bloody banquet, he becomes exceeding merry and jocular withal, as your fat fellows are wont to do after dinner, before they fall asleep. "The whole of the inside of the Chesapeake's bulwarks, fore and aft," says he, "was covered with nettings to catch the splinters! So much for the tenderness of the enemy; his bitterness created general amusement in the cart-loads of langridge, iron bolts, and other American artillery, that were exposed to sale at public auction." Poor John Bull! as this is one of the few opportunities for being merry, afforded by the late war, he would have been inexcusable not to make the most of it, and we should be unreasonable to break in upon his merriment, was it not founded upon very common circumstances. In the first place, splinter nets are no uncommon proof of " tenderness," for they are in common use among all nations having ships of war. In the second place, langridge and iron bolts are also very usual, the one as "artillery," if the gentleman chooses to call it so; the other for various purposes, which are quite unnecessary to particularize. It was paltry, therefore, to bring forward these things as unusual in like situations, because, as a joke, it is but a poor one at best; and if the writer is in earnest, he either shows that he is utterly ignorant himself of the usages of naval warfare, or that he wishes to impose upon the ignorance of his readers. If these articles were exposed to sale at public auction, we presume this was done by way of giving celebrity to the victory, by thus causing it to be well advertised in the newspapers, where men, who never read any thing else, would stand a good chance of secing it, acompanied by the puffs of the auctioneer.

Nothing indeed of the kind ever made so much noise in England as the capture of the Chesapeake. The bells rung, and the tower guns were fired. All Grub street was inspired to pour forth its notes of triumph on the occasion; and even lord Thurlow, the undoubted head of that inspired tribe, wrote a ballad on the occasion. We regret it is not in our power to present a specimen of this ballad to our readers, as

a proof of the superiority of lordly nonsense over that of common men. Perhaps however his lordship may have been out of his wits with joy when he wrote it, and if so, we cannot refrain from excusing its enormous folly, and hoping he will do better another time. In addition to all these demonstrations of public exultation, the victory was advertised like a quack medicine, or Packwood's razor strops, and for seve ral nights after, "Rule Britania" was sung at the theatres without being hissed.

WASP AND FROLICK.*

THE following article was received too late for insertion in our fast number, which contains some remarks on the engagement between these two ships, as detailed in an article in the British Naval Chronicle. The reasonings and inferences it contains are so conclusive, as to carry the fullest conviction, and the facts stated are from an authority, which, if we were permitted to mention it, would be conclusive as to their truth. The facts we know to have been furnished by an eyewitness to the action.

SIR,

To the Editor of the American Naval Chronicle.

HAVING observed that you have begun an examination of an article in the British Naval Chronicle, in which is contained a studied misstatement of every naval action fought during the late war, and professedly written by "a British naval officer on the American station," I take the liberty to offer you the following remarks. They relate entirely to the action between the Wasp and Frolick-they are given on the authority of one who was present at the engagement, and it is believed will effectually establish the want of veracity in the writer of

The very name of the Frolick, it will be recollected, became, in consequence of this action, disagreeable and painful, not only to my lords commission. ers of the admiralty, but to the whole British people. The British government, wisely regarding these feelings and prejudices, ordered the Frolick, on her arrival in England, although she was nearly a new vessel, and very excellent of her class to be broken up, and thus expunged the very name from their navy list.

the "Synopsis." I shall examine the different positions of this writer as they occur.

"The Wasp, now the Peacock in our service," he observes.. "is certainly a much finer ship than any sloop of war we have, and has her bulwarks nearly as thick as a frigate." That the Wasp was a fine ship I am ready to admit, and the only conclusion I shall draw from the admission, is that this country, young as it is in naval architecture, already surpasses England, which, for centuries, has been exercising her ingenuity in bringing this science to perfection. To a nation labouring under such an incurable lack of genius as ours (if we believe our cousin England) it is not a little creditable that such has been the result of our early exertions, and it is earnestly hoped that this success will inspire us to attempt greater things. But the assertion that the bulwarks of the Wasp were nearly as thick as those of a frigate, is palpably absurd, and in direct contradiction of the first part of the sentence; because a sloop of eighteen guns, with such bulwarks, could not be a fine vessel. Such a disproportion between her hull and her armament never occurred in a fine ship, because it is at war with that nice and indispensable harmony of parts, without which no vessel can be entitled to that appellation. The assertion is, therefore, improbable, absurd, and contradictory, and requires a stronger support than the mere assertion of an anonymous British naval officer.

