134 HEREDITY AND DEVELOPMENT OF NAVAL OFFICERS. 



43. CHARLES MORRIS. 



CHARLES MORRIS was born July 26, 1784, at Woodstock, Connecticut, 

 and spent the first fifteen years of his life there, working on the farm and reading 

 everything he could lay his hands on. Charles entered the navy as a midshipman 

 at the age of 15 years, through the assistance of his father, who was purser in the 

 navy. He first was on ships with his father. He saw his first war service on board 

 the Constitution, Commodore Preble, during the war with Tripoli. His father's 

 brother now became secretary to Commodore Preble, so young Morris had the 

 benefit of his company and advice. After the Philadelphia had grounded and was 

 captured by the Tripolitan gunboats, Morris was one of a party who undertook 

 to drift into the harbor at night, on a vessel disguised as a merchantman, and who 

 boarded the Philadelphia, set fire to her, and escaped. After some further experi- 

 ences in various vessels he returned to America; but after a time was at sea again 

 as first lieutenant (1809), enforcing the embargo. On the Constitution, under 

 Captain Isaac Hull, he was one night at Portsmouth, England. An American 

 sailor who had deserted to a British man-of-war, Havana, was not given up on the 

 ground that he claimed to be a British subject. Shortly afterwards, a deserter 

 swam to the Constitution and stated (in Irish brogue) that he was an American. 

 When the British sent a boat for him, Morris (in the absence of Captain Hull) 

 refused to surrender him, giving the same reason that the British had given shortly 

 before; the British threatened to use force, but the swift Constitution outsailed 

 them. When the War of 1812 broke out the Constitution was at Annapolis and 

 was ordered to New York, but in Chesapeake Bay she fell in with a small block- 

 ading squadron under Captain Broke. A dead calm ensued, so that no flight 

 or pursuit was possible, but the Constitution got away by use of the device of kedg- 

 ing suggested by Morris - - rowing the kedge-anchor out for a mile beyond the 

 ship and hauling in at the ship end. Thus the Constitution eluded her pursuers 

 and reached Boston. Thence she went to Nova Scotia and captured a number of 

 English vessels and, on August 19, 1812, met the Guerriere. Morris had charge 

 of the firing and was with difficulty restrained until the two vessels had come close 

 enough so that every shot of the Constitution would tell. The battle was won; 

 Morris was wounded badly, but recovered. In March 1813 he was promoted to 

 be captain. He remodeled the signal-book for the secretary of the navy. In 1814 

 he was put in charge of the sloop-of-war Adams, blockaded in the Potomac, and, on 

 January 18,1814, ran the blockade during a snowstorm and put to sea. During the 

 next seven months he captured 10 merchantmen carrying in all 161 guns. On the 

 Maine coast he ran upon the rocks, was pursued by a British squadron, got his 

 vessel off at high tide and into the Penobscot river, where he burned the leaking 

 Adams and escaped with all of his men. After this episode he was employed in the 

 Boston navy-yard. In 1816 he commanded a squadron in the Gulf of Mexico, where 

 the Spanish were making trouble, and in 1819-1820 was in South American waters 

 during a revolution in Buenos Aires. From 1823 to 1827 he was a navy com- 

 missioner. In 1825 he was chosen to convey La Fayette to France in the Brandy- 

 wine, and while in Europe he visited the dockyards in France and England. He 

 was again a navy commissioner through 1832-1841, during which time he sent out 

 the exploring expedition under Wilkes. He was for some time director of the 

 United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, and in the last five years of his life 

 was chief of the bureau of ordnance and hydrography. 



Charles Morris was a fighter of fighting stock. His father, Charles Morris, 

 born in 1762, enlisted in the Continental Army under General La Fayette at the 



