{"id":"01KG8AMK3HGJ2T8TVBR383SQE7","cid":"bafkreieyl5vn7dajeeam3gk3b6k4yldyvaxf5wuxh2v2dakriz5bkiwfse","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":11985,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:36.274Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","start_line":11928,"text":"intelligent, with a fine, frank bearing, one of the best men in the\r\nship, and held in high estimation by every one.\r\n\r\nIt seems that, during the last war between England and America, he had,\r\nwith several others, been “impressed” upon the high seas, out of a New\r\nEngland merchantman. The ship that impressed him was an English\r\nfrigate, the Macedonian, afterward taken by the Neversink, the ship in\r\nwhich we were sailing.\r\n\r\nIt was the holy Sabbath, according to Tawney, and, as the Briton bore\r\ndown on the American—her men at their quarters—Tawney and his\r\ncountrymen, who happened to be stationed at the quarter-deck battery,\r\nrespectfully accosted the captain—an old man by the name of Cardan—as\r\nhe passed them, in his rapid promenade, his spy-glass under his arm.\r\nAgain they assured him that they were not Englishmen, and that it was a\r\nmost bitter thing to lift their hands against the flag of that country\r\nwhich harboured the mothers that bore them. They conjured him to\r\nrelease them from their guns, and allow them to remain neutral during\r\nthe conflict. But when a ship of any nation is running into action, it\r\nis no time for argument, small time for justice, and not much time for\r\nhumanity. Snatching a pistol from the belt of a boarder standing by,\r\nthe Captain levelled it at the heads of the three sailors, and\r\ncommanded them instantly to their quarters, under penalty of being shot\r\non the spot. So, side by side with his country’s foes, Tawney and his\r\ncompanions toiled at the guns, and fought out the fight to the last;\r\nwith the exception of one of them, who was killed at his post by one of\r\nhis own country’s balls.\r\n\r\nAt length, having lost her fore and main-top-masts, and her mizzen-mast\r\nhaving been shot away to the deck, and her fore-yard lying in two\r\npieces on her shattered forecastle, and in a hundred places having been\r\n_hulled_ with round shot, the English frigate was reduced to the last\r\nextremity. Captain Cardan ordered his signal quarter-master to strike\r\nthe flag.\r\n\r\nTawney was one of those who, at last, helped pull him on board the\r\nNeversink. As he touched the deck, Cardan saluted Decatur, the hostile\r\ncommander, and offered his sword; but it was courteously declined.\r\nPerhaps the victor remembered the dinner parties that he and the\r\nEnglishman had enjoyed together in Norfolk, just previous to the\r\nbreaking out of hostilities—and while both were in command of the very\r\nfrigates now crippled on the sea. The Macedonian, it seems, had gone\r\ninto Norfolk with dispatches. _Then_ they had laughed and joked over\r\ntheir wine, and a wager of a beaver hat was said to have been made\r\nbetween them upon the event of the hostile meeting of their ships.\r\n\r\nGazing upon the heavy batteries before him, Cardan said to Decatur,\r\n“This is a seventy-four, not a frigate; no wonder the day is yours!”\r\n\r\nThis remark was founded upon the Neversink’s superiority in guns. The\r\nNeversink’s main-deck-batteries then consisted, as now, of\r\ntwenty-four-pounders; the Macedonian’s of only eighteens. In all, the\r\nNeversink numbered fifty-four guns and four hundred and fifty men; the\r\nMacedonian, forty-nine guns and three hundred men; a very great\r\ndisparity, which, united to the other circumstances of this action,\r\ndeprives the victory of all claims to glory beyond those that might be\r\nset up by a river-horse getting the better of a seal.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJV9WHZ6H7HPK30XSCB8R","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AMK3Q1A2SZJGMGAV73P1G","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AMK3Q38E4NF81K49K2QAP","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:42.097Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:53.030Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}