said to have fought Tripoli single-handed. She ranged along within two cables' length of the rocks, and opened with round and grape on thirteen of the Turkish galleys and gun-boats, which had just been pretty closely engaged with the American. For a few minutes the good old craft was a perfect blaze of fire, and she soon sunk one boat, drove two more ashore to keep from sinking, and scattered all the rest. Not satisfied with this, on went the frigate, until she got off the Mole, and within musket shot, when she hove to and sent ten broadsides into the different works. Three hundred round shot alone were fired, to say nothing of large quantities of grape and canister. After having been warmly engaged for near an hour, the flotilla being by this time out of danger, the gallant frigate herself filled and hauled proudly off the land, disdaining to fire any longer than she chose to engage.

Such work as this ought not to have been done by any single ship that ever floated, without her being cut to pieces. Nevertheless Old Ironsides was not really hulled; or if hulled at all, it was in a way so slight and peculiar as to induce Preble to report her as not having been hulled. Not a man on board her was injured, though grape was sticking in her side, and had passed through her sails in considerable quantities. Three lower shrouds, two spring-stays, two topmast back-stays, and the trusses, chains and lifts of the main-yard were all shot away, the running rigging suffered materially, and several round shot went through the canvas, but not a man was hurt. An anchor stock was shot away, and the larboard bower cable was cut. We think it probable that this last shot was the one which hit her figure-head. As Preble reports she was not hulled, meaning doubtless struck fairly in her main body by a round shot, and both an anchor stock and a cable were hit, it follows that the shot or shots which did this mischief must have.passed ahead. Owing to the manner in which the ship lay exposed to guns at different points, nothing was more likely to occur than this. At all events it is known that Old Ironsides then carried an image of Hercules, with his club, as her figure-head, and that the head of this figure was knocked away, or materially injured before Tripoli. A canvas covering was put on to conceal the blemish, and continued there for sonte months. Chauncy did good service that day, and has thus left his name connected with the history of the gallant ship. At 11 in the forenoon, after such a morning's work, the Constitution anchored safely about five miles from the town, with all the squadron around her, when

all hands went to work to repair da

mages.

On the 2d September, Preble got the whole squadron under way at 4 P. M., and kept it so all night. A little before midnight, the Constitution made a general signal to clear for action. At half past two next day, another signal was made to the gun-boats, then in tow of different vessels, to cast off, advance upon the enemy and commence an attack, which was done, in the direction of Fort English, or well to windward, while the ketches went nearer the town, and further to the westward, and opened with their mortars. All the brigs and schooners were pressing the enemy, at the harbor's mouth, or cannonading Fort English, while the Bashaw's Castle, the Crown, Mole and other batteries kept up a heavy fire on the ketches, which were in great danger; that commanded by Lieut.Com. Robinson, being with difficulty kept from sinking. In order to cover these vessels, Old Ironsides now ran down inside of them and brought to, within range of grape as before, where she let fly eleven broadsides into the works. The berth of the good frigate was a warm one, as no less than seventy guns, or more than double her own number in broadside, bore on her at the same time, and they, too,.all mounted behind stone walls. At half past 4, the wind had commenced hauling to the northward, when Preble made a signal for every thing to get away the land, and he hauled off into offing with his own ship. On this occasion the Turks threw a good many shells, besides round and grape, at Old Ironsides. One of these shells hit the back of the main-topsail, and nearly tore the sail in two. It was got into the top, however, and the sailmakers went to work on it, in the midst of the fray. Another shell went through the fore-topsail, and a third through the jib; making big holes, but doing no more harm. All the sails were much cut up, as was the running rigging, by round shot. The mainsheet, foretack, lifts, braces and bowlines were all hit, but nothing larger than grape touched the hull. As on the 7th, not a man was hurt!

When grape shot nearly bury themselves in the bends of such a ship as the Constitution, and she is fairly within the range of batteries, it is almost marvellous to think, that a vessel could be thus exposed, on three several occasions, and have but one man hurt. This was the last action in which the frigate was engaged in that war, however, and it is certain that in her three engagements with the batteries, and fighting not only against such odds, but under such disadvantages, she had but the

single marine already named, Charles Young, injured on her decks.

