The First Battle.—Folly of the Prince of Nassau.—Inefficiency of the Gun-boats.—Burning of the Greek Captives.—Humanity of Jones.—Alienation between the Admiral and the Prince of Nassau.—The Second Conflict.—-Annoyances of the Admiral.—Hostility of the English.—Necessary Employment of Foreign Seamen.—Disgrace of Nassau.—Transference of the Admiral to the Baltic.

It was the plan of Admiral Jones, to anticipate the contemplated attack of the Capitaine Pasha, and so to weaken him as at least to embarrass his movements. The plan he proposed was so necessary and apparently so feasible, that it was accepted by all the officers. During the night, as the wind did not favor, he warped the ships of his squadron, by means of their anchors, to the positions he wished them to occupy. The next morning, which was the 17th of June, 1788, the wind was fresh and fair. At the earliest dawn the admiral signalled for all his war ships to bear down upon the Turkish fleet, which was before him in the broad shallow bay, at the distance of but a few miles. The gun-boats, under the command of the Prince of Nassau, followed tardily behind the squadron. Their progress was so slow, though there was no occasion whatever for the delay, that the admiral had to halt twice, in order to allow the gun-boats to come up with him.

It was a brilliant spectacle which was presented in the rays of this June morning’s sun. The majestic bay, into which were poured the waters of the Dnieper, the Bog, the Liman, and several other minor streams, spread out in all directions. The whole Russian fleet of ships and gun-boats, in beautiful battle array, was bearing down under full sail with a fair wind, upon the unsuspecting and unprepared Turks. The moment the Capitaine Pasha caught sight of the wondrous spectacle, he was terror-stricken. The force rushing upon him appeared far more powerful than it really was. The wind being fresh and fair, the Turkish admiral saw at once that the whole Russian armament might strike any portion of his line before other portions could come to its aid. His only resource was in flight. The same wind which was bringing down the Russian fleet upon him, would bear him onward in his escape, to take shelter under the massive guns of the batteries and ramparts of Oczakow.

The signal was given for the flight. As in the twinkling of an eye, a wonderful scene of tumult and confusion was presented along the whole Turkish line. The ships, the frigates, the gun-boats were raising their anchors, cutting their cables, spreading their sails, and pulling their oars, in the frantic endeavor to escape the impending peril. Admiral Jones opened fire upon the bewildered foe, from his bow chasers, wherever a gun could be brought to bear.

The second officer in command of the Turkish fleet seemed to act like one bereft of reason, in the panic which had apparently seized all alike. He had charge of one of the finest of the Turkish line-of-battle ships; a mammoth fabric, with its tiers of death-dealing guns, which would have been a match for any ship in the British navy. But assailed by a dozen Russian ships and gun-boats, it would in a few moments have been sunk beneath the waves, or blown into the air. As the vast sails of this ship were flung to the breeze, it slowly wheeled around, got under rapid headway and ran plump upon a sand-bank, beyond all possible hope of extrication. As she struck, she careened over at an angle of forty-five degrees. The muzzles of her guns, on the lower side, were dipped into the water; upon the upper side, they pointed to the clouds. Thus the ship could neither fight nor run. The crew, as many as could, crowded into the boats, escaped from the ship, and took refuge in other vessels of the fleet.

Admiral Jones knew that the ship was his. It was a magnificent prize. It needed no further attention. He therefore gave chase to the ship of the Capitaine Pasha. The Prince of Nassau, to the great chagrin of Admiral Jones, came up with his gun-boats, threw fire-balls into the splendid prize, and burned it to the water’s edge.

The flag-ship of the Turkish admiral was also an unwieldy mass to navigate the intricate channels of this shallow bay. It soon struck a sand-bank, and was helpless. The crew fled. There were now nine of these large Turkish ships-of-war aground. They were manned by Turkish sailors, and also by a large number of Greeks, who had been subjugated by the Turks, and being nominal Christians, were in entire sympathy with their Christian brethren the Russians. These men were compelled to serve the Turkish guns, as England often compelled impressed American seamen.

