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in a letter to a friend, says: "By the officers who 1811. came from Washington we learn, that we are sent May. in pursuit of the british frigate, who had impressed a passenger from a brig." This british frigate was reported to be the Guerrière; and the american officer anticipates, along with a refusal on the part of her commander to deliver up the man, an engagement between the President and a british frigate "exactly her force."

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On the 12th of May, at daylight, the President got under way, and began working down the bay. On the 13th the commodore spoke a brig, who had, the preceding day seen a ship, supposed to be the Guerrière, off Cape Henry. But, if the date and place are correct, it could not have been the Guerrière; as, at noon on the 12th, she was nearly abreast of Cape Roman, SouthCarolina. An extra quantity of shot and wads were Prepanow got on deck, and the ship was cleared for action. in exIn the evening the wind shifted to a fair quarter, and pectathe President ran before it. On the 14th the american meetfigate was off Cape Henry; but no british frigate ing the was there. The commodore now stood slowly to the rière. north-east, expecting every moment to discover the object of his pursuit. The 15th passed without any occurrence; but on the 16th, at about 25 minutes past meridian, Cape Henry bearing south-west distant 14 or 15 leagues, the wind a moderate breeze from the northward, the President, from her masthead, discovered a vessel in the east quarter, standing towards her under a press of sail.

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Little

The vessel thus descried was the british ship-sloop PresiLittle-Belt, captain Arthur Batt Bingham, mounting falls in 18 carronades, 32-pounders, and two nines, with with 121 men and boys, on her return to the southward Belt. from off Sandy-Hook; where she had been seeking the Guerrière, for whom she bore despatches from the commander in chief at Bermuda, rearadmiral Sawyer. The Little-Belt had discovered t'e President since about noon, and considering her suspicious, had hauled up on the starboard tack in

May.

1811. chase. Captain Bingham, in his letter, says, it was "eleven" when he descried the President; the Little-Belt's log says, "half past." Even the latest of these times would, according to the letter of commodore Rodgers, make it 40 minutes after the LittleBelt had descried the President before the latter discovered her: a circumstance not very probable; although it does appear, that the american ship did not keep the best look-out; otherwise, when first seen by the President, the Little-Belt would have been steering south, instead of towards the President, or north by west, a deviation from her course caused solely by the latter's appearance. We have therefore, as on other occasions, paid less attention to the absolute, than to the relative time.

At 1h. 30 m. P. M. each ship, the two then about 10 miles apart, supposed the other to be a vessel of war. The President thereupon hoisted her ensign and commodore's pendant, and edged away, as if to meet the Little-Belt. The latter, about the same time, made her number, along with the customary signal, (No. 275,) calling upon the stranger, if a british ship of war, to show hers. The non-compliance with this signal indicating that the President was, what by her colours she appeared to be, an Presi- american frigate, the Little-Belt, at 1 h. 45 m. P. M., chases hoisted her colours, wore, and resumed her course her. to the southward under all sail.. "Being," as

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commodore Rodgers says, "desirous of speaking her, and of ascertaining what she was," the President crowded sail in chase. Observing this, the LittleBelt made the private signal. Finding it unanswered, captain Bingham felt assured that the stranger, notwithstanding her persisting to chase, was an american frigate, and therefore, hauling down both ensign and signal, continued his course round Cape Hatteras. Little- Although the wind, since 1 P. M., had been graduBelt ally falling, the superior sailing of the President brought her, by 6 h. 30 m. P. M., so near to the Little-Belt, that captain Bingham, wishing before dark

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to remove all remaining doubts on either side, short- 1811. ened sail, rehoisted his colours, and hove to on the May. larboard tack.

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To avoid being taken by surprise, the Little-Belt Clears double-shotted her guns, and got all clear for action. action. The President, by the manner of her approach, appearing as if she intended to take a raking position, the Little-Belt, to frustrate that design, wore three times. This brought the latter upon the starboard tack; and at a few minutes past 8 P. M., when the two ships were about 90 yards apart, captain Bingham hailed the President in the customary manner, but received no answer, probably because he was not heard. The President still advancing, as if desirous to pass astern of the LittleBelt, the latter wore a fourth time, and came to on the larboard tack. The President now hauled her foresail up, and also hove to on the larboard tack, distant about 80 yards from the sloop's weatherbeam. Captain Bingham, standing on the gun Capt. abaft the larboard gangway, hailed, "Ship a hoy !" Bing"Ship a hoy!" was repeated from the neutral hails. frigate. "What ship is that?" asked captain Bingham. "What ship is that?" repeated commo- is fired dore Rodgers. At this instant a gun was fired, let by acus for the present say, by each ship; and, let us also say, that both guns went off by accident.

