EDITOR’S NOTE.—It will be recalled that the Constitution, Captain Isaac Hull, found herself in the presence of a greatly superior British force shortly after daylight, July 17, 1812, off the Jersey coast, and, having an untrained crew, sought to escape.
The Constitution first attempted to escape by outsailing the British, but there was little or no wind and the pursuers gradually closed the distance when the ship’s boats were lowered and manned and an effort made to tow.
The famous sixty-hour chase then began, and the ship finally escaped by means of “kedging,” which is the seamanship term for warping a ship through the water by means of the ship’s kedges (anchors from one-sixth to one-tenth the weight of the bower anchor) and warps (hawsers).
In order that non-technical readers may better understand, it may be explained that “kedging” is an operation in which the ship’s kedges together with their warps are carried out in the boats alternately, towards the place where the ship is endeavoring to arrive, so that when she is drawn up close to one, another is carried out to be a sufficient distance ahead, and being sunk, serves to fix the other warp, by which she may be further advanced. The first kedge is then weighed, sent ahead, and the operation is repeated.
In December, 1925, the Scientific American "published a communication from a gentleman who said that the carpenter on board the Constitution during her escape from the British was one of the ancestors of his family, and that among his papers they found some notes describing how the kedge anchor was built on board of oak timbers, canvas and rope, and was of umbrella-like collapsible type.” The editor of the Proceedings received the above letter from Mr. J. Bernard Walker, editor- emeritus of the Scientific American, who added “I would like very much to hear what you think of this story and I should be greatly obliged if you can favor me with a print of the picture which is shown on page 1510 of the August (1926) Proceedings.”
The article referred to by Mr. Walker was the one by Lieutenant Commander McHenry, which was accompanied by a photograph of a kedge anchor now in the Naval Academy Museum, and said to have been used by the Constitution in her escape.
There were two ways of “kedging” in those days: (1) to take out and carry in small boat (s) anchor (s) to be lowered to the bottom sufficiently large to hold and yet small enough to be man-handled by a boat’s crew with the boat gear; and (2) to take out and carry in small boat(s) anchor(s) known as sea anchors made of canvas and ribs or frames and of sufficient buoyancy when a pull was made laterally on the attached hawser to remain on the surface.
“Constitution’s” Sea Anchor Open A top viciv of the wood-and-canvas sea anchor built hastily, while the ship was endeavoring to escape from the enemy
The question involved in this discussion was to determine which form of anchor was used by the Constitution and whether or not both forms were used, etc.
At the request of the editor. Rear Admiral Elliot Snow (Construction Corps), U.S. Navy (Retired), made an investigation, and the following information was collected and sent in a series of letters to Mr. Walker via the Naval Institute:
Relic of “Old Ironsides”
This sea anchor was discovered in 1868, lying in a comer of the spar-shed at Boston
In your letter to the Secretary-Treasurer of the U.S. Naval Institute you said, “We shall publish this picture (referring to the kedging operation of the Constitution, July 17-19, 1812, illustrated by Lieutenant Commander H. D. McHenry in the August Proceedings) and perhaps republish our purported emergency anchor of the Constitution in an article in some early issue of the Scientific American
A preliminary, instead of a final comment, is sent as I observe that nearly two months have run since you indicated your intent to publish something on this “at an early date.” Enclosed you will find copies of records taken from the following sources, all eye witnesses to the event:
- Three Years on the Frigate Constitution, by Moses Smith, a survivor of the Old Ironsides crew, published in Boston in 1846.
- Extract from Journal of Amos A. Evans, Surgeon U.S. Navy, on the Constitution during the chase.
- Report of Commodore Isaac Hull to the Secretary of the Navy, July 21, 1812.
In addition to this I have asked the Navy Department Library to abstract and send to me the following additional accounts, copies of which will be sent to you upon receipt:
- An article published in the United Service Magazine, September, 1891, page 272, name of article and its author not yet given me.
