The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1902-05-29
A RELIC OF The FIRST NAVY
The Once Gallant frigate President Now
Hulk Used as q British Training
Ship.

/ When the American squadron of stee
e battleshps and cruisers goes to England
e this Summer to join the Internationa
r Coronation fleet, there will be one famou.
t American fighting ship lying within 81,
miles of Westminster Abbey, unhonoret
t and almost forgotten. Although sistel
3 ship of "Old Ironsides," she will lie un
noticed in a merchantman's dock.
, Years ago she passed the age of active
. service, and, denuded of masts and spars
. and bearing house on her deck, she littl,
, resembles the fleet frigate that carried
alarm to the English Coast a century ago
when she circled the British Isles, chal
longing every ship that flew the English
, flag. But now she herself flies the Eng
lish flag, and in the English navy list She
Is recorded as the former frigate Presi
dent. drill ship of the Royal Naval Re,
serve. West India Docks.
Go down into the east end of London
where the Thames sweeps around the Isle
of Dogs, and there in one of the small
basins of the West India Docks you will
find the forgotten President, flying the
English ensign from her taffrail and carry
ing the figurehead of John Adams, the
second President of the Republic, on her
prov.
Strangely out of place she looks in the
company of fleet of modern merchant
men, unloading at these docks the products
of all the world. Her massive Oaken
sides remind one of the days when high
power riiied guns were unknown and fight
Ing ships were dashed together in battle.
But she looks little like fighting ship
now.
American fighting ships have been IA,
nous for gun power. Our new battleships
can pour out more tons of steel a minute
than the ships of any other nation. This
has been the principle of naval construc-
ton in America since the days of our first
| frigates.
Our navy was really born on March 81,
| 1914, when Congress, alarmed by the dep
relations committed on our commerce in
the Mediterranean by the piratical cor.
sairs of the Barbary Powers, ordered the
building of four 44-gun frigates. One of
these first ships of our navy was the Presl-
dent, another was the famous COnstitn-
ton; the United States and the Philadel-
phia were the others.
The Constitution, Philadelphia and
President were all in the Mediterranean
mt the beginning of the last century guard
ing our merchantmen. 1t was there that
Decatur won immortal renOwn by recap,
turing and burning the Philadelphia in the
harbOr of Tripoli in 1904. Nelson pro-
nOunced this the most daring act of the
age"
1t was this same adventurous Decatur
who afterward, in Long Island Sound,
was forced to surrender his sword on the
deck of the President to his British antag-
onist.
Just before the War of 1912 began
Commodore Rodgers took the frigate
President out of Annapolis in search of
the dreaded Guerrero He gave chase to
a British ship which refused to give her
name.
Rodgers thought she was the Guerrero
and was convinced of it when she an
swered his inquiry with shot. 1t was
night. The President gave the supposed
Guerriere her broadside. The enemy was
disabled and 81 men were lost.
Commodore Rodgers lay-to all night and
offered assistance in the morning, when
he found that his antagonist was the Lit
tie Belt. His offer was refused. Rod
gers's action was later sustained by a
Court of Inquiry.
1t was on her first cruise after the out
break of war that the President had her
first i'll luck. Commodore Rodgers took
her and four other warships out of New
York in search of feet of English mer-
chantmen.
They ran in with the British frigate
Belvidere, and Rodgers gave chase. There
was stern chase far into the night.
One of the Presidents chase guns burst
and 16 men were killed or wounded and
the Commodore had leg fractured; but |
he ordered the sails to be wet to get into |
closer quarters, so that the broadside guns
could be turned on the enemy. But in the |
darkness the Belvidere escaped.
1t was while the President was on this |
cruise that her sister ship, the COnstitu- |
ton, made her famous escape from the |
British fleet by sending out boats ahead, |
and later had her memorable battle with |
the Guerriere.
Again Commodore Rodgers took his |
fleet out to scour the seas. He was away |
three months. sailing 5000 miles, but his |
spoils were limited to 100000 in specie |
and gold dust taken from the British |
packet Swallow.
captured the British frigate Java and |
Congress voted $4,000 to Commodore
cambridge, her commander. The frigate
United States, too, while the President |
was on her second cruise, was in luck, for |
she took the British frigate Macedonian.
Commodore Decatur was her skipper,
and he sent the captured ships colors to ]
the President in Washington. Lieut Ham.
iltOn, son of Alexander Hamilton, had the
honor of carrying the flag to Washington,
and he wore it at a dance g ven by Dolly
Madison. Young Hamilton was later kill
ed in the fight in which the President was
lost.
Commodore Rodgers was uneasy with
all his lack of luck. He got permission
L
dent to England and beard the lion in his
den. In his report of his cruise he tells
with what vigilance he sought British
frigates.
He sailed around Ireland and all along
the English Coast. He captured one mer-
chairman after another. He cruised in
the North Sea, and finally put into North
Bergen for provisions.
He could get only water, for there was
an uncommon scarcity of bread In every
part of Norway, and at the time not more
in North Bergen than bare sufficiency
for its inhabitants for four or five weeks"
From there he sailed to the Orkney Is
lands and the North Cape.
In these northern ATTITUDES he was
chased for so hours by two ships Of war, ;
but he succeeded in eluding them. Sail
ing for America by way of the Irish Chan
nell he captured several more merchant
men, and one tive-gun warship, the High l
flyer. s
In all he took 10 ships and 271 men,
md the whole British navy was at his !
leels. The Admiralty sent out a private 1
'ircular advising Captains of men-of-war {
hat the President must be captured, G
burned or sunk at all hazards. c
Commodore Rodgers, in closing his re-
bort of his foreign cruise, makes this ref t
renee to the engagement between the S
Chesapeake and Shannon: e
Just at the moment of closing my let t
err newspaper has been handed me con- q
aiming Capt. Broke's challenge to my late e
gallant friend, Capt. Lawrence, in which b
lie mentions with considerable emphasis v