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Each ship believing the other to have fired first, The and that intentionally, and neither being disposed to ships brook the slighest insult, the two began a furious engage. engagement; which lasted, including an intermis- Little

firing;

sion of a few minutes, about half an hour.* The Belt Little-Belt, owing to the loss of her after-sail and ceases the damaged state of her rigging, having fallen off, also so that no gun would bear, ceased firing; and the Presi President, finding that to be the case, did the same. Shortly afterwards commodore Rodgers, hailing the Little-Belt, learnt, what he and his officers must

* Captain Bingham says "three quarters;" some of the american officers," a quarter of an hour or twenty minutes."

dent.

May:

1811. have known before, that she was a british ship, but did not, it appears, hear her name; and, to a question, desiring to know if his antagonist had struck, was answered by captain Bingham in the negative. The latter then asked the name of the american frigate; but the same cause, the increased freshness of the wind, that had prevented the com-modore from hearing the whole of the answer to his question, kept captain Bingham in ignorance of the name, though not of the nation, of the ship by which the Little-Belt had been so battered and ill-used.

Da

mage

and

Little

The damages of the Little-Belt were indeed, as might be expected, of a very serious description. loss to The greater part of her standing and the whole of her Belt. running rigging were cut to pieces: not a brace nor a bowline was left. Her masts and yards were all badly wounded, and her gaff was shot away. Her upperworks were completely riddled, and her hull in general much struck: several shot were sticking in her side, and some had entered between wind and water. Nothing, we conceive, but the lowness of her hull in the water, and the consequent difficulty of hitting it, prevented the sloop from being sunk. The loss on board the Little-Belt bore a proportion to her damage: she had one midshipman, (Samuel Woodward,) seven seamen, and one marine killed, two seamen mortally, her acting master, (James M'Queen,) seven seamen, one boy, and two marines severely, and her boatswain, (James Franklin,) five seamen, two boys, and two marines slightly wounded; total, 11 killed and mortally wounded, Loss to and 21 wounded severely and slightly. The PrePresi- sident appears to have had her sails and rigging slightly injured, and to have received one 32-pound shot in her foremast and another in her mainmast: her loss is also represented not to have exceeded one boy wounded.

dent.

Both

ships

After the action the President wore, and, running lie to a short distance to-leeward of the Little-Belt, came tilldaylight. to on the starboard tack, to repair her trifling

damages. This done, the frigate filled and lay to 1811. on different tacks, in order to wait until daylight May. should afford the commodore a clear view of what his prowess had effected. The Little-Belt brought to on the larboard tack, and commenced her more serious occupation of repairing damages and stopping leaks. During the night the sloop's topgallantmasts were got on deck, and the cut rigging partially repaired.

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on

board

Belt.

At daylight on the 17th the President, now about Presinine miles to-windward, bore up under topsails and sends foresail, and, to all appearance, ready to renew the a boat action. At 8 A. M. the american frigate passed within boa hail, and the commodore said: "Ship a-hoy! I'll Littlesend a boat on board, if you please, sir."-" Very well, sir," was captain Bingham's reply. The boat came, under the command of the first lieutenant John Orde Creighton, with a message from the commodore, to the effect, that he lamented much "the unfortunate affair," and that, had he known the british ship's force was so inferior, he would not have fired into her. On being asked why he had fired at all, the lieutenant replied, that the Little-Belt had fired first, This was most positively denied on the part of captain Bingham. Lieutenant Creighton, in the name of the commodore, then offered every assistance, and suggested that captain Bingham had better put into one of the ports of the United States. This the latter declined. The boat returned. The ships President made sail to the westward, and the Little- part Belt, as soon as she was able, to the northward. On pany. the 23d the latter was joined by the Gorée, captain Byng, and on the 28th the two vessels anchored in Halifax harbour.

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In discussing the merits of the action between the ReLittle-Belt and President, we shall consider it in the double light of an attack by a neutral upon a rière! belligerent, and an engagement between an american had no frigate and a british sloop of war. We shall begin by freely admitting, that the act of the Guerrière, in anamepressing a native american citizen out of an american citizen,

right

to press

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