The Prince of Nassau seemed to have lost all control of his gun-boats. They ran about here and there, independent of all command, and did what they would. Like Indian warriors, each boat fought, plundered, or destroyed, on its own account. A cannon-ball had struck the flag-staff of the deserted admiral’s ship, and broke it off so that the flag hung down draggling it in the water. The Prince of Nassau, eager of the honor of capturing the flag of the Turkish admiral, hurried up with one of his gunboats, seized the defenceless banner, and then insanely threw his fire-balls into the ship till it was wrapped in flame and disappeared.

The other boats of the flotilla, imitating this example, rushed about pell-mell without order or plan, offering no coöperation to follow up the victory, and wantonly amusing themselves in burning the grounded ships. All of these Turkish vessels had more or less of the Greeks on board. In vain these poor creatures cried for mercy. They threw themselves upon their knees; they made the sign of the cross, to indicate that they too were Christians. The barbarous and fanatic Russian sailors, ignorant and cruel, threw their fire-balls on board the ships, and consigned vessels and crew alike to the flames. Above three thousand of these unhappy men were burned with their ships. Only two of the stranded vessels were saved from the flames. One was a sloop, very indifferently armed, and the other a small brig.

Though this was a great victory, it probably gave Admiral Jones more pain than pleasure. He was appalled by the frightful, needless carnage, of burning the poor Greeks crying for mercy. Such a mode of carrying on war was abhorrent to his humane feelings. No results had been accomplished commensurate with what might have been secured, had there been order in the fleet. These nine grounded vessels, with their powerful armaments, would have been of immense advantage, transferred from the line of the Turks to that of the Russians. It is not strange that by this time Admiral Jones lost all patience with his very undesirable coadjutor. Under date of June 20th, he wrote to his Polish friend, Chamberlain Littlepage, as follows:

“Without explaining to me any of his reasons, the Prince of Nassau wished to go to the sand-bank which was under the guns at Oczakow, with all his flotilla. I opposed it, for all the Turkish flotilla was under the cannon of the place, within cannon-shot of our right wing. He permitted himself to say many uncivil things. Among others he said that he was always wanted to protect my squadron with his flotilla.

“As he had often said such things, I told him that it was improper for him to say this to me, or for me to hear him say it. He boasted that he had taken the two ships. I told him “I saw nothing wonderful in that; for they were both aground and captured before he came up.“ He said “he knew better than I did how to take ships.“ I told him that without impugning his skill, he was not ignorant that I had proved my ability to take ships which were not Turks’. He lost all control of himself, and threatened to write against me to the empress and Prince Potemkin.

“As for that, I told him if he were base enough to do it, I defied his malice. Before this ridiculous dispute, our combination was unnecessary. Otherwise I would have put up with still more for the good of the service. I feel no rancor against him; and though he said, in a bitter tone, that I would be rejoiced to see him beaten, he little understood my heart.”

The prince claimed all the honor of this victory. He so boastfully proclaimed his achievements, that Prince Potemkin was disposed to accept his account of the adventure, especially as Admiral Jones had too much self-respect to dispute his statements in a disgraceful squabble for the honor.

Potemkin, elated by this discomfiture of the Turks, brought up his whole land force to the walls of Oczakow, intending to attempt to carry the works by storm. The Turkish gun-boats were riding at anchor, under the protection of the guns of the fortress. The Prince of Nassau was ordered to attack the flotilla with his whole force of gun-boats. The admiral was to assist, as he could, in towing the Russian flotilla to the position it was to take in the contest. The whole plan of the battle was arranged by Potemkin, so that Admiral Jones had but little to do but to obey the orders, which were sent to him, though in some respects he was left to his own discretion.

At one hour after midnight, the flotilla commenced its advance toward the Turkish boats; but hesitatingly, with no indication that they were under the impulse of a guiding and inspiring mind. Some of the most important of the boats were swept by the current to positions where they could accomplish nothing. In the vicinity of the fortress there was deep water. The admiral coöperated with great efficiency in bringing the boats into position. At six o’clock in the morning, he saw five Turkish galleys, protected by the guns of Fort Hassan. He plunged upon them, boarded the first one he came to, seized it as a prize, and with his boats towed it away. He then attacked the next galley, which was a very large one, bearing the flag of the Capitaine Pasha. Before the admiral could arrange his boats, to haul out the prize, a young officer, inexperienced and agitated, cut the cable by which she rode at anchor, and a fresh breeze drove her rapidly toward the fort.

