188 HEREDITY AND DEVELOPMENT OF NAVAL OFFICERS. 



From 1809 to 1812 he was in command of the New York flotilla and naval 

 station; he presided at the court-martial of Commodore Barren, superintended 

 the building of 23 gunboats, and performed numerous other duties devolving 

 on a celebrated and effective naval commodore on shore. In 1810 he was sent 

 out with a fleet to protect American merchantmen from having their seamen 

 impressed by the British navy. In command of the President he fell in with the 

 Little Belt (May 16, 1811), which fired upon his ship and led Rodgers to reply so 

 vigorously, though it was already dark, that the smaller vessel succumbed to him. 

 This event helped to precipitate the War of 1812. Throughout that war he was 

 in active service, fought with the Belvidere, and had his leg broken by the explosion 

 of a gun. During the rest of the war he captured many English merchantmen. 



After the war was over he was offered the position of secretary of the navy, 

 but declined it. He was then made the head of the board of naval commissioners 

 from 1815 until 1824 and again from 1827 until 1837; he was in command of the 

 squadron in the Mediterranean from 1824 to 1827. His death occurred in 1838, 

 his constitution having been shattered, in 1832, by an attack of Asiatic cholera 

 contracted in Washington while nursing the son of his old friend Tobias Lear. 



John Rodgers was a man of about medium height, erect figure, and military 

 carriage. His frame was solid, compact, and well proportioned. His face was 

 stern and imperious. He had a powerful physique, performed feats of skill, and 

 was rarely ill. 



John Rodgers' special traits were: 



Absence of fear. It is stated that, as a boy, hunting wild ducks on the banks 

 of the mouth of the Susquehanna river, he would sometimes break the ice and 

 swim after the wild duck he had shot and killed from the river bank. He led the 

 boys of his village in many a daring venture (Paullin, 1910, p. 19). Shortly after 

 he had finished his apprenticeship and commanded a merchant ship, he found 

 himself carried by adverse winds into the North Sea, with provisions nearly gone, 

 and with so low a temperature that three of his crew were frozen to death and the 

 rest in sullen despair. When young Rodgers ordered them to go aloft and secure 

 the frozen rigging they refused. But he, stripping off jacket and shirt, went aloft 

 himself to "show them what a man could do." At the age of 23 he witnessed in 

 Liverpool a political procession favoring for Parliament Sir Banastre Tarleton, 

 of ill fame in the American revolution. One banner represented Tarleton on horse- 

 back charging a band of fleeing Americans whose national flag was being trampled 

 in the dust by the charging hoofs. When Rodgers saw this banner he pushed his 

 way through the crowd, knocked down the astonished standard-bearer, and re- 

 turned to the inn. Then, arming himself heavily, he called on General Tarleton, 

 and was assured the banner would be destroyed. A party of Tarleton's sup- 

 porters carried young Rodgers on their shoulders to his lodgings in admiration 

 of his spirit. 



While serving as lieutenant on the Constellation under Truxton the French 

 frigate L'Insurgente was sighted and engaged in battle, Rodgers commanding one 

 division of the guns. When the French vessel struck her colors Rodgers was 

 ordered to board her and to send the officers to the Constellation. There was rela- 

 tively little loss on the American side. Truxton praised Rodgers's work highly 

 and placed the prize in his charge with 11 seamen. During a storm the following 

 night she separated from the Constellation and the 163 prisoners on board planned 

 to seize the ship. Rodgers acted with great promptness and resolution. Seizing 



