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Transcriber's note:

      Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).





THE CRUISE OF THE "LIVELY BEE"


      *      *      *      *      *      *

BOYS OF LIBERTY LIBRARY.

12mo. Cloth, handsomely bound. Price, each, postpaid, 50 cents.


  PAUL REVERE and the Boys of Liberty. By John De Morgan.

  THE FIRST SHOT FOR LIBERTY or The Minute Men of Massachusetts. By
  John De Morgan.

  FOOLING THE ENEMY. A Story of the Siege of Boston. By John De Morgan.

  INTO THE JAWS OF DEATH or The Boys of Liberty at the Battle of Long
  Island. By John De Morgan.

  THE HERO OF TICONDEROGA or Ethan Allen and His Green Mountain Boys.
  By John De Morgan.

  ON TO QUEBEC or With Montgomery in Canada. By John De Morgan.

  FIGHTING HAL or From Fort Necessity to Quebec. By John De Morgan.

  MARION AND HIS MEN or The Swamp Fox of Carolina. By John De Morgan.

  THE YOUNG AMBASSADOR or Washington's First Triumph. By John De Morgan.

  THE YOUNG GUARDSMAN or With Washington in the Ohio Valley. By John De
  Morgan.

  THE CRUISE OF THE LIVELY BEE or A Boy's Adventure in the War of 1812.
  By John De Morgan.

  THE TORY PLOT or Saving Washington's Life. By T. C. Harbaugh.

  IN BUFF AND BLUE or Serving under Old Put. By T. C. Harbaugh.

  WASHINGTON'S YOUNG SPY or Outwitting General Howe. By T. C. Harbaugh.

  UNDER GREENE'S BANNER or The Boy Heroes of 1781. By T. C. Harbaugh.

  FOR FREEDOM'S CAUSE or On to Saratoga. By T. C. Harbaugh.

  CAPTAIN OF THE MINUTE MEN or The Concord Boys of 1775. By Harrie
  Irving Hancock.

  THE TRADER'S CAPTIVE or The Young Guardsman and The French Spies. By
  Lieut. Lounsberry.

  THE QUAKER SPY, A Tale of the Revolutionary War. By Lieut. Lounsberry.

  FIGHTING FOR FREEDOM or The Birth of the Stars and Stripes. By Lieut.
  Lounsberry.

  BY ORDER OF THE COLONEL or The Captain of the Young Guardsmen. By
  Lieut. Lounsberry.

  A CALL TO DUTY or The Young Guardsman. By Lieut. Lounsberry.

  IN GLORY'S VAN or The Young Guardsman at Louisbourg. By Lieut.
  Lounsberry.

  THE YOUNG PATRIOT or The Young Guardsmen at Fort William Henry. By
  Lieut. Lounsberry.

  "OLD PUT" THE PATRIOT or Fighting for Home and Country. By Frederick
  A. Ober.

  THE LEAGUE OF FIVE or Washington's Boy Scouts. By Commander Post.

  THE KING'S MESSENGER or The Fall of Ticonderoga. By Capt. Frank Ralph.

  DASHING PAUL JONES, The Hero of the Colonial Navy. By Frank Sheridan.

  FROM MIDSHIPMAN TO COMMODORE or The Glories of Our Infant Navy. By
  Frank Sheridan.

  THE CRUISE OF THE ESSEX or Making the Stars and Stripes Respected. By
  Frank Sheridan.

      *      *      *      *      *      *


THE CRUISE OF THE "LIVELY BEE"

Or

A Boy's Adventure in the War of 1812

by

JOHN DE MORGAN

Author of
"Paul Revere," "The Young Ambassador," "The First
Shot for Liberty," "The Young Guardsman," etc.







[Illustration: BOYS OF LIBERTY LIBRARY]

Philadelphia
David McKay, Publisher
610 South Washington Square

Copyright, 1892
By Norman L. Munro

The Cruise of the "Lively Bee"




THE CRUISE OF THE "LIVELY BEE."