The Turks were now pouring a destructive fire upon their own vessel. The admiral despatched a boat to the Wolodimir to fetch another anchor and cable. Leaving the galley to be manned with his own sailors, till the boat should return, he pressed forward to other conquests. He writes in his journal:

“Before the return of Lieutenant Fox, I had the mortification to see fire break out in the galley of the Capitaine Pasha. I at first believed that the slaves chained on board had found means to escape. But afterwards I had positive proof that Brigadier Alexiano, being in a boat at the time with the Prince of Nassau, on the outside of the flotilla, and being aware of the intention of the rear-admiral, swore that it should not succeed, and sent a Greek canoe to set fire to the galley. The three other Turkish galleys were at once run down and burned by fire-balls. There were also a two-masted ship, and a large bomb-vessel burnt near Fort Hassan. This includes all that was taken or destroyed by water, save fifty-two prisoners taken by the rear-admiral, in the two galleys. The wretched beings who were chained in the galley of the Capitaine Pasha, perished there in the flames.

“The prince marshal having made an important diversion on the land side, it is to be regretted that advantage was not taken of this movement to seize the remainder of the enemy’s flotilla; but our flotilla never came up within reach of grape-shot.”

Admiral Jones took the precaution to have the accuracy of this statement confirmed, by five of the leading captains of the Russian ships. The Turkish fleet, being thus again humbled, retreated that very night, both squadron and flotilla, to a strong position at the mouths of the Danube. The admiral remained at his station, to watch the enemy and to be prepared for any emergence. He gives the following account of the proceedings of his two singular coadjutors, the German prince, and the Greek brigadier.

“The moment the ships began to withdraw from Oczakow, the Prince of Nassau and Brigadier Alexiano hurried straight to the headquarters of Prince Potemkin to relate the things which both pretended they had performed. In a few moments after the flotilla began to retire, the rain fell in torrents, of which Nassau and Alexiano received their own share before reaching headquarters.

“Two days afterwards, Alexiano returned on board the Wolodimir, having caught a malignant fever, of which he died on the 8th of July. The Prince of Nassau, who had made use of him in cabaling against me—God knows wherefore—neither visited him in his sickness nor assisted at his funeral. At first it was given out, that the service must sustain the loss of every Greek in it, on account of his death; but I soon experienced the reverse. Not one asked to be dismissed; they remained under my command with the Russians, and were more contented than before. On the day preceding the death of Alexiano he had received intelligence of having been promoted two grades; and that her majesty had bestowed on him a fine estate and peasants, in White Russia.

“At the same time, the Prince of Nassau had received a very valuable estate, with three or four thousand peasants, also in White Russia, and the military Order of St. George, of the second class. Her majesty likewise gave him liberty to hoist the flag of vice-admiral at the taking of Oczakow, to which event it was apparently believed he would greatly contribute.

“I received the Order of St. Anne, an honor with which I am highly flattered, and with which I could have been perfectly satisfied, had others been recompensed only in the same proportion, and according to the merit of their services.^[G] All the officers of the flotilla received a step of promotion, and the gratuity of a year’s pay. The greater part of them also obtained the Order of St. George of the last class. Only two of these officers had been bred to the sea; none of the others had been engaged in navigation. The officers of the squadron under my command were almost wholly marine officers. They had done their duty well, when opposed to the enemy; but they obtained no promotion, no mark of distinction, no pecuniary gratification. My mortification was excessive; but my officers at this time gave me a very gratifying proof of their attachment. On promising that I would demand justice for them from the Prince Potemkin, at the close of the campaign, they stifled their vexation, and made no complaint.”

