It seems very strange that in the history of so young a nation as the United States of America, the historian is often unable for a long time to ascertain the true trend of affairs, and in no few cases absolutely unable to find out the truth in regard to important facts and events. Above all is this true of the American naval historian; and of no period in our naval history of a hundred and thirty-two years more than that of the Revolutionary War. So many valuable records have been lost or destroyed that it is often impossible to confirm absolutely statements authors have made about the navy of that time. Last winter while searching through the files of the Navy Department records in Washington for material relative to the history of some of our vessels of war, a casual mention of one of the resolutions of our Continental Congress, and, some time later, an inquiry upon the same subject by a naval officer, put me on a track, which, though somewhat intricate, I am glad to say, has resulted in the complete clearing up of the mystery which has up to the present time shrouded the history of the first line-of-battleship of the American Navy.
Toward the close of the second year of the Revolutionary War, on November 9, 1776, Congress ordered the construction of three ships of 74 guns, one of which, named the America, was laid down at Portsmouth, New Hampshire. This was not only the first line-of-battleship built by the United States, but the first ship of that class ever built on the American Continent.
Work on the vessel does not seem to have been begun until six months later, and then, under the direction of Colonel James Hackett, her master-builder, but slow progress was necessarily made, as he had only twenty-four carpenters at work upon her.
No mention of the America is again made in official documents until June 23, 1779, when Congress authorized Robert Morris to take measures for speedily launching and equipping for sea the America, then on the stocks of Portsmouth, N.H., and three days later, by unanimous resolution appointed Commodore John Paul Jones to command her.
We fortunately have from him the following description of her, our first line-of-battleship, as completed under his supervision:
Length on the upper gun-deck 182 ½ feet.
Length of keel for tonnage 150 feet
Extreme breadth 50 ½ feet
Depth in the hold 23
Burthen, in tons 1,982 tons.
Lower-deck battery 30 long 18s.
Upper-deck battery 32 long 12S.
Quarter-deck and forecastle 14 long 9s.
Full complement 626 officers and men.
She was, therefore, the largest 74-gun ship built up to that time, though her lines were so delicately moulded and her sheer so clean that, with her lower-tier ports closed, she presented at the distance of a mile the contour of a heavy frigate.
On leaving Philadelphia I had been given to understand that the America was nearly ready for launching. But on my arrival at Portsmouth I found her not planked much above the bilges, no work done toward her decks except the beams, and only twenty-four ship-carpenters employed on her. Their work was much impeded by want of iron for fastenings, as the materials of that kind attainable were intended for smaller ships and could not be used in her. The spar-work was no more advanced than the rest, and no provision whatever had been made for rigging and sails.
Money to buy supplies and pay wages was also lacking, the sum appropriated by Mr. Morris, minister of finance, to that object having been diverted to the far more important and pressing use of the operations against Lord Cornwallis in the south. I at once reported these facts, but was told to proceed as best I could for the time being. The patriotism of the good people of Portsmouth placed some resources at my disposal, and I was otherwise able to obtain much-needed material and even part of the skilled labor on terms of credit which I was authorized by the Honorable John Langdon to arrange in the name of Congress on his personal security. Yet the work progressed slowly.
I do not hesitate to say that the task of inspecting the construction of the America was the most lingering and disagreeable service I was charged with during the whole period of the Revolution. The situation was further aggravated in the spring of 1781, when the enemy, ascertaining that there was a prospect of the America being completed, contrived various schemes for her destruction. The one of which I had most reason to stand in fear was that of landing in force from their squadron, seizing the ship-yard by a night coup de main, setting fire to or blowing up the ship on the stocks, and then making good their retreat. To meet this danger I arranged with the workmen to mount guard at night, by reliefs, taking my turn as officer of the guard, and paying the men something extra for their guard-service. On several occasions large whale-boats full of men came into the river at night, but did not attempt to land on the island, at the lower end of which I had two old six-pounders mounted. Twice shots were fired at boats reconnoitering too closely. The townspeople also assisted in the guard-duty.
As the work proceeded I made several changes in the plans of the vessel, mostly as to the arrangements of the upper-works, and the sparplan. I caused the main-mast to be stepped three frames further aft than in the original plan; because if stepped according to that plan it would bring the centre of sail-effort too close to the centre of resistance of the ship's side, thereby making her heady when close-hauled, and also greatly diminishing her power to hold a luff.