- Autobiography of Commodore Chas. Morris, published by the U.S. Naval Institute in 1880 in the issue for the quarter ending June 30, page 161.
Finally, I hope to reach the grandson or great grandson of Isaac Hull, who has a lot of original papers of his sire. Some may touch in detail on this incident. My final comment must accordingly be withheld until I am sure that nothing can be had from this last named source.
Judging, however, from the statement of Moses Smith (a) and Journal of Surgeon Evans (b) and what you published in the Scientific American of December, 1925, I conclude that two and probably three methods were used, and perhaps at the same time.
- Straight attempts to tow by boats.
- Kedging with two kedges (small anchors).
- Backing up boats with floating sea anchors, as described in Scientific American, December, 1925.
Sea Anchor Open and Closed When boats were towing anchor, it closed. When ship’s crew hauled away, the “umbrella” opened, serving as drag
Probably anywhere from five to seven boats were in the water at once (however, the Constellation (36) on her first commissioning in 1797 carried only four boats).
so that it would have been possible for at least two or three methods to have been used at the same time. I feel satisfied that the use alone of the sea drag could not possibly have made Old Ironsides forge ahead at three knots.
If you decide to republish the whole story of this maneuver, I suggest that you obtain and publish graphic reproductions of some of the original notes and obtain from Lieutenant W. H. Gregg, U.S.N., a copy of the photo of the Constitution sea drag on exhibition at the naval exhibit of the Sesqui- Centennial, Building 29, Navy Yard, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Editor’s Note: This sea drag referred to came from the Naval Academy last summer and is the one referred to by Mr. Walker in the McHenry article in the 1926 August issue of the Proceedings, so it is not, as might be supposed by Admiral Snow, new evidence).
(a) “CONSTITUTION”—Kedging Incident.
Extract from Naval Scenes in the Last War; or Three Years on Board the Frigate Constitution, by Moses Smith, a survivor of Old Ironsides’ crew (1846).
We were off Little Egg Harbor on the New Jersey shore at the time, stretching in toward the Delaware Bay. The enemy had drawn in between us and the land, so the prospect was that they might cut us off from the Capes.
Mr. Morris now spoke to Captain Hull. “There is one thing, sir, I think we’d better try.”
“What’s that?” replied Hull.
“Try to kedge her off,” said the lieutenant.
“We’ll try it,” responded the Captain, “but I imagine you’ll fail. That water’s too deep here; we’re at least forty fathoms.”
The kedges were soon under way . We brought all the spare rigging out of the boatswain’s storeroom and bent on so much line to the kedges that before one short peak came out of the ground we let go the other kedge; this kept the frigate swinging ahead all the while at the rate of about three knots an hour; with the help of the boats. The..................... boats.... were all manned.
In one of them Midshipman Bourie, as he looked toward the enemy and thought of the possibility of an engagement, exclaimed, “Oh, that I had my pistols here that I might defend my boat to the last.”
(Memo from Rear Admiral Snow as to probable number of boats employed.)
The boats carried by the U.S.S. Constellation (36) in 1797 at the time of her first commissioning numbered, in all, four:
One pinnace, 24 ft. long, 7 ft. broad, 2 ft. 8 in. deep.
One long boat, 33 ft. long, 9 ft. broad, 4 ft. deep.
One jolly boat, 22 ft. long, 6)4 ft. broad, 2 ft. 4 in. deep.
One barge, 33 ft. long, 7 ft broad, 2 ft. 6 in. deep.
The Constitution (44) must have carried at least this number and probably one or several more. See mention of cutter numbers by Surgeon Evans.
- Log or Journal of Surgeon A. A. Evans.
July 17, 1812. At 5:15 a.m., it being calm and the ship having no steerage way, hoisted out the first cutter and got the boats ahead to turn the ship’s head to southward. Got 24-pounder up off the gun deck for a stern chaser and the long 18-pounder from the forecastle aft. Cut away the taffrail to give them room and ran two guns out the cabin windows.
