The times., 1898-07-17
SEA FIGHTS ON SUNDAY.
Dcwey's One of Long Series pf
American Sunday Victories.


(From the New York Tribune.)
THE better the day, the better the
deed" is homely adage which seems to
have been popular with uncle Sans Jack
Tars in their fights on the high seas, for,
on looking over the list of American ma
val victories, it will be found that four
teen victories were won on the Sabbath.
OF course 1t wouldn't do TO say that Rear
Admiral George Dewey selected this sa-
cred day for making good spaniards" out
of the 800 Dons who bit the dust-or wat
er-at Manila on Sunday, May l, 1893
Nevertheless, Montojo's ships were wiped
out on the Sabbath and in this Admiral
Dewey only followed the precedent estab-
lished by so many of Uncle Sans victo-
rious naval commanders
One of the first American sea fights was
fought on Sunday, that between the Lex
ington and the Edward, in 1776. The Yam
KEGS won on that occasion, and have been
going right on winning every time they
had a chance 10 fight on the better
day 1t was on Sunday, in III that Capt.
Thomas Thompson, in the 32-gun frgate
Raleigh, came across convoy OF British
merchantmen. and. after sending it's es-
cort the Druid, hobbling back to port for
repairs, helped himself to the valuable
prize.
1t was on a pretty Sabbath day in 1850
that Captain Thomas Truxtun. in the 3s-
gun frigate Constellation, ran across the
French frigate Vengeance, and for several
hours disputed the right of way with her,
the Frenchmen finally concluding that
they were in the wrong and getting out
of the way. The incident that did more
than any other one thing 10 precipiate the
war of 1872. the battle between the Presi-
dent and the Little Belt, in 1911, occurred
on Sunday, Captain John Rodgers send
ing the English commander home with a
stinging lesson on not attending Sunday
school on the Sabbath, instead of playing
on the high seas. A year later Captain
Jacob Jones in the Wasp, gave much the
same advice 10 Captain Whinyates, of the
British ship FrOlic, but on that occasion
both the bad boys were caught by the
big ship Poictiers. and Sir John Beresford
took both of them home for punishment
a highly valuable lesson on the wicked
ness of not observing the Sabbath.
IL was on Sunday, too that the Amer
leans gave their Canadian cousins taste
of war by capturing Toronto Perry Just
! missed achieving his greatness on the bet
ter day" by twenty-four hours, the battle
of Lake Erie being fought on q Saturday
and there is another moral TO be ex-
tracted, but Captain Macdonough offsets
the effect of this moral bywinning an even
greater victory on the Sabbath, only a
| year later, on Lake Champlain. He
| however, opened the ball" with prayer.
which, with some people, may account for
! his success.
There were a number of minor actions,
| in which the Yankees were victorious,
| taking place on the Sabbath, but as they
! were small affairs and as this story Is
| dealing only with great battles, they
| will be passed unnoticed and a skip will
| be made 10 the Monitor -Merrimac fight.
which took place on Sunday. That was
| the greatest struggle between single
| ironclads the world has ever seen, and.
! being the first for vessels of that novel
| type to engage in. it is only in keeping
| with Yankee nautical traditions that ii
| should occur ON a Sun4ay. 3y many It
| is considered the the turning point of the
| civil war, just as the action between
| the President and the Little Belt pre-
| cipitated the War of 1872.
Great things were accomplished by
! American tars on a certain Sunday in
1852, when two little gunboats in the Ten
| nessee River, at Pittsburg Landing saw
| ed the entire army from the enemy's
| clutches. Fort Fisher was taken by the
! combined naval and land forces of the
! North on a Sunday in 1865, and it was
| on a beautiful Sabbath morning that
| Capt. Winslow, of the Kearsarge, laid
| aside his prayer book from which he was
| about to conduct services and buckled on
| his sword to fight the Alabama. OF
| course every one knows that Dewey won
! his great victory at Manila on a Sunday.
although there were some people who
| tried to lessen his glory by making out
! that it was not Sunday at all a that hour
| on the other side OF the globe The Amer
| leans knew that it was Sunday. and
| maintained the traditions of the navy by
making better fight on that day.
There were two more sea fights in ia
vor of Uncle Sam that took place on
| Sunday which must not be forgotten.
| and on both these occasions the same
| American commanded. He was Stephen
| Decatur, jr. His first Sabbath victory
was over the British ship Macedonian.
| on October %, 1872 History does not saw
| whether or not he had prayer book in
| his hand when he espied the enemy. but.
! all the same, he put up the prettiest kind
! of a fight. He plugged more holes in the
| British ship, and made more Englishmen
wish that they had attended Sunday
school on that particular morning than
| any other commander of a single shin
| before had ever done. On that day the
| British had more men killed and wounded
| than the large majority of England's bat
| tleships did in any of the great sea fights
| they have been engaged in-and rumor
has it that Great Britain has seen some
fighting on the high seas. This same
| Decatur, about two and a half years lat
! er, had the satisfaction of defeating a
| second British frigate on a Sunday the
| Endymion. When pursued by the Brit
ish blockading squadron off Sandy Hook
in January, 1915, the Endymion had the
| temerity to get ahead of her consorts
and come within reach of Decatur's long
arm. The Yankee struck harder than the
| Englishmen were counting on, and ir
an hour or so had the Endynion wreck
and completely disabled.