The attempt with the Infernal came next, and in her went Wadsworth and Israel, with six of the Constitution's crew, to man the cutter. Somers had the Nautilus' boat, and four of his own men. All were lost of course, which made the total loss of the frigate out of her proper crew, while engaged before Tripoli, only two lieutenants and six men killed, and one marine wounded. The whole of the important service, indeed, effected by Preble, in his memorable forty days of active operations before the town, cost the country but thirty killed, and twenty-four wounded. Among those who fell, were one commander, four lieutenants, and one midshipman; and among the wounded, one captain (Decatur), and one lieutenant.

On the 10th, Com. Barron arrived with the President and Constellation, to relieve Preble. On the 12th, the Constitution captured two Greek ships, loaded with wheat, that were trying to force the blockade, and Barron sent the frigate to Malta, with her prizes, where she arrived December 17th. Soon after reaching Malta, the command of Old Ironsides was transferred to Decatur, Preble returning home in the John Adams.

The active service of the war, so far as the larger vessels were concerned, had now terminated, though the blockade was maintained by different vessels. Decatur's command of the Constitution was of short continuance, Rodgers claiming her, on account of rank, and exchanging her for his old ship, the Congress. The transfer was made at Syracuse on the 6th November.

The

By this time Old Ironsides had used up, transferred, or lost, one way with another, about eighty of her original crew, and Barron ordered her to Lisbon, to pick up others there, if possible, assigning important duties to her near the Straits. ship left Syracuse, November 27th, and having touched at Gibraltar and Tangiers, anchored before the town of Lisbon, December 28th. It was February 5th, before the men were picked up, when the ship sailed from Lisbon, and remaining off Tangiers, and about the Straits, for a few days, she proceeded aloft, again, and joined the squadron at Malta, on the 25th of the same month. Soon after she went off Tripoli, her old scene of glory, but returned by orders within the month. By this time the health of Barron was so bad, as to render Rodgers the efficient commander of the squadron, and the ship went off Tripoli, once more, coming in sight of the place, April 5th, 1805. The President, under Commander Cox, soon

afterwards joined her, and on the 24th, Old Ironsides took an armed xebeck, and two Neapolitans her prizes, that were endeavoring to enter the port. Not long after, the ship went to Malta.

On the 22d May, Commodore Barron formally transferred the command of the squadron to Rodgers, who hoisted a pennant once more on board Old Ironsides. Commodore Rodgers had now the choice between the sister vessels, the President and Constitution, but he chose to keep the one he was in.

As the active season was at hand, it became necessary now to treat, or to prepare for another series of offensive operations. Col. Lear had been sent for by the Essex, and the Constitution going off Tripoli, the negotiations commenced which terminated in the desired peace, the end of all war. Nations go to war because they are at peace, and they make peace because they are at war! The negotiations that terminated the war with Tripoli, took place in the cabin of Old Ironsides. She had come late into the conflict, but had done more to bring it to a conclusion, than all the frigates that had preceded her, and was fated to see the end. It is said that this was the first treaty ever concluded with one of the States of

Barbary, on shipboard. It was certainly a striking event for a hostile vessel to be thus employed, and proved the impressions which recent occurrences had made on the usually haughty Turk. The treaty was signed on shore by the Bashaw, however, and June 3d a copy was brought by the Danish Consul, Nissen, on board the Constitution, and delivered to Col. Lear and Rodgers. Old Ironsides now exchanged salutes with the town, and thus ended the war with Tripoli, after more than four years' continuance.

The occupation of the good craft did not cease, however, with the arrangement with the Bashaw, nor was she destined to return to this hemisphere for some time longer. The Bey of Tunis had manifested a warlike disposition for a long time, and a strong force being now in the Mediterranean, Rodgers saw that the present was a good occasion to bring that difficulty to a conclusion also. He had collected most of his vessels at Syracuse, where the Constitution arrived about the middle of June. At a later day the squadron passed over to Malta, and July 23d, 1805, Old Ironsides sailed from Malta, leading a squadron, composed of three other frigates, a brig, two schooners, a sloop, and several large, American-built gun-boats, that had actually crossed the ocean that summer. The Congress and Vixen were already off the port, making, when every thing was

collected, a force of five frigates, two brigs, two schooners, a sloop and four gun-boats. The Constitution led this respectable armament into Tunis Bay, July 30th, where it anchored on the 1st of August.