At 6:30 a.m., sounded in 26 fathoms of water.
At 7:00 a.m., got out a kedge and warped the ship ahead.
At 8.00 a.m., employed warping and towing the ship ahead.
At 10:00 a.m., started about 2,335 gallons of water and pumped it all out. Manned the first cutter to tow the ship.
From 10:00 a.m. to meridian employed warping and towing.
At 7:00 p.m., observed enemy towing with their boats; lower down first cutter, green cutter and gig and sent them ahead to tow the ship.
At 8:00 p.m., first and fifth cutters ahead towing ship.
(Note: May have been backed up by the sea drag when boat’s crews were resting on oars. Ship evidently had five cutters, a gig, and a jolly boat, and possibly a pinnace.)
July 18, 1812. At 2:00 a.m., sounded in 23 fathoms of water.
At 5:00 a.m., passed about gun short distance to windward of one of the frigates. Hoisted to the first cutter.
(Memo: The journal makes no further reference to towing or kedging, but it contains all of the incidents so frequently cited and looks much like a copy of the ship’s log. It has data as to the setting and taking in sail, wetting down sails and warning the American merchantman by displaying English colors to offset the English display of U.S. colors in their attempt to entice her within range of their guns, etc.)
- Extract from Report of Captain Isaac Hull.
Dated July 21, 1812, concerning method of escape of U.S.S. Frigate Constitution under his command from the British Squadron, July 17-20, 1812.
U. S. Frigate Constitution, At Sea, July 21, 1812.
Sir:
In this situation finding ourselves, in only twenty-four fathoms water (by the suggestion of that valuable officer Lieutenant Morris) I determined to try and warp the Ship ahead, by carrying out anchors and warp her up to them. Three or four hundred fathoms of rope was instantly got up, and two anchors got ready and sent ahead, by which means we began to gain ahead of the Enemy. They, however, soon saw our Boats carrying out the anchors, and adopted the same plan under very advantageous circumstances, as all the Boats, from the ship furthermost off were sent to Tow, and warp up those nearest us by which means they again came up, so that at 9 the Ship nearest us began firing her bow guns, which we instantly returned by our stern guns in the cabin, and on the quarter deck. All the shot from the Enemy fell short, but we have reason to believe that some of ours went on board her, as we could not see them strike the water. Soon after 9 a second frigate passed under our lee, and opened her Broadside, but finding her shot fall short, discontinued her fire, but continued as did all the rest of them to make every possible exertion to get up with us. From 9 to 12 all hands were employed in warping the Ship ahead, and in starting some of the water in the main Hold, to lighten her, which with the help of a light air, we rather gained on the Enemy, or at least held our own. About 2 in the afternoon, all the Boats from the Line of Battle Ship, and some of the Frigates, were sent to the Frigate nearest to us, to endeavor to tow her up, but a light breeze sprung up, which enabled us to hold way with her notwithstanding they had Eight or Ten Boats ahead, and all her sails furled to tow her to windward. The wind continued light until 11 at night, and the Boats were kept ahead towing, and warping to keep out of reach of the Enemy, Three of the Frigates being very near us. At 11 we got a light breeze from the Southward, the boats came alongside, and were hoisted up, the Ship having too much way to keep them ahead, the Enemy still in chase, and very near.
I have the Honour to be, with very great Respect, Sir,
Your Humble Servant Isaac Hull
To The Honble Paul Hamilton, Secretary of the Navy Washington
I find that at least some six weeks or two months will probably run their course before I can hope to get in touch with and possibly hear from Captain Hull, because I shall have to take a very roundabout way of finding his address. I therefore now hand on to you two remaining bits of history about the kedging of Old Ironsides; these were obtained through the courtesy of Lieutenant Commander Richard Wainwright, U.S.N. (Retired), Superintendent of the Navy Department Library.