Three days after this important naval battle, Prince Potemkin came from the headquarters of the army, to visit Admiral Jones on board the flag-ship Wolodimir. The prince was accompanied by quite a brilliant retinue of the highest dignitaries of his military court. They all remained to dine with the admiral in his spacious cabin. The prince was very anxious to promote harmonious action between the admiral and the Prince of Nassau. By his powerful influence he succeeded in inducing the Prince of Nassau to make an apology to the admiral, in the presence of all around the table. The apology was cordially accepted; and the admiral, knowing the versatile and frivolous character of the prince, hoped that it was sincere.

As Potemkin took his leave, he requested Admiral Jones to do all in his power toward raising the cannon, anchors, and other effects, belonging to the Turkish ships which had been burned. The next day, Admiral Jones, in a spirit of conciliationconciliation, made a visit to the Prince of Nassau. He had previously detailed one of the transport ships, which was empty and unemployed, to the work of raising some of the sunken guns. As soon as he stepped on board the gun-boat of the prince, he was disrespectfully assailed, when he expected to have been received with open arms.

“That transport,” exclaimed the Prince of NassauNassau, angrily, “which you have ventured to employ on your own services, belonged to my flotilla, and you had no right to take it under your command.”

The admiral mildly replied, “Prince Potemkin charged me to engage at once in that important business, as a servant of the empress. As all the vessels of war, and all the transports alike belong to her imperial majesty, and as the transport in question was empty and unemployed, I cannot see that you have any reasonable cause of complaint against me.”

But Nassau fumed and raged. The admiral, ashamed of such puerile quarrelling, sadly took leave of him, begging him to reflect that he had no cause for displeasure. Thus affairs went on, day after day. There were heart-burnings and bickerings, and the admiral found such influences operating against him, that his hands were effectually tied.

At the close of the American war, there were many British officers thrown out of employment, who eagerly entered into the service of the Empress of Russia.

This vast northern empire, with then no access to the ocean but through the Baltic Sea, was not a maritime power. The empress had very few naval officers of any experience. By seizing Constantinople, undoubtedly the finest port in the world, the empress expected that the sails of her ships would whiten all the seas. Eagerly, therefore, she accepted the services of able military men from whatever nation. There were no better naval officers than England could afford. These men with one accord, as we have mentioned, combined, with the most astonishing and persistent malignity, to crush Admiral Jones. The Englishman, W. Tooke, to whom we have before referred, with his bitter British prejudices expresses the sentiments of them one and all. In his Life of Catherine II. he writes:

“This known scarcity of commanders could not fail to attract the attention of foreign adventurers, who had acquired any experience and reputation in maritime affairs. Of this number was the English pirate and renegado, Paul Jones, who had rendered himself so notorious in the American war by the mischiefs he did to the trade of his country, and whose desperate courage, which only served to render his atrociousness conspicuous, would in a good cause have entitled him to honor.

“This man could not but experience the common fate incident to his character; and finding he did not meet the consideration which he expected in America, he made a tender of his services to the court of St. Petersburg, where he was gladly received, and immediately appointed to a high command in the grand fleet which was under equipment at Cronstadt.

“The British officers, full of those national and professional ideas of honor which they had imbibed in their own country and service, considered this appointment as the highest affront that could be offered to them, and a submission to it, an act of such degradation that no time or circumstance could wipe away the dishonor. They accordingly went in a body, to the amount of near thirty, without a single dissentient lagging behind, or hesitating on account of inconvenience or personal distress, to lay down their commissions; declaring at the same time that it was impossible for them to serve under, or to act in any manner or capacity whatever, with a pirate or renegado.”

In the same spirit as the above, the English historians have, from that day to this, written of this noble man.

On the 18th of September, the admiral received a secret order to attack the advance guard of the squadron which was anchored near Beresane. The attack was to be made with five frigates, mounted as batteries, supported by a few other vessels of the squadron, as reserves. The arrangements which were made for arming the frigates for the enterprise were not such as he could approve. For instance, twenty-four pound-shot were to be used in guns of thirty-six pounds calibre. To make these balls fill the bore, they were dipped in pitch to enlarge their circumference. This was exceedingly dangerous. If the smallest particle of combustible matter adhered to the gun, it would set fire to the next cartridge. A single such accident would paralyze the energies of the bravest man.

