86 TWO NAVAL SONGS. 



Mr. William H. Foster of Salem, then a clerk in the 

 neighborhood, was asked by Dr. Bowditch, then president 

 of the Essex Marine and Fire Insurance Company hav- 

 ing its office at the head of Central street, to get a gig 

 and post himself at Legge's Hill and whenever a shot was 

 fired to bring the news into town. This he did and then 

 returned to the hill to await the result of the action. Capt. 

 Oliver Thayer was with some of his seafaring elders in the 

 spire of the South Church, but as the interest grew more 

 and more intense and spy-glasses more in demand he got 

 little chance to use one. Mr. William Endicott, of Bev- 

 erly, saw from the roof of the Endicott house in Bartlett 

 street in that town, the two ships standing out on a paral- 

 lel course, south of Baker's Island. Never in any day be- 

 fore or since did so many persons pass toll gate No. 1, on 

 the Salem turnpike, as on that afternoon of June 1, 1813, 

 on their way to the high ground in the great pastures. 



The smoke of battle was seen, but the guns could not be 

 heard. The result was for some days a matter of conject- 

 ure as the disabled ship was taken into Halifax, where her 

 gallant dead were buried with the highest naval honors ren- 

 dered in the most generous spirit, and their remains were 

 then surrendered to the Cartel Brig "Henry," Capt. Geo. 

 Crowninshield, who with a volunteer crew of ship masters 

 brought them back to their mourning country, landed them 

 at Salem, and after the most famous funeral ever seen in 

 Essex County, and an oration from Judge Story, sent them 

 forward to New York to their final resting place in Trinity 

 Church Yard. 1 



Portfolio, Vol. x, p. 235, and Vol. xvn, p. 393; Sketches of the War, p. 289; James* 

 Naval Occurrences [Britishl p. 232; Niles' Register, Vol. V, p. 142, etpassim; Local 

 Journals of the day. 



Judge Story's Oration is in print. The gentlemen who volunteered to man the 

 "Henry," are named with commendation in the Essex Register ef Aug. 25, 1813. 

 They were Captains Holten J. Breed, Benjamin Upton, Jeduthan Upton, jr., John 

 Sinclair, Samuel Briggs, Joseph L. Lee, Stephen Burchmore, Thomas Bowditch and 

 Mr. Thorndike Procter. 