- The “United Service Magazine.”
Volume 6, July-December, 1891:
Having sounded in twenty-four fathoms, Lieutenant Morris suggested to his superior the plan of running out kedges and warping the ship ahead. Three or four hundred fathoms of rope was at once made ready, attached to two anchors, and sent ahead a full half mile and let go; then the crew clapped on and walked cheerily away, overrunning and tripping the kedge as she came up, gliding slowly ahead, while another line and kedge was being rapidly placed in position. (Note. The name of the contributor of this account was not given to me.)
- “Proceedings of the U.S. Naval Institute.”
With our minds excited to the utmost to devise means for escape, I happened to recollect that, when obliged by the timidity of my old commander, Cox, to warp the President in and out of harbors where others depended on sails, our practice had enabled us to give her a speed of nearly three miles an hour. We had been on soundings the day before and on trying we found twenty-six fathoms. This depth was unfavorably great, but it gave me confidence to suggest to Captain Hull the expediency of attempting to warp the ship ahead. He acceded at once and in a short time (about 7:00 a.m.) the launch and first cutter were sent ahead with a kedge, and all the hawsers and rigging, from five inches and upward that could be found, making nearly a mile of length. When the kedge was thrown the men hauled on the connecting hawser slowly and carefully at first, till the ship was in motion and gradually increasing until sufficient velocity was given to continue until the anchor could again be taken ahead, when the same process was repeated. In this way the ship was soon placed out of range of our enemy’s guns, and by continued exertions when the wind failed, and giving every possible advantage to the sails when we had air enough to fill them, we prevented them from again closing very near us.
In view of the statements I have thus far quoted to you from three eye witnesses, to wit: Lieutenant Morris, Surgeon Evans, and Moses Smith of gun No. I, I am satisfied that the frigate was not saved from capture through the use of the floating sea anchor or drag as described in the December, 1925, issue of the Scientific American. I think however that it is possible that this sea drag may have been used to back up the boats, when through fatigue the boats crews may have been resting on their oars, at some distance from the frigate. The statement of Moses Smith lends some color to this conjecture.
An examination of the list of officers of the Constitution of that date failed to disclose the name of the ship’s carpenter (or rather, the name was not found on the list). This does not necessarily mean however that Gideon Woodwell did not fill that position. In those days, the boatswain, gunner, carpenter, and sailmaker were known as “forward” officers, and as far as I now know their names were listed at the tail end of the officer roster.
Yours truly,
Elliot Snow,
Rear Admiral (CC), U.S.N. October 31, 1926
Although I am now in touch with Mr. M. O. C. Hull (the grandson of Commodore Isaac Hull) and from that gentleman have learned something more about the kedging incident on Old Ironsides, all he can tell me, without consulting the family archives, which are not near at hand, is his conception of the phrasing of Commodore Hull’s memo on this maneuver. It is this. “Our escape was greatly aided by the adroit use of a sea anchor.” This strengthens considerably the view set forth in my letter to you of October 31, that “the sea anchor may have been used to back up the boats, etc.”
In short, it seems fairly well established that both kedging and “The adroit use of a sea anchor” helped Old Ironsides to escape.
The search for information wherewith to establish the facts connected with the escape of Old Ironsides (she did not at that time bear this name) has resulted in one more item insofar as Gideon Woodwell was connected with that incident.
His granddaughter, Mrs. Betsey Junkins, on the occasion of celebrating her eighty- seventh birthday, December 31, 1897, told the following bit of her early life history, which was published in a Newberryport, Massachusetts, paper, December 31, 1897. Speaking of her grandfather she said “After his return from the war [meaning the Revolutionary, during which he had participated in the naval engagement between the Civil Usage and the Orient] grandfather helped build the historic frigate Constitution in 1797. In 1812 when the Constitution made her escape from a fleet of British men-of- war by means of umbrellas, grandfather was a ship’s carpenter on board of the frigate and helped construct the umbrellas.”
