In June 1813, during the War of 1812–1814 with America, the US Brig Argus embarked from New York with orders to raid British coastal commerce, causing panic in the British and Irish shipping trade. On the morning of 14 August, HM Brig Pelican engaged Argus off St David's Head. After a fierce battle, Argus surrendered. Her surgeon was James Inderwick whose journal tells of his work as a surgeon in the US Navy.
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References
1.
RodgerNAM. Operations 1812-1815. In: The Command of the Ocean - A Naval History of Britain 1649-1815.London: Allen Lane an imprint of Penguin Books in association with the National Maritime Museum, 2004: 565.
2.
Ibid.: p. 566: In 1807 the 50-gun HMS Leopard had fired three broadsides into the smaller US frigate Chesapeake causing heavy casualties; a British boarding party had then removed some deserters from the American crew. This resulted in a major diplomatic row, narrowly averting war, five years before the actual outbreak of hostilities in 1812.
3.
Ibid.: p. 567.
4.
Ibid.: p. 568. James Lawrence was born in Burlington, New Jersey on 1 October 1781. He joined the US Navy as a midshipman in 1798 and saw action against the Barbary pirates and at Tripoli in 1804. During the War of 1812 he was promoted to Captain and accepted the challenge from Philip Bowes Vere Broke (1776-1841), captain of the 38-gun Shannon. In less than 15 minutes the 49-gun Chesapeake was crippled. Mortally wounded, Lawrence shouted, “Tell the men to fire faster and not to give up the ship; fight her till she sinks!” Lawrence's words “Don't Give Up The Ship” became the motto of the US Navy. His last order to the crew was “Burn her”!” http://08016.com/lawrence.html Accessed 4 January 2007.
5.
LaveryB. Fighting tactics. In: Nelson's Navy, the Ships, Men and Organisation 1793-1815.London: Conway Maritime Press,1989: 295.
6.
O'BrianP. The Fortune of War.London: HarperCollins Publishers,1996: 301–3.
7.
LaveryB. Gunnery and Fighting. (op. cit. Ref. 5): pp. 177–8.
8.
JamesW. Light squadrons and single ships [1813]. Pelican and Argus. In: The Naval History of Great Britain from the Declaration of War by France in 1793 to the Accession of George IV.London: R Bentley,1886; VI:79.
9.
InderwickJ. Cruise of the US Brig Argus in 1813.Journal of Surgeon James Inderwick. The New York Public Library, 1917, with an Introduction and Notes by Victor Hugo Paltsits, Chief of The American History Division and Keeper of Manuscripts, p. 4. A copy is in the National Lending Library for Science and Technology, stamped British Library Lending Division, 15 December 1977, W42-2763.
10.
Ibid.: p. 5.
11.
Ibid.: p. 5. There is some doubt whether or not Allen ‘juggled the coal with his bare hands all the way to the gun.’ See Dye I. The Fatal Cruise of the Argus. Two Captains in the War of 1812. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1994: Chapter 2, pp. 63-4.
12.
Ibid.: p. 6 [US Navy Records give no date of birth for William H Watson. He died 13 September 1823].
13.
Anon.Cruise of the U. S. Brig Argus. The Naval War of 1812. Ed. DudleyWS, Naval Historical Centre, Department of the Navy, 1992: Vol 2, Jan-Dec 1813: p. 222. For more information on entry requirements for the US Naval Medical Service in 1812 see: Langley HD. History of Medicine in the Early U.S. Navy. Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995. With acknowledgement to Jack A Green, Public Affairs Officer, Naval Historical Centre, Washington Navy Yard, 805 Kidder Breese SE, Washington DC 20374-5060.
14.
InderwickJ. (op. cit. Ref. 9): p. 7.
15.
Ibid.: p. 8: When Captain WH Allen died without a will or widow, his younger brother, Thomas, claimed against the United States government for prize money to which he would have been entitled if the enemy vessels which Allen had destroyed had been brought into port and adjudicated by a prize court. Thomas Allen, on legal advice, calculated that the vessels and cargoes were worth 2.5 million dollars [£9 million sterling approx. in 1813]. See: Petrie DA. Forbidden prizes - the claim. In: The Prize Game. United States Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland, 1999: 39.