This demonstration had the desired result, and an arrangement of all the difficulties was happily effected by the middle of the month. The squadron lay in the bay thirty-two days, in order to make all sure, when it separated; some going one way, and some another, most returning home. Old Ironsides, nevertheless, was too much of a favorite to be easily given up. Rodgers continued in her until the succeeding year, when he gave her up, with the command of the squadron, to Campbell, who remained out for a considerable period longer, almost alone. It would be of little interest to turn over log-books, in order to record how often the ship went in and out of the different ports of the Mediterranean, but nothing of consequence occurred until near the close of 1807, when the ship had been from home quite four years.

By this time the relations between this country and England became much embroiled, and, in the midst of all the other difficulties, occurred the attack on the Chesapeake, by the Leopard. The Chesapeake had been intended for the relief ship on the Mediterranean station, and she sailed near the close of June, on that duty. After the attack her cruise was abandoned, and in expectation of hostilities which threatened to be of early occurrence, this station itself was broken up. There were but two ships on it, the Constitution and the Wasp, and the times of many of the people of the former had long been up. There were a good many of the original crew of Old Ironsides still on board her, and these men had now been out four years, when they had shipped for only three. It is true, new engagements had been made with many of the men, but others had declined making any. In this state of things, Campbell brought the ship down to Gibraltar, and waited anxiously for the appearance of his relief. She did not come, but, in her stead arrived the report of what had occurred to her. It now became necessary for some one to go aloft, and Campbell determined to move the good ship, once more, in that direction. All hands were called to get the anchors, when the men refused to man the bars unless the ship sailed for home. There was a moment when things looked very serious, but Campbell was nobly sustained by his officers, with Ludlow at their head, and after a crisis, in which force was used in seizing individuals, and the marines were paraded, and

found to be true, the insubordinate spirit was quelled. No one was ever punished for this attempt at mutiny, for it was felt that, on principle, the men had a great deal of right on their side. A law has since been passed to prevent the possibility of setting up a claim for discharges, until a ship is properly relieved.

At length the station was abandoned, and Old Ironsides sailed for her native place, Boston. On her arrival in that port, it was found necessary, however, to send her to New-York, in order to be paid off. She reached the last port in November 1807, and was dismantled for repairs.

Thus terminated the fourth of the Constitution's cruises, which had been twice as long as the three others put together, and a hundred times more momentous. She had now seen enemies, had fought them again and again, had witnessed the signing of treaties under her pennant, besides their dictation. In a word the good craft had been magna pars in many an important event. She was in some measure entitled to the character of a statesman, as well as that of a warrior.

The Constitution was now more than ten years old, and some serious repairs had become necessary. America did not then possess a single dry-dock, and preparations were made for heaving her out. This was done, at Brooklyn Yard, in the spring of 1808, when her copper was examined and repaired. All this time the ship was not properly out of commission; many officers were attached to her; and as soon as she was righted, and got her spars aloft, Rodgers, who commanded on the station afloat, as Chauncy did the yard, showed his broad pennant in her again. For a time, Lawrence acted as her first lieutenant, as did Izard, his successor, when Lawrence was transferred to the command of a brig. Nevertheless, the ship lay near, if not quite, a twelvemonth at the yard, before she received a full crew, and began to cruise.

This was a period when all the active naval force of the country was kept on the coast. The Mediterranean had been the only foreign station, after the peace with France, and that was broken up. Two home squadrons were maintained— one to the northward, under Rodgers, and one to the southward, under a different commander. The broad pennant of the commander-in-chief afloat, was flying on board Old Ironsides. This gave the old craft an opportunity of showing herself, and making acquaintances, in various of the home ports. Until Campbell brought her round to New-York, in 1807, to be paid off, it is believed she had never entered any American harbor but

that of Boston. Yankee born, and Yankee bred, she had had Yankee commanders, until Decatur got her; and in that day there was more of provincial feeling among us than there is at present. This was probably the reason that the Constitution was so often taken to Boston; out of which port she has sailed, owing to peculiar circumstances, on every one of her most successful cruises.

