The Naval History of the United States. Volume 1Abbot, Willis J. (Willis John)
History
The Naval History of the United States. Volume 1
Abbot, Willis J. (Willis John)
United States -- History, Naval
Some hours later, having escaped the British frigate, the two vessels
sailed up to a Philadelphia wharf. The scars of battle had been in no
way healed: the tattered sails, the shattered hulls and bulwarks, the
cordage hanging loosely from the masts, told the story of battle. The
crowd that rushed to the wharf, and peered curiously about the decks
of the two vessels, saw a ghastly and horrible sight. For the battle
had been as sanguinary as it was spirited, and the dead still lay
where they fell. On the British vessel, the "Gen. Monk," lay the
lifeless bodies of twenty men; while twenty-six wounded, whose blood
stained the deck, lay groaning in the cock-pit below. On the "Hyder
Ali" were four killed and eleven wounded.
This action, for steadiness and brilliancy, was not surpassed by any
naval duel of the war of the Revolution. By it the name of Joshua
Barney was put upon a plane with those of the most eminent commanders
in the regular navy; and had not the war speedily terminated, he would
have been granted a commission and a ship by the United States.
While the chief naval events of the war for independence have now been
recounted, there still remain certain incidents connected more or less
closely with the war on the water, which deserve a passing mention.
One of these is the curious desultory warfare carried on in and about
New York Harbor by fishermen and longshoremen in whale-boats, dories,
sharpies, and similar small craft.
From 1776 until the close of the war, New York City and the region
bordering upon the harbor were occupied by the British. Provisions
were needed for their support, and were brought from Connecticut and
New Jersey in small sailing craft, chiefly whale-boats. These boats
the patriots often intercepted, and desperate encounters upon the
water were frequent. Nor did the Yankee boatmen confine their attacks
to the provision boats alone. In the summer of 1775 the British
transport "Blue Mountain Valley" was captured by a band of hardy
Jerseymen, who concealed themselves in the holds of four small
sail-boats until fairly alongside the enemy's vessel, when they
swarmed out and drove the British from the deck of their vessel.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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