on board Swedish marine.
Andrew Paterson, who shot Captain Lam
bert of the Java through the shoulder,
from which wound he died.
sThe pinnacle in use on the Constitution
was taken from the Java and gave rise to q
story to the effect that son Of John Bull,
while on visit to the old ship, remarked
that he was glad to see that her pinnacle,
was of English manufacture. Yes said
the officer of the deck, we imported that
in the Java.
Proceeding homeward around Cape
Horn the Constitution stopped at Rio
Janeiro for supplies and then continued as
convoy to sixteen coffee vessels, whose
commanders feared Mexican privateers, to
Boston, which was reached September 81.
1876, after three years trip around the
globe. That was the last voyage of circum-
navigation undertaken by United States
wooden war-vessel. l obtain a wonderful
amount of satisfaction from Eliminating at
odd moments on that hazy day in my