The original plans had provided to make the waist long and shallow, with narrow gangways, and the quarter-deck and forecastle to be short; also to have a large and cumbrous stern-gallery. Instead of this I carried the quarter-deck forward, to break four feet forward of the main-mast; and I brought the break of the forecastle considerably aft, besides carrying up the topsides in the waist flush with the upper deck sheer. I then carried broad gangways on either side of the waist, of equal height with the quarter-deck and forecastle, leaving just room for the boats on a skid deck between the gangways. Then, clear around all, from stem to stern, I carried a low bulwark of stuff thick enough to stop grapeshot. I also dispensed with the heavy stern-gallery, making only two light and small quarter-galleries, and the weight thus saved I utilized by springing a light poop-deck, carried forward to a point eight feet ahead of the mizzen-mast. Around the poop-deck I carried a light bulwark arranged to fold down on the deck. I also doubled all the bow and stern planking, to aid in resisting raking fire.
The figure-head I planned was a female figure, the Goddess of Liberty crowned with laurels. The right arm was raised with the forefinger pointing to heaven as if appealing to that high tribunal in behalf of the justice of the American cause. On the left arm was a blue buckler with thirteen silver stars…
The difficulties of my task were much increased by the fact that neither the master-builder, Major Hackett, nor any or his workmen had ever worked on so large a ship, and were therefore, from want of experience, unable to make out the necessary calculations as to scantling sizes or strength of fastening required. However, the leading shipwright, Mr. William Hauscom, though never before working on any ship larger than the Alliance, which he had helped to build, took up these questions with more address than any of the others, and soon relieved me of these perplexing details.
I had anticipated much difficulty in mounting the battery. But just at the nick of time I was joined by my old gunner, Mr. Gardner, who had then recently returned from a great privateering cruise with Fanning and Mayrant in French ships, from St. Maloes in the spring of 1780. Had I been permitted to choose, I would have selected Mr. Gardner, in preference to all others I knew, for this particular service. I at once secured his aid; rated him acting-gunner of the America, with assurance that he should be warranted full, regular gunner when the ship was manned; if, indeed, I could not succeed in obtaining a lieutenant's commission him. Mr. Gardner took entire charge of mounting the battery, including making of carriages, reeving of breechings and side-tackle, preparation of rammers, sponge-staves, quoins, handspikes, overhead tackle, shot-racks, and all the other almost numberless details of the battery of a line-of-battleship. He also took supervision of the internal fittings of the magazines, of which the America had two; besides attending to the racks for small arms in short, everything pertaining to the armament of the ship. His services were invaluable, and much of the good condition of the America when finished was due to his skill and diligence…
At last about September 1, 1782, the America was almost completed and some three hundred and eighty men (of whom about one hundred were survivors of the Ranger and Bon Homvic Richard), had been enlisted for her crew. Of the officers, Richard Dale was to be her first lieutenant, and Edward Stack, Nathaniel Fanning, John Mayrant, and Elijah Hall, lieutenants. Everything seemed to point to a rapid completion and all already looked forward to an early commission and brilliant cruise, when again the Commodore's hopes were doomed to disappointment.
During the summer of 1782, the French 74-gun ship Magnifique, commanded by the Chevalier de Martigne and belonging to the Marquis de Vandreuil's fleet, was wrecked in Boston Harbor. The Continental Congress, in order to testify their gratitude for the French King's "generous exertions" in behalf of the United States, presented their only ship-of-the-line to Louis XVI.1 But the ship was still on the ways, and Commodore Jones, upon the request of Robert Morris, continued his supervision of her construction until the day of her launch, which took place about five weeks later.
"The launching was a most serious problem," to quote from the Commodore's account, "as the ship was very large and heavy for the narrow water-way between the island and the main shore opposite the stern; so that the danger of her going on the opposite shore with the sternway of launching could be overcome only by the difficult expedient of paying out and breaking hawsers in succession as she became water-borne in the stream. Three were snapped before the fourth brought her up at no more than barely safe distance from the opposite shore." But the Commodore's care and foresight were rewarded by a complete success, and the same day, Tuesday, November 5, 1782, he handed the ship over to the Chevalier de Martigne, who had commanded the lost Magnifique. The America was at once fitted out and commissioned by the French Admiral, and left Portsmouth, but on what date, I have been unable to ascertain.
Thus did the America pass out of the American Navy. Up to that time her history has been clear; what happened to her subsequently has up to now been a mystery.
According to one account 2 her name was changed by the King's order to Le Franklin, as there already was a ship named l'Amerique in the French Navy. But no other printed version or manuscript source, as far as I can ascertain, confirms this statement. The French ship-of-the-line Franklin, the finest two-decker of the time, carrying 80 guns, and built at Toulon, was not launched until the spring of 1797. She was captured by Lord Nelson's fleet at the battle of Aboukir, August I, 1798, and taken into the British service, her name being changed to Canopns.