The admiral presented to Potemkin a plan of attack. The Prince Potemkin approved the plan. The Prince of Nassau objected to it. There were delays, and fault-findings; the admiral being ready to move, either upon his own plan or upon any other whenever the command should be given him.

On the 13th of October, the admiral received an order which wounded him very deeply. It was as follows:

To these unkind words the admiral replied in his journal:

“It will be hard to believe that Prince Potemkin addressed such words to Paul Jones.”

To the prince he wrote;

“I leave to your highness, as you have a noble heart and a magnanimous soul to judge how an officer who fears nothing, and had nothing wherewith to reproach himself, must have been affected by your order, of the 13th. I was directed “to keep myself in readiness to receive the enemy courageously, and that without loss of time, for if not, etc.“

“I was in despair having been all heart and soul for the good of the service; and having done all that a man of honor could to inspire a confidence which I believed I had deserved at your hands, allow me, my prince, to ask you how it happens that I have been so unhappy as to have lost your regard. My enemies themselves cannot refuse me their respect. General Count de Mamonow assured me of your confidence in me, giving me the most flattering hope of your friendship, and her imperial majesty told me the most obliging things to the same effect. At all events, your highness has so good a heart that you will excuse the hastiness of expression which escaped me in my letter on the 14th.

“I am anxious to continue in the service. It is unnecessary to recite either the promises or the offers which have been made to me. I am disposed to do all that can be asked of a man of honor, in my situation. And if you find in me an acquisition to the imperial marine, it belongs to yourself to fix me in Russia. But as I come neither as an adventurer, nor a charlatan to repair a broken fortune, I hope in future to experience no humiliation, and soon to find myself in a situation which was promised to me when I was invited to enter into the marine of the empress. Perhaps I love honors too much. But as to fortune, though my own is not very great, I never bent the knee to that idol. I well know that riches do not insure happiness. I am sure of one thing, if I had the happiness of once enjoying your confidence, it would be for life, for I am not of a character that can change.”

Prince Potemkin had gradually come to the conclusion that it was best to remove both Admiral Jones from the command of the squadron and the Prince of NassuaNassua, and to place both squadron and flotilla under the command of the Russian admiral, Mordwinoff. On the 9th of October, the Prince of Nassau was deprived of his command, and left the shores of the Euxine for Warsaw in Poland. Nine days after, on the 18th of October, Admiral Jones received the following order from Prince Potemkin.

“According to the special desire of her imperial majesty, your service is fixed in the northern seas. And as this squadron and the flotilla are placed by me under the orders of Admiral Count Mordwinoff your excellency may in consequence proceed on the voyage directed.”

This was unquestionably a severe blow to Admiral Jones. He had hoped to accomplish great results in the campaign of the Euxine. And now he was ordered to the shores of the Baltic, more than a thousand miles distant, to serve her majesty in some manner as yet undefined. Russia was at that time at war with Sweden. But in those high latitudes and ice-bound waters, there was but little opportunity in midwinter for naval warfare.

On the 20th, the admiral replied to the unexpected order he had received, in the following note to Potemkin:

“I am much flattered that her majesty yet deigns to interest herself about me. But what I shall forever regret is the loss of your regard. I will not say that it is difficult to find more skilful sea officers than myself. I know well that it is a very possible thing. But I feel emboldened to say that you will never find a man more susceptible of a faithful attachment, or more zealous in the discharge of his duty. I forgive my enemies who are near you, for the painful blow aimed at me. But if there is a just God, it will be difficult for him to do as much.”

This intimation that Potemkin had been led to this action by the persuasions of others, annoyed the imperial prince, who considered himself rather the master than the servant even of her majesty. When, a few days after, the admiral called at headquarters, to take leave of the prince, Potemkin said to him, with much vehemence, at the same time rising from his chair and stamping with his foot:

“Do not believe that any one leads me, not even the empress.” The prince, however, presented the following letter to the admiral, to be presented to the empress in testimonial of his services.