On the Ocean 221 



foreigners had to be taken, including about forty 

 British and a number of Portuguese. The latter 

 were peculiarly troublesome; one of their number, 

 a boatswain's mate, finally almost brought about a 

 mutiny among the crew, which was only pacified by 

 giving the men prize-checks. A few of the Constitu 

 tion's old crew came aboard, and these, together 

 with some of the men who had been on the Chesa 

 peake during her former voyage, made an excellent 

 nucleus. Such men needed very little training at 

 either guns or sails; but the new hands were un- 

 practiced, and came on lx>ard so late that the last 

 draft that arrived still had their hammocks and 

 bags lying in the boats stowed over the booms 

 when the ship was captured. The officers were 

 largely new to the ship, though the first lieutenant, 

 Mr. A. Ludlow, had been the third in her former 

 cruise; the third and fourth lieutenants were not 

 regularly commissioned as such, but were only mid 

 shipmen acting for the first time in higher positions. 

 Captain Lawrence himself was of course new to all, 

 both officers and crew. 25 In other words, the CJicsa- 

 peakc possessed good material, but in an exceeding 

 ly unseasoned state. 



" On the day on which he sailed to attack the Shannon, 

 Lawrence writes to the Secretary of the Navy as follows: 

 "Lieutenant Paige is so ill as to be unable to go to sea with 

 the ship. At the urgent request of Acting-Lieutenant Pierce 

 I have granted him, also, permission to go on shore; one in 

 ducement for my granting his request was his being at vari 

 ance with every officer in his mess." "Captains' Letters," 

 vol. 29, No. i, in the Naval Archives at Washington. Neither 

 officers nor men had shaken together. 