DyeI. Rampage, chase and battle. In: The Fatal Cruise of the Argus. Two Captains in the War of 1812.Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press,1994: 273.
19.
FarmarT. The 1800s. In: Patients, Potions and Physicians. A Social History of Medicine in Ireland 1654-2004.Dublin, 2004. Eds. A & A Farmar in association with the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland, Chapter 4: p. 62.
20.
InderwickJ. (op. cit. Ref. 9): p. 19. The West Indies convoy from Antigua was escorted by a ship of the line, the Cressy, two frigates, the Coquette and Mercury and a brig-sloop, the Frolic. As the convoy had split into 79 ships heading south-east towards the English Channel and the remainder of 89 ships heading towards Bristol, escorted by the Coquette, it seems likely this was the warship that Argus encountered in the fog. The incident is described in detail in The Prize Game by DA Petrie (Ref. 15 - note), pp. 36-8.
21.
InderwickJ. (op. cit. Ref. 9): p. 20.
22.
Ibid.: p. 20.
23.
JamesW. (op. cit. Ref. 8): p. 81.
24.
InderwickJ. (op. cit. Ref. 9): p. 9.
25.
Ibid.: p. 9.
26.
ClowesWL. The War with the United States, 1812-15. The ‘PELICAN’ and the ‘ARGUS’. In: The Royal Navy. A History From the Earliest Times to the Present.London: Sampson Low, Marston & Co., Vol. VI (1905). Republished by Chatham Publishing (1997), p. 87: The account of the Fight between the Argus and the Pelican in the Journal of James Inderwick (Ref. 9, pp. 8-13) is more detailed and has the advantage of giving the American point of view: the Editor, VH Paltsits, (1867-1952) has provided extensive footnotes including references to well-known American naval historians including Alfred Mahan (1840-1914).
27.
AgnewRAL. The Life of Sir John Forbes (1787-1861).Bramber, West Sussex: Bernard Durnford Publishing,2002: Chapter 6, p. 44.
28.
FarmarT. (op. cit. Ref. 19): pp. 58-9.
29.
InderwickJ. (op. cit. Ref. 9): pp. 20–21.
30.
Ibid.: p. 21.
31.
Ibid.: p. 22.
32.
Ibid.: p. 22.
33.
ClowesWL. (op. cit. Ref. 26): p. 87.
34.
InderwickJ. (op. cit. Ref. 9): p. 13.
35.
Ibid.: p. 11.
36.
DyeI. (op. cit. Ref. 18): p. 282.
37.
InderwickJ. (op. cit. Ref. 9): p. 13.
38.
DyeI. (op. cit. Ref. 18): p. 283.
39.
FraserE., The Enemy at Trafalgar. Eye-Witness’ Narratives, Dispatches and Letters from the French and Spanish Fleets. Introduction by Czisnik M and Nash M. London: Chatham Publishing,2004 and in North America by Stackpole Books, Mechanicsburg, PA 17005-6921. First published: London: Hodder and Stoughton Publishers, 1906;XXVII:393
40.
InderwickJ. (op. cit. Ref. 9): p. 22.
41.
Ibid.: p. 23.
42.
Ibid.: p. 25.
43.
Ibid.: p. 14 [The officiating Vicar of St. Andrew's was the Reverend John Gandy (1740-1824) and the Curate, his son, Samuel Gandy (1776-1851)].
44.
DyeI. The fatal cruise of the Argus. Two Captains in the War of 1812.Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press,1994: 289 [The inscription is reproduced verbatim, including capital letters and italics as in photographs taken in 1995].
45.
Ibid.: p. 116.
46.
PleadwellFL. James Inderwick: Surgeon, United States Navy, 1813- 1815.United States Naval Bulletin,1922; I: 9.
47.
JamesW. Light squadrons and single ships [1814]. (op. cit. Ref. 8): pp. 159-161.
48.
DyeI. (op. cit. Ref. 44): p. 305.
49.
MaplesJF. Dispatch to Admiral Sir Edward Thornborough, RN from HM Sloop Pelican, St. David's-head [sic], East five leagues, August 14, 1813.Naval Chronicle,1813; 30: 216–7.
