Little Belt Affair
Encyclopedia
The Little Belt Affair was a naval
Navy
A navy is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake- or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions...

 battle on the night of May 16, 1811. It involved the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 frigate
Frigate
A frigate is any of several types of warship, the term having been used for ships of various sizes and roles over the last few centuries.In the 17th century, the term was used for any warship built for speed and maneuverability, the description often used being "frigate-built"...

 USS President
USS President (1800)
USS President was a nominally rated 44-gun wooden-hulled, three-masted heavy frigate of the United States Navy. She was named by George Washington to reflect a principle of the United States Constitution. Forman Cheeseman was in charge of her construction, and she was launched in April 1800 from a...

 and the British
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....

 sixth-rate
Sixth-rate
Sixth rate was the designation used by the Royal Navy for small warships mounting between 20 and 24 nine-pounder guns on a single deck, sometimes with guns on the upper works and sometimes without.-Rating:...

 HMS Little Belt
HMS Little Belt (1807)
Lillebælt was a Danish 22-gun warship launched in 1801. The Danes surrendered her to the Royal Navy in 1807 and she became the 20-gun post ship HMS Little Belt. The American USS President fired on her during peacetime, believing her to be , which had recently abducted a sailor from USS Spitfire,...

, a sloop-of-war
Sloop-of-war
In the 18th and most of the 19th centuries, a sloop-of-war was a warship with a single gun deck that carried up to eighteen guns. As the rating system covered all vessels with 20 guns and above, this meant that the term sloop-of-war actually encompassed all the unrated combat vessels including the...

, which had originally been the Danish ship Lillebælt, before being captured by the British in the 1807 Battle of Copenhagen
Battle of Copenhagen (1807)
The Second Battle of Copenhagen was a British preemptive attack on Copenhagen, targeting the civilian population in order to seize the Dano-Norwegian fleet and in turn originate the term to Copenhagenize.-Background:Despite the defeat and loss of many ships in the first Battle of Copenhagen in...

. The incident took place off the North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...

 coast.
The Little Belt Affair was one of many incidents and events that led to the War of 1812
War of 1812
The War of 1812 was a military conflict fought between the forces of the United States of America and those of the British Empire. The Americans declared war in 1812 for several reasons, including trade restrictions because of Britain's ongoing war with France, impressment of American merchant...

.

Background

The Little Belt Affair occurred four years after the Chesapeake-Leopard Affair of 1807, in which HMS Leopard
HMS Leopard (1790)
HMS Leopard was a 50-gun Portland-class fourth rate of the Royal Navy. She served during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, and the War of 1812.-Construction and commissioning:...

 had overcome USS Chesapeake
USS Chesapeake (1799)
USS Chesapeake was a 38-gun wooden-hulled, three-masted heavy frigate of the United States Navy. She was one of the original six frigates whose construction was authorized by the Naval Act of 1794. Joshua Humphreys designed these frigates to be the young navy's capital ships...

, killing three, wounding eighteen, and putting four of its sailors on trial for desertion. It was fifteen days after an incident involving HMS Guerriere
HMS Guerriere (1806)
HMS Guerriere was a 38-gun fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy, which had previously sailed with the French Navy as the Guerrière. She became famous for her fight against ....

, a frigate
Frigate
A frigate is any of several types of warship, the term having been used for ships of various sizes and roles over the last few centuries.In the 17th century, the term was used for any warship built for speed and maneuverability, the description often used being "frigate-built"...

. On May 1 the Guerriere had stopped the brig
Brig
A brig is a sailing vessel with two square-rigged masts. During the Age of Sail, brigs were seen as fast and manoeuvrable and were used as both naval warships and merchant vessels. They were especially popular in the 18th and early 19th centuries...

 USS Spitfire
USS Spitfire
USS Spitfire may refer to:, a gunboat on Lake Champlain., a galley operated until October 1776., a merchant sloop operated until 1820., a ship operated until 1816., a sidewheel gunboat operated until 1848; used during the Mexican-American War, a temporary name of Casco-class monitor USS Suncook...

 off Sandy Hook in New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...

. It had impressed
Impressment
Impressment, colloquially, "the Press", was the act of taking men into a navy by force and without notice. It was used by the Royal Navy, beginning in 1664 and during the 18th and early 19th centuries, in wartime, as a means of crewing warships, although legal sanction for the practice goes back to...

 Maine
Maine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...

 citizen John Diggio, the apprentice sailing master of the Spitfire. The Secretary of the Navy, Paul Hamilton
Paul Hamilton
Paul Hamilton was the 3rd United States Secretary of the Navy, from 1809 to 1813.Paul Hamilton was born in Saint Paul's Parish, South Carolina, on October 16, 1762. He left school at the age of sixteen due to financial problems...

