User:Chetsford/usrceagle

USRC Eagle was an American warship operated by the Revenue Marine which was lost to the United Kingdom during the War of 1812. During a naval engagement in 1814, the ship's captain was forced to beach the vessel, however, Eagle 's marooned crew continued fighting a three-ship British squadron from the shore, using cannon they'd recovered from the hulk of their vessel. After two days of combat, the Royal Navy successfully captured the wrecked Eagle. She was the last of five Revenue Marine vessels destroyed or captured during the war.

The 1922 official history of the U.S. Coast Guard, successor to the Revenue Marine, describes the defense of USRC Eagle as "one of the most dramatic incidents in the War of 1812".

Construction

The barque USCGC Eagle (pictured) perpetuates the name Eagle in the Coast Guard register.

The Revenue Marine ensign (pictured) was blown off the ship three times during the battle at Negroes Head.

Eagle, the third cutter to bear that name, was a 130-ton schooner outfitted with four six-pound cannon and sailing under a normal complement of twenty-five.

War of 1812

Background

At the outset of the War of 1812, the United States' diminutive naval forces consisted of 16 ships sailed by the United States Navy and a further 14 by the United States Revenue Marine. On 26 May 1813, the United Kingdom announced the closure of New York harbor and Long Island Sound to almost all outgoing shipping, the closure to be enforced by means of a blockade. The blockade was not total; American merchantmen carrying certain foodstuffs to Europe were permitted through due to the British Army's provisioning needs for its forces engaged in Spain during the concurrent War of the Sixth Coalition.

Pursuit of the Liverpool Packet

On 30 May 1814 USRC Eagle 's commanding officer, Frederick Lee, was alerted to the capture of an American merchantman by the British privateer Liverpool Packet, the ship having been intercepted and taken while attempting to run the blockade. In response to this information, Lee ordered 44 soldiers of the New York Militia embarked about his vessel before putting to sea along with a hastily-armed American privateer in pursuit of the Liverpool Packet. At some point during the pursuit, Lee spotted a three-ship Royal Navy squadron closing on his position and he ordered the withdrawal of Eagle and the American privateer.

Battle at Negroes Head

On 10 October 1814, news reached Lee that another American merchantman had been captured by a British privateer. He again embarked New York militia aboard his ship to use as naval infantry and set sail in a nighttime pursuit of the marauding vessel. As the sun rose the next day, however, Lee found himself "dangerously close" to HMS Dispatch, which launched its barges in an apparent attempt to board the smaller Eagle. Lee attempted to withdraw but found his ship unable to outsail the larger British vessel. In a last ditch effort to save the ship, he maneuvered Eagle towards Negroes Head on Long Island and beached it. Unrelenting, Dispatch approached the shore in an apparent attempt to capture the beached Eagle. Lee ordered his crew to salvage Eagle 's guns, which were hauled to the top of a nearby bluff and - from there - used to direct shore-to-ship fire against Dispatch in an effort to drive her away.

Over the course of the next day HMS Dispatch continued to trade fire with Eagle 's crew. According to a popular account of the battle, Eagle 's crew used the pages of her log book to pack the cannon after they ran out of wadding and, upon exhausting all available ammunition, began scavenging Dispatch 's spent cannonballs from the beach to fire back at her. During the engagement, Eagle 's battle ensign was shot off her mast by Royal Navy fire three separate times, requiring Revenue Marine sailors to scramble back down to the abandoned ship and replace it on each occasion to signal the ship was still resisting.

On 12 October Dispatch abandoned the battle and left the area in an attempt to find reinforcements. The temporary respite allowed Lee the opportunity to repair and re-float the damaged Eagle. Barely had the ship made open water, however, than it again encountered Dispatch which had returned with the frigate HMS Narcissus and a third Royal Navy vessel. Again, Eagle retreated and was beached, her crew moving to the shore to direct musket fire against British barges attempting to attach toe cables to the wrecked hulk. By noon on 13 October, the Royal Navy had managed to take Eagle under tow and - with her - withdrew from the area.

Legacy

Defense of the Cutter Eagle, a painting by Aldis Brown, depicts Eagle 's crew attempting to fight off Narcissus and Dispatch from the shore at Negroes Head and is displayed in the Henriques Room in Hamilton Hall at the United States Coast Guard Academy.

In 2014, during bicentennial observances of the War of 1812, the Hallockville Museum Farm in Riverhead, New York organized a reenactment of the battle between Eagle and Dispatch titled "the Defense of the Eagle".

As of 2019, the Gorch Fock-class barque USCGC Eagle (formerly the Horst Wessel) perpetuates the Eagle name on the Coast Guard register.