When Nicholson went on the southern coast, there was no port, in that quarter, into which he would be likely to go with so heavy a ship; and unless he did, we do not see when Old Ironsides could have been in any haven of the country, except Boston, until the close of the year 1807. This visit to New-York, however, broke the charm, and since that, nearly every important point of the coast, that has sufficient water to receive her, has had a visit. Rodgers kept Old Ironsides, until 18 when he shifted his pennant to the President, under the impression that the last was the faster ship. Some persons fancied the good craft had lost her sailing.

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Deaths and resignations had made Rodgers the oldest officer afloat, and he did very much as he chose in these matters.

Off the wind, the President was unquestionably one of the fastest ships that ever floated, but on a wind, the Constitution was her match, any day, especially if the vessels were brought to double-reefed topsails. The President was a more roomy ship, perhaps, tumbling home the least, but Old Ironsides was confessedly of the stoutest frame, and the best ribbed.

The sailing of many of the vessels fell off about this time, and we think an intelligent inquiry would show that it was owing to a cause common to them all. The commanders were anxious to make their vessels as efficient as possible, by loading them with guns, and filling them with men. The spars, too, were somewhat increased in weight, which produced an increase in ballast. The guns and spars were not of so much moment, but the additional men required additional provisions and water, and this sunk the hull deeper in the water, and demanded a greater moving power. When Barry first took the States out to the West Indies, she was one of the fastest frigates that ever floated, though the Constitution was thought to be her equal. About the year 1810, nevertheless, the States had got so bad a name for sailing, that she went by the soubriquet of the Old Waggoner, and was held quite cheap by all who were in a hurry. The Macedonian, her prize, certainly beat her under a jury

mizzenmast; but some one took the trouble to overhaul the hold of the States one day, and to lighten her, and now she defies the world!

Rodgers had a good and a deserved reputation for fitting out a ship; but he was fond of men, and usually filled his vessels too full of one thing and another. Owing to this, or some other reason, he lost his first love for Old Ironsides, and deserted her for the President.

It is a great mistake to try to give a puissant battery to a vessel that was never meant to carry one. One cannot make a frigate of a sloop-of-war, by any expedient; and the uses of an active sloop may be injured by an abortive attempt so to do. This is particularly true of very small, sharp vessels, which lose their trim by slight variations, and which, at the best, can be nothing but small, sharp vessels, and if properly stowed, of great efficiency, on account of their speed; if not, of very little, on account of an unavoidable want of force.

Hull succeeded Rodgers in the command of the Constitution, and the good ship was compelled to strike her broad pennant. As for Hull, he knew his ship well-having been a lieutenant in her, and her first lieutenant besides. Morris, too, who had sailed in her as a midshipman, under Preble, and who had been promoted out of her into the Argus, Hull's old brig, before Tripoli, now joined her, as her new first lieutenant. The transfer was made at Hampton Roads, in the summer of 1810. During the remainder of the season, the ship cruised on the coast, and she wintered at New London.

Nothing worthy of being recorded occurred under this new state of things, until the Constitution was ordered to Europe, in the course of the year 1811, with Mr. Barlow on board, and with money to pay the interest on the Dutch debt. In that day, it was a common thing to send vessels of war across the Atlantic, on the errands of the public, though this was the first time, since 1800, that a ship as heavy as the Constitution was thus employed. Under Hull, while thus employed, the Constitution's lieutenants appear to have been, Messrs. Morris, Page, Wadsworth, Read, ****** and Morgan. Of these officers, Messrs. Morris, Wadsworth, Read, and Morgan, are still living, and have all carried broad pennants.