, had ordered the President, along with USS Argus
USS Argus (1803)
The first USS Argus was a brig in the United States Navy during the First Barbary War and the War of 1812.Argus was laid down as Merrimack on 12 May 1803 at Boston, Massachusetts, by Edmund Hartt; renamed Argus on 4 June 1803; and launched on 21 August 1803.-First Barbary War:Though no document...

, to patrol the coastal areas from the Carolinas to New York.

Chase

The commanding officer of President was Commodore
Commodore (rank)
Commodore is a military rank used in many navies that is superior to a navy captain, but below a rear admiral. Non-English-speaking nations often use the rank of flotilla admiral or counter admiral as an equivalent .It is often regarded as a one-star rank with a NATO code of OF-6, but is not always...

 John Rodgers
John Rodgers (naval officer, War of 1812)
John Rodgers was a senior naval officer in the United States Navy who served under six Presidents for nearly four decades during its formative years in the 1790s through the late 1830s, committing the greater bulk of his adult life to his country...

. He had left Annapolis only a few days before, and was aware of the Guerriere incident. President was off Virginia Capes and sailing up the coast toward New York. Little Belt was spotted to the east at approximately noon on 16 May. Believing it to be Guerriere, Rodgers pursued. However, Little Belt had seen President around an hour before Rodgers's order. Little Belt's captain was Arthur Bingham
Arthur Bingham
Arthur Batt Bingham was an officer in the Royal Navy, rising to the rank of post captain. He is remembered chiefly for his command of HMS Little Belt, when the Little Belt Affair occurred, just prior to the War of 1812.-Family and early life:...

. When Bingham had Little Belt signal President asking for identification and received none, he noticed a blue pennant
Pennant (commissioning)
The commissioning pennant is a pennant flown from the masthead of a warship. The history of flying a commissioning pennant dates back to the days of chivalry with their trail pendants being flown from the mastheads of ships they commanded...

 designating the ship's nationality. He continued south, but President continued its pursuit because Commodore Rodgers was interested in identifying the ship that he now knew was not Guerriere. By 15:30, the President was close enough to Little Belt for Rodgers to make out part of her stern
Stern
The stern is the rear or aft-most part of a ship or boat, technically defined as the area built up over the sternpost, extending upwards from the counter rail to the taffrail. The stern lies opposite of the bow, the foremost part of a ship. Originally, the term only referred to the aft port section...

. However, the angle at which Rodgers was seeing Little Belt made her appear larger than she actually was. In truth, Little Belt was much weaker than President, weighing only 460 tons compared to President's 1,576; the smaller ship had 20 guns, whilst President had 44.

Battle

Following the start of the pursuit, there is considerable divergence in the accounts of the parties involved. As President followed, closing the Little Belt, it appeared to Bingham that the frigate was manoeuvring into a position to rake the smaller British ship. Bingham wore ship three times to foil that action. The ships were not within hailing range until long after sunset. At about 10:15, both captains demanded that the other identify his ship, and both refused to answer before the other. Each of the captains later reported that he had been the first to ask. Shortly after the battle of etiquette had begun, a shot was fired, but again it was disputed who was first. Both ships were soon fully engaged in a barrage in which the American ship had an overwhelming advantage. After about fifteen minutes, most of the British guns were inactive, and Rodgers gave the order to cease fire. President then returned, and asked if Bingham had struck. Bingham replied that he had not, and the President again withdrew.

Aftermath

President sustained only one injury; Little Belt took nine deaths during the battle and 23 injuries, and the sloop was badly damaged in the attack. Two of the wounded Britons died the following day. On the morning of 17 May, American Lieutenant
Lieutenant
A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...

 John Creighton went to Little Belt to lament the "unfortunate affair" and to offer space at any of the "Ports of the United States", which Bingham declined. When the captain asked why President had attacked his much smaller ship, Creighton claimed that it was because Little Belt had provoked the action. Bingham staunchly denied the account.

Creighton returned to his ship, and President and Little Belt parted ways. President sailed to New York City, and Little Belt went to Halifax, Nova Scotia
City of Halifax
Halifax is a city in Canada, which was the capital of the province of Nova Scotia and shire town of Halifax County. It was the largest city in Atlantic Canada until it was amalgamated into Halifax Regional Municipality in 1996...

. The two nations continued to argue about how the battle began for several months. Rodgers claimed that he had mistaken the British ship for a larger frigate and was adamant that Bingham had fired first. The Admiralty
Admiralty
The Admiralty was formerly the authority in the Kingdom of England, and later in the United Kingdom, responsible for the command of the Royal Navy...

 expressed their confidence in Bingham; it promoted him to Post-Captain on 7 February 1812.

On 19 August 1812, about 750 miles east of Boston, HMS Guerriere sailed into action (and her fate) against the USS Constitution
USS Constitution
USS Constitution is a wooden-hulled, three-masted heavy frigate of the United States Navy. Named by President George Washington after the Constitution of the United States of America, she is the world's oldest floating commissioned naval vessel...

. Painted across the foretopsail of Guerriere were the words "NOT THE LITTLE BELT".

See also


External links

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