Cooper, in his Naval History, says that the America, commanded by Captain Louis Lheritier, was captured by the British on June 1, 1794, in Lord Howe's engagement, 3 This appears to be an error, for the ship captured in that action was a new ship, launched only a short time previous, and one which is put down as "neuf" (i.e., not used, or building) in the French Naval List of March 23, 1793. She was therefore the rebuilt or remodeled American vessel, or a successor to the one presented eleven years before to the French King. The ship captured in Lord Howe's engagement was taken into the British Navy and renamed the Impetueux, there being already a 64-gun ship called the America, built in 1777, and subsequently burned in Portsmouth Harbor. James, in his Naval History, says that she was considered one of the finest 745 that had ever been seen in a British port. There is a portrait of the America, as she appeared as a prize, in the British Naval Chronicle and another of the Leviathan engaging L'Amerique (America) in the action of June I, 1794, the latter vessel being dismasted, and still another picture. According to an account in the Naval Chronicle her lower masts were four feet longer than those of a British 98-gun ship. The principal dimensions of the America, renamed Impetueux, were: Length on gun deck, 182 feet; length of keel, 149 feet, 8 ½ inches; breadth of beam, 48 feet, 7 inches; depth of hold, 20 feet, 6 inches; tonnage, 1884 tons; complement, 600 men; armament, 78 guns. The portraits of the vessel represent her with a stern gallery, whereas the America, built at Portsmouth, according to Commodore Jones, had none.
Preble, in his History of the Navy Yard at Portsmouth, says, on page 18: "The ship captured in Lord Howe's action was taken into the British Navy and renamed Impetueux…and subsequently burned in Portsmouth Harbor; and on the very next page: "In May, 1833, the L'Amerique, captured June 1, 1794, was, according to the British Navy List, in use as a store-ship at Bahia, Brazil." Evidently the good ship had the nine lives of a cat!
In 1799-1800 "an" America, commanded by Sir Edward Pellew (Lord Exmouth) is mentioned as "so much superior to the largest 74, that she was made a class by herself, and rated a 78." She had been refitted and had the "crest of the Prince of Wales in the center of her beautiful stern." Cooper considered this the same America that was presented to France.
Such are the different accounts that are to be found concerning our old America, and such her different careers and fates. But what really happened to her? Was her fate a glorious one, did she go down before the enemy's guns with her colors flying, was she captured by the British, did she become the prey of the sea, or was hers a peaceable end?
The reply to all these questions, now that it has been found, is simple, but it seems a pity that historians have for so long labored under false impressions upon this subject.
The America, after her departure from American waters, went to France, where she appears to have been in commission during the years of 1782 and 1783. Nothing more do we hear of her until 1786 when we learn that she is rotting in the port of Brest, and unfit for sea service, and that Minister Castries has ordered her to be broken up, and another vessel, bearing the same name, and of the same rate, to be built. The two letters in which this information is revealed and whose existence up to now seems to have been unknown to American naval historians, are the following:
20 August 1786.
As a result of a careful examination which has just been made at Brest of the ship America given to Your Majesty by the United States, it has been found that this vessel, though built only four years ago, is entirely rotten, and that it is impossible to preserve her. Besides her repair would be less advantageous as she does not combine all the qualities which a vessel of her class should have. Therefore I have the honor to propose to Your Majesty to order her being broken up and to have another vessel of 74-guns built under the same name. BM.
BREST
18 August 1786.
The letter for the King is dated the 20.
The examination of the ship America of 74 guns was made the nth of this month with the greatest care. As the official report had to be submitted to the board it could not be sent the same day, but M. de la Porte Vezim says that this vessel, though built only four years ago, is entirely rotten, and that it is impossible to preserve her. He adds that each part is equally rotten everywhere in the vessel, which, however, seems to have been completed with the greatest care.
This evidently proves that the wood of North America cannot be of any use for (naval) construction and that the highest altitudes of the Continent are, perhaps, the only regions whence it can be drawn.
As it seems to be in My Lord's programme to replace vessels whenever they have to be condemned, he is begged to order the construction of a 74 which shall be named the America.
A copy shall be made for the Minister.
Such was the fate of the American ship-of-the-line America! It was her successor, and not she, that fell into the hands of the British at Aboukir, into the hands of that enemy she had been built to combat and conquer.