"But," says the officer, "the evening previous to the action, the Frolick carried away her main-yard, lost her topsails, and sprung her maintop-mast, consequently was quite in a disabled state."

The assertion that this disastrous gale happened on the evening previous to the action, is taken from the British official statement, and is made for very obvious reasons; but it is, nevertheless, incorrect. Captain Jones says, in his official letter, "We had left the Delaware on the 13th. The 16th had a heavy gale, in which we lost our jib-boom, and two men. Half past 11, in the night of the 17th, in lat. 37 and long. 65

west, we saw several sail, two of them appearing very large. We stood from them for some time, then shortened sail, and steered the remainder of the night the course we had perceived them on. At daylight, on the 18th, we saw them ahead; gave chase, and soon discovered them to be a convoy of six sail, under the protection of a sloop of war, &c." Captain Whinyates states, in his official letter, the following particulars: "On the night of the 17th, we were overtaken by a most violent gale of wind, in which the Frolick carried away her main-yard, lost her main-topsail, and sprung the main-topmast. On the morning of the 18th, as we were repairing the damages sustained in the storm, and reassembling the scattered ships, a suspicious ship came in sight, and gave chase to the convoy. The merchant vessels continued their voyage before the wind under all sail; the Frolick dropt astern, and hoisted Spanish colours, in order to decoy the stranger under her guns, &c."

From this extract it would appear, that while captain Jones was cruising on the 17th, he saw several strange sail, some of them apparently large, and stood from them, till, at a convenient distance, he shortened sail-that during the night he steered the course he had observed them to be pursuing, and, at daylight in the morning of the 18th, made them out to be a convoy of six sail, under the protection of a sloop of war. All this time, and while so near the enemy, he remained utterly ignorant of this tremendous gale, which shattered the Frolick and dispersed her convoy, having, it seems, anticipated it two days before. Yet, in this very latitude, and within the distance of a few miles, captain Whinyates was suffering these terrible disasters. His convoy, which was thus dispersed at this very time, was seen together, by captain Jones, at 11 at night on the 17th, and at daylight on the morning of the 18th, that is the very morning of the action. There is here a contradiction which cannot be reconciled, and one of the statements must necessarily be incorrect.

Let us admit, for the sake of argument, that the testimony of one man is as good as another, abstractedly considered; yet as one man has a much stronger motive for falsifying his word than another, his testimony labours under a weakness of probability, which, in all cases, necessarily deprives it of its greatest support, and gives a preference to that of the other. In addition to this test of truth, there is another equally calculated to throw light on conflicting testimony, and that is the mass of accompanying circumstances, among which will almost always be found something that will irresistibly incline the mind to one side or the other. Let us apply these rules to the pre

sent case:

Captain Jones had fairly and gallantly beaten his enemy; he could, therefore, have no feeling of humiliation on the occasion-no spiteful motive of revenge to satiate, by undervaluing or overrating the force or efficiency of those over whom he had just triumphed-nor was it of the least consequence to his reputation, whether there was a tempest or a calm before or after the action. Where then shall we look for the impulse which could possibly actuate captain Jones to misrepresent, without any conceivable motive? With captain Whinyates, just conquered by an enemy he had been accustomed from his youth upwards to despise, the case is far different. To be beaten by one whom a man has been in the habit of contemning as weak, or cowardly, must be a bitter pill, most especially to such bullies as the British naval officers who have lorded it so long over the subject seas. There is no situation in which I should expect such men to be actuated by an inveterate dislike towards the victor, and, consequently, where I should anticipate a stronger disposition to deprive the latter, by every possible means, of the credit of his gallantry, "It is with the most bitter sorrow and distress," says captain Whinyates in his official letter, "I have to report to your excellency the capture of his majesty's brig Frolick, by the ship Wasp, &c." Again, he adds: "I shall ever deplore the unhappy issue of this conflict, &c." This is the very language of ex