Page images
PDF
EPUB

author, nothing of the kind has yet reached him. He has, however, been favored with the sight of an American periodical work, entitled,- Analectic Magazine and Naval Chronicle;' which contains, among its pages, some very copious remarks upon an article in the British Naval Chronicle,' headed"SYNOPSIS OF NAVAL ACTIONS BETWEEN THE SHIPS OF HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY AND OF THE United STATES, DURING THE LATE WAR; BY A BRITISH

[ocr errors]

NAVAL OFFICER ON THE AMERICAN STATION:

the latter consisting of extracts from a series of letters, signed Boxer,' forwarded by the author, (but who had neither designated himself as, nor can claim the honor to be, a British naval officer,') from Halifax, Nova Scotia; and becoming, afterwards, the groundwork of the author's pamphlet in Halifax,* and subsequent volume in this country.

As the present is a military work, the author, after bestowing a passing glance of admiration upon the flashy vignette of * An Inquiry, &c.'

gamboling dolphins, tridents, wreaths of laurel, &c. displayed, as if in terrorem, at the commencement of every fresh quotation from the "Synopsis,' will digress no further, than till he has exposed some half a dozen of the American reviewer's mis-statements; thence submitting, as a fair inference, what degree of credit is due to the remainder of that gentleman's assertions.

Not being a naval officer,' the author could have no esprit de corps to bias his judgment. All inuendoes on that head, and pretty numerous they are, may therefore be blotted out of the piece. The same fate, for (as one may suppose) the same reason, must attend the commencing charge, that the production came abroad under the sanction of the admiralty.'*

Any railing at the author's affected arithmetical precision'† can but create a smile, when the American reviewer is compelled,

* Analectic Mag. and Naval Chronicle, Vol VII. p. 295. † Ibid. 302.

for lack of argument, to pass by the cyphering business.** It is that cyphering business,' that debtor and creditor account,'t in the naval warfare between the two countries, that is fast withering the laurels, with which one of them has, of late, so strutted in caricatura.

Who it is that weighs balls with the most minute precision,'+ let American naval officers and American naval histories tell.§

The author, although he is no naval officer,' would be ashamed to be convicted of having stated, that the loss of a ship's 'jib-boom' is equal, in point of importance, to the loss of a brig's main-yard.'|| But, in truth, was the Wasp without her jib-boom? If so, as she carried it away three days before the action, officers and crew must have been very negligent

* Analectic Mag. and Nav. Chron. Vol. VII. p. 307.
+ Ibid. 302.
+ Ibid. p. 304.

her

§ Naval History of the United States, Vol. I. p. 179– American Naval Monument, p. 141. 181.-James's Naval Occurrences, p. 10. 124. 365.

|| Analectic Mag. and Naval Chron. Vol. VII. p. 388. Naval Monument, p. 13.

in not having rigged a fresh one; and M. Corné,' the Boston painter, and his employer,

A. Bowen,' the Boston engraver, are chargeable with unpardonable inaccuracy, for having given to the Wasp, in their representation of the Frolic's capture,* a 'jib-boom,' and no short one either. After stating that the Wasp's crew 'consisted, in reality, of only 110," the writer does not proceed far in his magazine of wonders,' before he introduces the following paragraph: They (the American captain and one of his officers) testified, on oath, that the whole number of persons on board the Wasp, previous to the action, was 137;' §-actually within one of the author's statement.¶

[ocr errors]

In the very teeth of American official papers,|| does this American writer allege, that no complaint' was made, when several

* Naval Monument, p. 13.

† Analectic Mag. and Nav. Chronicle, Vol. VII. p. 387. Ib. 382. § Ib. 487.

¶ James's Naval Occurrences, p. 152.

Nav. Monument, p. 63.-James's Nav. Occurr. p. 223.

of the crew of the Chesapeake were killed, by firing down the gangway.'

To the fabulous account,' that the vessel said to have declined engaging the President off Sandy Hook, was not a small frigate,' the Loire, but the Plantaganet 74,' nothing was wanted but the trial of her commanding officer.' This trial our candid' reviewer is 'authorized to affirm' took place at Bermuda. By way of corroborating, what must appear to all but him and his party as, an absurd and ridiculous story,' he brings to his aid- the express admission of an officer of marines, then in the squadron cruizing off New York, and now a consul in one of our ports." Who can this be but lieutenant Patrick Savage, at that time of the Narcissus frigate, and now, or lately, consul at Norfolk, Virginia? It is to be hoped that the statement will meet his eye, if only to afford

* Analectic Mag. and Nav. Chron. Vol. VII, p. 388. + James's Naval Occurrences, p. 324.

Analectic Mag. and Nav, Chron. Vol. VIII.

P. 136.

« PreviousContinue »