The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1900-01-30

repairing damages. the French ffisate
escaped in the darkness and could not
be found again.
The Vengeance was much more pow
erful than the Constellation. Her
weight Of metal Was Liz pounds to the
consrelln,ion's ses. She lost In killed
ana wounded 100 men. while the loss OF
the Constellation was only 30 killed and
wounded. The Frenchman put into
Curacao in halflwrecked condition.
Had It not been for the accident TO the
CONSULTATIONS mainmast the French
man never could have escaped, as she
was at the mercy OF the American ship
when that vessel stopped to clear away
the wreck OF tn failn spar.
As February is the Tooth anniversary
OF the fight between the Constellation
and the Vengeance, 90 It is the lOlst
anniversary OF the capture by the same
Truxton in the same Constellation, OF
the French frlgate Insurgent. TruxtOn
was cruising to the windward OF Mar
Unique when he came across the
Frenchman. The battle lasted IN hour
and a quarter. At the end Of that time
the InsurEent hauled down her oolors.
she lost seventy men, Killed and
wounded. while the less of the constel-
lation was only five. Truxton raked
the Frencfnnan fore and aft several
times, and was across her stern With
every gun bearing ready to rake again,
when the msurgent struck. Lleutenant
Rogers, with Alldshipman Porter and
eleven seamen, took the prize Into st.
kits navigating the badly shattered
frigate In a storm and guarding 173
French prisOners at the same time. The
Frenchmen made an attempt To rise
and retake the vessel but were driven
below and kept under halches until the
ship was safe IN port under the guns
OF the Constitution The Insurgent
was retitted and taken into the United
States navy. The weight OF metal
thrown by the Constellation was slight
ly heavier than that Of the French fri
gate, though the FrenChnan carried
100 more men In her crew. The mer-
chants OF London gave to Truxton u
piece of plate for capturing French
frlgate Of superior force" The French
commander. Captain Bareaut, took his
defeat much to heart, and In his report
declared that he did not know that war
between France and the United States
had been declared.
The year 1900 was remarkably prOli-
flc In captures from the French. and the
two American schooners. Enterprise
and Experiment, were especially active
in bringing in the enemy's ships Once
the Experiment was a little too erer-
getic. She was cruising about in heavy
weather at night when she sighted a
strange sail. The schooner lay over 50
that her guns were useless and it was
necessary to "Ghock up" the carriages
so that the weather boardslde
guns could be brought TO bear. By
the time this was done the two vessels
were near together and opened on each
other. In the course of few minutes
the stranger surrendered. She turned
out not to he a Frenehman at all. but
the English privateer Louisa Bridger.
She was badly Injured and had four
feet of water In her hold Her captain
was severely wounded and the expert
ment had lost man and boy. The
American commander apolOgised and
made every possible reparatIon.
In This war with France most of the
fightlng was done In the West Indies,
but some OF the prlvateers carried their
work across the water and one Ameri-
can prlvpteer from Philadelphia Tough:
fleet of French vessels which came
out in Algeclras. near Gibraltar, to head
her of. The prlvateer was named the
Louisa. and she beat on the enemy and
sailed into Gibraltar In triumph, where
she was greeted with enthusiasm by
thousands OF people who had watched
The combat from "The Rock"
one of these fights hundred years
ago was between the United States ship
Boston and the French vessel lie Ber-
ceau. The Frenchman was commando
ed by Andre senez, who had been a
mldshIpman under D'Estaing In our
Revolution. The Boston captured lie
Berccau and brought her into port at
ter killing and wounding twenty~one OF
her crew and seriously damaging the
vessel. The Boston lost fifteen In killed
and wounded The squadron under
Captain John Barry. cruising In the
West indies. took lie Boneparte, lie
Phenix III Maglclenne, LIZ Bonaparte
(No. y. LII Briliante. lie FrIpOn. lie Bon
Pere and seven other armed prizes. The
flagship OF this squadron sunk the Ar
mour de la Patrie and then lowered
boats and rescued her men, who wera
struggling in the water. She also took
the Tratutc. Altogether the war with
France was successful and thoroughly
demonstrated the superiority Of Amerl-
can seamsn.
The war with France was brought
about by the depredatIons OF French
cruisers. which not only violated the