At the time “Aunt Betsey, as she was called, made this statement, she was in full possession of all her faculties. I am also informed that the descendants of Mrs. Junkins are now living in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and the descendants of Gideon Woodwell live in Newburyport. I may at some later date, when less pressed for time, probe these two sources.
I learn that Harper's Weekly of December 31, 1881, gives a sketch of the escape, but I have not yet had time to look it up.
Professor Herman F. Krafft, Curator, U.S. Naval Academy Museum, has contributed the following information:
In the December, 1925, Scientific American under the caption, “The Constitution Saved by Canvas Sea Anchor,” the writer quotes from some “family notes,” left by his ancestor, Gideon Wood- well, a ship’s carpenter on the Constitution, in an attempt to prove that an umbrella-like device saved the frigate in her memorable chase by a British squadron in July, 1812. In another and later article in the Proceedings (August, 1926), entitled "Hedging the Constitution," Lieutenant Commander H. D. McHenry describes the sea anchor which has for the last half century been labeled in our naval museums as the anchor that enabled Hull to make his remarkable “get away.” The question now is which of these two did the trick.
Probably neither played a decisive role in the escape. And yet, it is entirely within the range of possibility that both may have played some part in events of that sixty-hour pursuit of one ship by five.
There seems to be no doubt that a Gideon Wood- well was a ship’s carpenter, or at least a carpenter’s mate, on the Constitution in 1812. Neither the Navy Register of 1812 nor the Office of Naval Records in the Navy Department lists his name. But in an old manuscript, “Muster of carpenters working in Navy Yard, Charlestown, Massachusetts, by order of Com. Isaac Hull,” Gideon Woodwell heads a list of carpenters for July and August, 1816. It is therefore quite probable that four years earlier this Gideon Woodwell and some of his fellow carpenters improvised on board the Constitution one or more wood and canvas anchors, which Captain Hull intended to try out during the long chase.
The umbrella-shaped sea anchor at the Naval Academy, described as before mentioned in the August Proceedings, was found in a shed at the Boston Navy Yard in 1874. Its discoverer, Rear Admiral George F. Winslow, Medical Corps, U. S. Navy, who was born the year after Hull died, and who was at the time of his discovery thirty years old, showed his find to a number of old officers of that day—officers whose lives were closely identified with the War of 1812, or who had had the traditions of that war at first hand. The officers consulted were of the opinion that the newly found sea anchor had formed a part of the equipment of the Constitution in 1812. Winslow writes, under date of October 25, 1926, that the above are the facts and that “there is no one now who can tell any more about it.” This “sea anchor” which “looked old” when he found it, he had scraped, cleaned, and placed on exhibition in the museum of the Boston Naval Library and Institute. During the last half century it has been a familiar sight to the succeeding generation of naval officers.
A rear admiral, retired eight years ago, writes that he had known this umbrella-like anchor since his midshipman days in 1879. He adds: “It was quite authentic so I believe.—It was of wood— with metal ribs, covered with canvas and had a roping around the canvas. The whole was umbrella-shaped with a wooden piece long enough to allow a device at the forward end and a shackle at the other end—for a towing line to haul it ahead or trip it, and the shackle for the hauling or working hawser.”