CONTENTS


  CHAPTER I. DECLARATION OF WAR.
  CHAPTER II. THE DEPARTURE.
  CHAPTER III. THE LIEUTENANT'S STORY.
  CHAPTER IV. THE CHALLENGE.
  CHAPTER V. THE CHASE.
  CHAPTER VI. STORM AT SEA.
  CHAPTER VII. THE ESSEX.
  CHAPTER VIII. SCENTING MUTINY.
  CHAPTER IX. A BRUSH WITH THE ENEMY.
  CHAPTER X. PREPARING FOR ACTION.
  CHAPTER XI. THE FIGHT AT SEA
  CHAPTER XII. ON THE VERGE OF SUCCESS.
  CHAPTER XIII. THE RETURN OF THE CONQUEROR.
  CHAPTER XIV. THE LIVELY BEE'S PLUCK.
  CHAPTER XV. THE WASP'S STING.
  CHAPTER XVI. THE MERCHANT CAPTAIN'S CARGO.
  CHAPTER XVII. A RICH PRIZE.
  CHAPTER XVIII. A STRANGE SAIL.
  CHAPTER XIX. BOB, THE POWDER-MONKEY.
  CHAPTER XX. THE MONARCH'S DOOM.
  CHAPTER XXI. HOMEWARD BOUND.
  CHAPTER XXII. JACK'S REQUEST.
  CHAPTER XXIII. THE STORY OF THE FIGHT.
  CHAPTER XXIV. MARRIAGE AT SEA.
  CHAPTER XXV. THE BALL AT THE WHITE HOUSE.
  CHAPTER XXVI. THE MARRIAGE AT THE WHITE HOUSE.
  CHAPTER XXVII. AN UNEXPECTED PLEASURE.
  CHAPTER XXVIII. THE CONSTITUTION'S GREAT VICTORY.
  CHAPTER XXIX. A LESSON IN MILITARY LAW.
  CHAPTER XXX. BOB'S GOOD ANGEL.
  CHAPTER XXXI. THE REGINA, OF TORQUAY.
  CHAPTER XXXII. HOW BOB KEPT HIS OATH.
  CHAPTER XXXIII. THE MUTINY QUELLED.
  CHAPTER XXXIV. VERNON'S SUCCESS.
  CHAPTER XXXV. THE END OF THE LIVELY BEE.




CHAPTER I.

DECLARATION OF WAR.


There was a large crowd on the Battery in New York City one hot day in
June in the year eighteen-hundred-and-twelve.

Every one was talking and every one was looking out across the waters
of the harbor.

There were pale, anxious faces in that crowd, and side by side with
them were the flushed cheeks of men and boys whose hearts were fired
with patriotic zeal.

Women were looking at their husbands, and young girls' hearts were
throbbing with painful excitement as they saw the enthusiasm of their
sweethearts.

"War, did you say?"

"Ay, ay, the President has aroused at last, and old England shall be
taught another and a final lesson."

It was true.

President James Madison had signed the Declaration of War against Great
Britain.

War!

There were many in that crowd who remembered 1783; there stood the man
who, in his boyhood's days, had climbed the flagpole and torn down the
Union Jack of England, and in its place had hoisted the Star Spangled
Banner.

Many whose hair was now turning gray had shouldered the musket and had
marched with Washington from victory to victory.

The war had ended when the British evacuated the city, but America was
not free and independent.

England held the supremacy of the seas.

English vessels entered American ports, and men were impressed as
seamen on the technical ground that they had never abjured allegiance.

American vessels were boarded on the high seas, and some of the best
men taken away and forced to serve under the English flag.

There is a limit to forbearance, and the young nation, whose infancy
had scarcely been passed, resolved that it would be better to die than
endure such insults.

War was declared.

It looked like madness.

It was so, if judged by the ordinary rules of national conduct.

Great Britain was the mistress of the seas.

On the roll of her navy were over a thousand ships, and eighty-five of
the largest were actually in American ports.

President Madison and his Cabinet did not, however, intend that the war
should be waged on the high seas.

The American ships-of-war were to remain in the harbors as so many
floating batteries for defensive purposes.

In New York Harbor was a small squadron under the command of Commodore
Rodgers.

He heard the rumor that he was not to go out to sea, and dispatched
Captains Bainbridge and Stewart to Washington to confer with the
Secretary of the Navy.

Secretary Paul Hamilton listened attentively to the two captains,
and they thought they had won their case; but with great courtesy he
thanked them, and said that the President had, with the consent of his
Cabinet, decided to order the ships to remain in the harbors.

Captain Stewart stamped his foot, and