New-York tribune., 1908-06-29
AN ADDITION TO HISTORY
UNRECORDED SEA FIGHT.
The Action Bet7Ceen the Sharp and
the ShVrOcket IN 17?9.

inc DHvTOChGt M IL -.
sea fight between an American and Scotch
armed vessel. which seems never before TO nave
been recorded in American annals, according 10
Edgar Stanton Maclay, has just been brought 10
light by the discovery by Mr.. Maclay in the Ii
brary archives of Edinburgh of a copy of letter
from the commander of the Scotch craft to ms
employers. The name of the Scottish boat was
the Sharp, Captain Archibald Bogg, owned py
merchants in Glasgow, while the name OF the
Yankee craft was the Skyrocket Captain Burke.
a brig mounting sixteen guns and manned by
more than one hundred and twenty men-an
armament and complement that made the Sky
rocket more formidable than many of the regu-
lar American warships In those days. The
Sharp according to the letter of Captain Bogg,
was armed with fourteen carriage guns. six OF
them 12-pounders. besides six swivels. The
only note there is of the Skyrocket in American
records is the bare mention OF her name IN Efn-
mons's Statistical History of the U. S. Navy"
which was published in 1850.
The most important feature of the Sharps
armament however was that six of her carriage
guns were carronades, new weapon in those
DAYS and one that at first carried CONSERVATION
to the enemy-as will be seen in letter from
Captain Bogg The carronade was gun of
large bore having a short range but great
smashing power IL was Sdlu anu WIN lIu1L
that the smashing force of u 2-pounder carron-
ade at short range equal to that of "a
FOUNDER; in fact the invention. which took its
name from the town of Carron, France, was
quite as much of an advance in ordnance in
those days is the rfed shot of to-day over
the solid round shot of forty years ago In
Captain Boggs report of this action is had the
first account of the effect of these new guns in
actual battle.
1t appears that the Sharp bound on a
voyage to Jamaica, but had scarcely proceeded
beyond sight OF the Irish coast when she was
attacked by hostile craft-whether Ameri-
can Frenchman Captain Bogg unable to
state He reported: ION the 18th (March,
1870. being a little to the westward of Tuiker.
d cutter privateer passed the Sharp; she dogged
us till the 18th at night, when she attempted to
board / hailed her with broadsde, which
made her crew cry out in a most horrible man
ner, but did not understand what she said, She
Immediately sheered off and | more of
her"
Six days after this encounter or on March 24.
while the Sharp was standing off from the Old
Head of Kinsale. Captain Bogg discovered sail
ahead of him steering westward About
O'Clock In the afternoon the stranger (Which
afterWard proved to be the SkYrocket) by her
superiority of sailing managed to gain the
weather gage of the Sharp and then. working her
way to an advantageous position off the Sharp's
quarter. ship and crowding on all sail,
came up with the scotchman a little after /
p.
Down to this time neither craft had showed
cclors when Captain Bogg hailed and asked:
What ship is that, and where do YOU hail
from?'' The answer was. From America" upon
which the Scotchman unfurled his flag and de
vered broadside The Skyrocket then dis
played the thirteen stripes" and returned the
fire smartly." According to Captain Bogg's Off
cial report the battle lasted -four glasses" or
two hours when the privateer thought proper
to sheer off. crOwding all sail Bogg says that
he gave chase. but soon left asteTn
Only one man on the Sharp was killed. He
was David McEwan. None wounded "but,
the sails and rigging being much cut, Captain
Bogg says Il made sail for Cork with an in
tention to rest there, but when off the harbor
T fell in with the Blagrove, the Mermaid, the
Hope and the Jamaica and some others. bound
to the West Indies, with whom i mean to pro-
ceed on my voyage being happy in having joined
them"
1t appears from this record that pre-
viouslv 70 the Skyrocket's action with the Sharp
the former had captured the British merchant
man Betsy, Captain Macarthur. The Betsy was
from Clyde, bound for Oporto. when she was
| by the Yankee anu cdptufttl- eStPt'ili
Macarthur was a prisoner aboard the Skyrocket
when that craft fought the Sharp subsequently
Macarthur was released, and arriving at Green
oclx raported that the weight of the sharp S
metal together with the quickness of firing, par
ticularly of the carronades, threw the prlVa-
teer's peope into the utmost aston1shment' ana
! that the execution board the privateer was
such that they would have struck to the Sharp
had she been able to come up with then'
So pleased were the ScGtchmen over the re-
pulse of the Skyrocket that the underwriters III
Glasgow Subscribed a genteel sum to be pre-
sented to Captain Bogg for his spirited be-
haviour" and also gave to the family OF DAVID
McEwan "a present
At the conclusion of this valuable maritime
record the following note is made: Ihe Lev
eIIer priyateer Captain Campbell. or GIlasSo"
was taken about the 2Sth ult February 20 py
tho Monsieur frigate of fOrtyfour guns and
9,O mon The Leveller sailed from CORK pu'
+uo davs before she taken The Monsieur
,.,as mart of the squadron commanded by John
paul Jones. which captured, only few months
after this the British warships Scraps and
| Scarborough.