The ship sailed for Cherbourg direct. Off that port she found a strong British squadron, under the late Sir Pultney Malcolm, who was in the Royal Oak seventyfour. Old Ironsides, on this occasion, was nearly surrounded by Englishmen, all of

whom came up on her quarters, one, a frigate, speaking her, first telling her own name, as is usual between vessels of war, and then asking hers. When the last was given, permission was asked to send a boat on board, which was readily granted. The English commodore now sent a request to see Captain Hull, on board the Royal Oak, if it were his intention to go into Cherbourg. The answer was, it was contrary to usage for an American captain to leave his vessel at sea, unless to wait on his own immediate superior. A second request followed, that he would not go in until a certain hour next morning. this Hull replied, that he was bound into Cherbourg, with a minister on board, and he felt it to be his duty to enter the port the moment circumstances permitted. These were ticklish times-the affair of the Chesapeake, and the generally high pretensions of the English marine, placing every American commander strictly on the alert. No further communications passed, however, and the ship went into her port, as soon as circumstances would allow.

То

Having landed Mr. Barton, the Constitution sailed for the Downs, where she obtained a pilot. and proceeded to the Texel. Here she sent ashore about $200,000 in specie, and returned to the Downs, whence she stood on to Portsmouth, anchoring at Spithead, among a force of between thirty and forty English cruisers. Hull now went up to London, leaving Morris in command. After lying at Spithead near a fortnight, an incident occurred that is well worthy of being mentioned. Nearly in a line with Old Ironsides, following the course of the tides, lay the Havannah, 36, one of the frigates then in port.

One night, near the close of the first watch, Mr. Read having the deck, a man of the name of Holland contrived to get out of the ship, and to swim down to the Havannah, where he caught hold of something, and held on until he could make himself heard, when he was picked up greatly exhausted. The first lieutenant of the Havannah, knowing that Holland was a deserter from the Constitution, under his first professional impulse, sent the boat alongside of the American ship to report the occurrence, adding that the man was too much exhausted to be moved then, but that he should be sent back in the morning. Mr. Morris waited until ten o'clock, when he sent a boat alongside of the Havannah to procure the deserter. The first lieutenant of that ship, however, had seen the propriety of reporting the whole affair to the admiral (Sir Roger Curtis), who had ordered him to send the man on board his flag ship,

the Royal William. Thither, then, it was necessary to proceed, and Mr. Read was despatched to that vessel with a renewal of the demand. This officer met with a very polite reception from the captain of the Royal William, who acquainted him with the fact, that no British officer could give up a man who claimed protection as a British subject. Holland was an Irishman, and had put in his claim to the protection of the British flag. To this Mr. Read replied, it might be true that the man was born in Ireland, but he had entered voluntarily into the American service, and was bound to adhere to his bargain, until the term of his enlistment had expired. The English officer could only regret that the respective duties of the two services seemed to conflict, and adhered to his first decision. Mr. Read then remarked that since the Constitution had lain at Spithead several letters had been received on board her from men professing to be Americans, who stated that they had been impressed into the English service, and should any of these men run and get on board the Constitution, that her commanding officer might feel himself bound to protect them. The captain of the Royal William hoped nothing of the kind would occur, and here the conversation ended.

That night a man was heard in the water alongside of the Constitution, and a boat was immediately lowered to bring him on board. It was a seaman of the Havannah, who had fastened some shells of blocks beneath his arms, lowered himself into the water, and floated with the tide down to the American frigate, which he hailed. A boat was lowered and he was taken on board. A few minutes later a boat came from the Havannah to claim him. "You cannot have the man," said Morris; "he says he is an American, and claims our protection." "Can I see him?" asked the English lieutenant. "No sir." "We will have him, as you will find out." said the young man, as he descended the ship's side and got into his own boat.

There was a good deal of negotiation, and some correspondence the next day. Morris had visited the admiral himself, and Hull arrived in the course of the day. The last approved of all that had been done. The deserter from the Havannah, whose name was Byrne, or Burns, had insisted that he was a native of New-York, and had been impressed, and it is not unlikely his story may have been true, as an English subject would hardly have ventured on the experiment he had tried. But true or not, the principle was the same, and Hull was determined not to give him up unless Holland was sent back. In