Then I thought of my wager with David, and found that I had won it, as my first prize was taken a day before he captured his. I had left a letter for him at the office of the owners, and I now took the opportunity to write a few lines in addition, and congratulate him on his success.
Near nightfall the wind shifted; and as the British man-of-war that troubled me somewhat when I arrived had now gone to the southward, I had no difficulty in getting on the ocean again.
I learned afterwards that I had a narrow escape from running into a British fleet of five ships, with an aggregate of two hundred guns. It was a little to the south of the course I followed, and had already made several prizes; it was looking for the fleet of Commodore Rodgers, and also watching for the forty-four gun ship Constitution, which had gone into Chesapeake Bay, and was expected to come out again very soon.
The Constitution came out as expected; and on Friday, July 17th, she was off the coast, but out of sight of land, when she made out four sails to the northward, and soon afterwards a fifth sail. One of them was discovered to be a man-of-war, but the others were supposed to be merchantmen. The wind was light during the afternoon and evening, and also during the night. On the morning of the 18th, the Constitution found herself almost surrounded by a British fleet, consisting of one ship of the line, sixty-four guns, and four frigates, enough to make short work if they could once succeed in closing in upon her.
All day the wind was light, or there was a dead calm. The Constitution took advantage of every puff, and she got out her boats and tried to tow out of danger. Then, finding she was in about twenty fathom water, she took all the spare rope that could be found, and bent it to a kedge, which was carried ahead about half a mile and dropped. As soon as the kedge took the ground, the crew hauled away on the rope, walking aft with it as fast as they could; and in this way the ship moved away as though she had a steam-engine on board. The maneuver was repeated several times before the British discovered it, and then they tried the same trick.
Well, to make a long story short, that chase was kept up for three days in light wind or dead calm, the Constitution managing to keep just out of range and no more. All the ships had every stitch of canvas out, and the men were kept in the tops to wet down the sails and make them draw as much as possible. It's a wonder the Constitution escaped, when we remember she had five ships closing around her, two of them being right abeam of her at one time for several hours, one on the starboard and the other on the larboard.