Luce, in the 1866 edition of his Seamanship, page 343, calls this type of sea anchor a “parachute,” which he defines as “a contrivance of canvas that will open and shut like an umbrella. By hauling on the line aft, it is opened out and offers its greatest resistance to the water, thus forcing the ship ahead; and on hauling it forward again, it closes up. The Essex, during her celebrated cruise in the Pacific, under Commodore Porter, made use of parachutes, which were dropped from the spritsail-yard, and having a hauling line led in through blocks on the quarters, the watch clapped on, and ‘walking away,’ managed by this means to warp the frigate ahead a knot or two per hour.” 1
In our day these old “parachutes” are generally called drags or sea anchors. Luce explains that a drag may be almost any kind of contrivance for preventing too great lee way, or to keep a ship’s head to the wind, for example, in a heavy blow. He cites a case where a brig, in danger of broaching to in a hurricane, was saved by paying out the largest hawser a considerable distance in the wake. For similar purposes Luce says a sea anchor “may frequently be of the greatest possible use.” A common form of sea anchor consisted of three spars lashed together to form a triangle with a bulging mass of canvas reenforced with rope netting made fast to the three legs of the triangle. This, trailing astern, acted as a drag. Devices like these and the “parachutes” under discussion could be used as drags, e.g., to save a dismasted vessel from drifting too much toward a lee shore. There might be a necessity to warp a man-of-war within range, or out of reach of the enemy’s guns, or to wind ship in situations where too great depths prevented the use of regular kedges.
Kedges are described by Luce as small anchors light enough to be carried ahead in boats. They were useful for warping a vessel in and out of narrow rivers and harbors—a great necessity in days of sail. Both Charles Morris and J. Fenimore Cooper, in their accounts of the escape of the Constitution, say that Hull used kedges during the chase. Writing in the period of sail they must have used the word accurately, that is, to mean a small iron anchor, not a sea anchor. Morris remarks that just before he got out the hedges he found twenty-six fathoms—“a depth unfavorably great” for ordinary anchors, but not for sea anchors which would float. Retired officers of the present day wonder how at such depths even a light hedge could have been tripped quickly, that is, how any speed could have been made with such an anchor. But we must remember that Hull had one boat’s crew carrying ahead one kedge while another crew was ready to trip the second kedge the instant the men on board the frigate changed back to the first hawser. In his report to the Secretary of the Navy, Hull uses the general word anchor. He says: “I determined to try and warp the ship ahead by carrying out anchors and warping her up to them; three or four hundred fathoms of rope were instantly got up, and two anchors got ready and sent ahead, by which means we began to gain ahead of the enemy.” It is noteworthy in passing to observe that Hull acted instantly (not in italics in the original), a word that suggests the use of the means ready to hand. “Instantly” implies the bringing from below of the hedges, a regular part of the equipment of every man-of-war of those days. If after trial these were found not practical in the great depth, Hull would get out his sea anchor, if he had one. As Luce maintains these were often of “the greatest possible use,” the presumption is that the Constitution, especially in war time, would be provided with so necessary a thing. The iron framed sea anchor, once gotten out, might prove more expeditious for kedging, or it might suggest the making of others entirely of wood for similar use, or in place of sweeps as Luce says Porter used them on the Essex in this same year.
Hull was an officer of extraordinary resourcefulness. In the emergency, with a crew of 450, free to concentrate on the one great object—escape—he had plenty of men to try all sorts of experiments—even to the breaking out of heavy oak timber, six to eight inches square, to be tapered down to 3 ½ inches, for new sea anchors, as the Woodwell article says he did. Hull doubtless tried all his boats for towing. An old contemporary oil painting shows five boats at this operation. But if towing did not produce sufficient speed, he would try kedging, an operation in which he could put to work much of his large man power. At times Hull probably tried towing, kedging, and even sailing simultaneously, picking up his boats on the run, as contemporary accounts have it.
For the last century a fine mass of tradition has grown around Old Ironsides and around her greatest skipper, Isaac Hull. Her sea anchor, now at the Naval Academy, was found and proclaimed half a century ago when a number of those who had served on her in 1812 were still alive. Had there been any challenge then to the claim of this old relic, we ought to be able to find some record of it. A careful search reveals no such challenge. The sea anchor is an interesting relic of the days of sail. But it is more; it speaks eloquently of one of the greatest traditions of the Constitution and of Isaac Hull, whose seamanship in eluding the British squadron shows, as his first lieutenant puts it, “the advantages to be expected from perseverance under the most discouraging circumstances so long as any chance of success may remain.”