As the U.S. sloop Hornet skirted the Corobana Bank to approach the British brig-of-war Espiegle at 1530 on 24 February 1813, Master-Commandant James Lawrence sighted another sail on his weather quarter, “edging down upon us.” Lawrence had just given up pursuit of another brig to avoid running into shallow water. The Hornet’s commander, who had been appointed a midshipman at 16, was described as possessing “the temperament of a highly bred race horse, sensitive, quick, and impulsive.” Now 31, he had been “well taught . . . in that rough school of war [that] inevitably produces the best and most skillful officers,” having distinguished himself in the Tripolitan War.
The approaching ship Lawrence had spied proved to be the British brig-of-war Peacock, Captain William Peake commanding, which had spotted the Hornet almost simultaneously and bent on all sail to give chase. As the distance between the two ships closed, Peake correctly observed the Hornet “to have the appearance of a Man of War” and ran up the challenge “Strange Sail.” Lawrence saw the brig raise British colors at 1620. The Peacock had thrown down the gauntlet; Lawrence immediately ordered “beat to quarters,” with Drummer Henry McGrath and Fifer Jacob Stephens of the Hornet’s Marine Detachment doubtless providing the necessary music. The Hornet cleared for action.
Authorized by Congress on 26 March 1804, the Hornet was designed as a brig by Josiah Fox and built at the Baltimore yard of William Price. She was christened on 30 May 1805 and launched with appropriate pomp on 28 July 1805, being placed in commission by 18 October 1805, with Master-Commandant Isaac Chauncey in command. Constructed at a cost of $52,603, the Hornet served in the Atlantic, then in the Mediterranean; and transported distinguished passengers. The re-rigging of her sister ship Wasp from brig (two masts) to sloop (three masts) at the Washington Navy Yard resulted in the Hornet being likewise modified there.
Lawrence assumed command of the newly refitted Hornet at Norfolk, Virginia, on 25 October 1811. Lieutenant Edward J. Ballard, who commanded her on the passage down from Washington, touted “her . . . much improved [sailing qualities] . . . he passed everything he met with great ease.” A little more than a fortnight later, Lawrence wrote: “I am happy as having it in my power to state . . . that she sails remarkably fast, and is in my opinion as fine a sea-boat as we have in the service.” Soon thereafter, the Hornet carried diplomats and dispatches to France and England as tensions deepened between the United States and Great Britain. She returned home just ahead of the open break between the two countries, and the U.S. declaration of war on 18 June 1812. Assigned to the squadron under Commodore John Rodgers, the Hornet made one cruise into the Atlantic, captured one prize, and returned home.
The Hornet sailed in company with the celebrated frigate Constitution on 27 October 1812, auspiciously enjoying fair winds upon departure, bound for a rendezvous with the frigate Essex. Ultimately, however, the Constitution sailed home after her victory over the British frigate Java, and the Hornet alone blockaded the coast of Brazil. She took a prize—a “dull sailer” that Lawrence ordered burned.
Now, facing the Peacock, Lawrence kept the Hornet “close by the wind,” seeking the weather gage. Achieving that, the Hornet hoisted the Stars and Stripes at 1710, and closed the enemy. Fifteen minutes later, the two ships traded broadsides “within half a pistol shot.”
“Observing the enemy to be wearing,” Lawrence later reported, “received his starboard broadside [and] run him close on board on the starboard quarter.” The Hornet’s well-drilled gunners fired rapidly, employing buckets of water to cool the hot guns, handling their 32-pounder carronades skillfully: firing on the downward roll to deliver punishing body blows to the Peacock’s hull, and on the upward to wreck her rigging. Lawrence, knowing of his ship’s exceptional speed, ordered the Hornet positioned on the Peacock’s starboard quarter, limiting the enemy’s ability to respond. The Hornet’s “incessant discharge of Grape[shot]” from her great guns, combined with the fire from the swivels and muskets in the tops—the latter most likely the work of First Lieutenant Robert Mosby’s Marines stationed there—killed or wounded every man serving the Peacock’s after guns. As one Briton lamented, that deadly musketry “from the closeness of the ships . . . made every person on the Quarterdeck a Distinct Object.”
Such distinct objects included the Peacock’s commanding officer—the son of Sir Henry Peake, surveyor of the Royal Navy. Struck by a musket ball, then by a wood splinter, William Peake—reaching 33 years of age on the day of the battle—died instantly moments later when cannon shot struck him. Lieutenant Frederick A. Wright assumed command and continued the battle with his tars carrying on “with an ardour characteristic of British seamen.” At 1740, however, Carpenter George Marr reported six feet of water in the ship’s hold. Wright soon waved his hat over his head and ordered the colors hoisted upside down. The battle ended in less than 15 minutes.
Lawrence sent Lieutenant John T. Shubrick—one of four brothers in the Navy—over to the Peacock. He returned with Lieutenant Wright, who identified the Hornet’s adversary but also told of many killed and wounded on board—and reported that the ship was sinking fast. Without delay, Lawrence solicitously sent the Hornet’s boats to bring off the wounded; both vessels anchored in five fathoms in the lengthening shadows. Although former adversaries desperately worked together plugging shot holes, throwing cannon overboard, pumping and bailing to keep the Peacock afloat “with every possible exertion” to save the wounded, she plunged to the bottom, taking with her, as Lawrence noted sadly, “three of my brave fellows”—Seaman John Hart, Ordinary Seaman Joseph Williams, and Cook Hannibal Boyd—and seven British sailors and a Royal Marine private. Four Britons managed to scramble to the top of the foremast, whence they were rescued, while four others took the damaged stern boat and managed to reach shore. The Hornet’s party manned another surviving Peacock boat and, using wreckage as oars, paddled to its ship.
With 277 men now on board, Lawrence strictly rationed water and provisions and set course for the United States—and a tumultuous reception. Such was the Americans’ magnanimity toward their former foes that a number of the Peacock’s officers signed a letter of gratitude for their treatment. Lawrence, feted as a hero, was given command of the frigate Chesapeake soon thereafter. He died of wounds suffered on 1 June that same year in combat with the frigate HMS Shannon. The Hornet survived the War of 1812, and then fought pirates in the West Indies.
On 5 February 1829, the Hornet cleared New York, bound, ultimately, for Tampico, Mexico. Receiving no further intelligence for some time, the Navy Department investigated and learned that a gale had driven the sloop from her Tampico moorings on 10 September 1829. Commodore Jesse Elliott, U.S. squadron commander in the West Indies, concluded on 5 December that the magnificent Hornet had “from some cause which will probably never be reached, foundered and all on board sunk to an untimely and lamented grave.” Natural forces had done what ships from the mightiest navy in the world had not been able to do.