Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 01.djvu/311

 BIDDLE.

BIDDLE.

dore Hopkins, commander-in-chief of the navy. Captain Bicldle, on the return to New London, Conn, where the vessels were to refit, captured two small British cruisers and engaged the ship of the line, Glasgoiv, which, being a superior sailer, escaped. Being refitted, the Andrea Doria set sail on a cruise against British commerce along the coast of Newfoundland. When but a few days out he captured a transport with four hun- dred troops, intended to reinforce General Gage at Boston. He also made prize of several vessels laden with stores and other supplies for the Brit- ish troops, and sent them into New London, put- ting on board prize crews. This had so depleted his own force that when he returned to port he had only five of the original crew with which he had left New London. Stimulated by the success of Captain Biddle's sea forays upon the enemy, Congress rapidly built and equipped the Ran- dolph, a frigate of thirty-two guns, and gave him •command of it— the first frigate built by the United States. He set sail from Philadelphia in February, 1777, with a motley crew of all nations. He had been at sea but a few days when he dis- covered a mutiny among the foreign element in the crew, which greatly outnumbered the native, its object being to overpower the officers and hand the ship over to the enemy. Captain Biddle went among the mutineers, and with amazing intrepidity quelled the mutiny, the men going submissively back to duty. No sooner had order been restored than a violent storm struck the ship, carrying away every one of her masts. He put into Charleston, S. C., to refit, and the patri- otic citizens of that place, who had heard of his exploits, supplied him with a fresh crew, and bent all their energies to put his ship again in effective condition. He had been but three days at sea when he fell in with four British ships — three of them richly laden, the fourth, the True Briton, a man-of-war of twenty guns, whose com- mander had expressed an earnest desire to en- counter the Randolph. He began the action at long range, but Captain Biddle reserved his fire until the vessels almost touched, when he gave the True Briton a tremendous broadside, at which she struck her flag without further resist- ance. The ships under convoy being cap- tured, he returned to Charleston with his four valuable prizes, after an absence of but seven days. The city, and soon the entire country, was electrified with news of the brilliant achieve- ment, and the Charlestonians at once fitted out for the heroic Biddle a squadron of four vessels — the ship General Moultrie, the brigs Fair Ameri- can and Polly, and the sloop Notre Dame, and General Pinckney, then in command of the colonial troops at Charleston, gave him a body of infantry men to serve as marines. The little

squadron set sail from Charleston late in Febru- ary, 1778, and at three o'clock in the afternoon of March 7 they descried in the distance a huge ship which proved to be His British Majesty's ship of the line Yarmouth, Captain Vincent, mounting sixty-four guns. According to the estimate of Capt. Charles Stewart, this ship was a match for three vessels like the Randolph, but Commo- dore Biddle had discovered its character too late to avoid so unequal an encounter. The Yarviouth, in approaching her antagonist, had manoeuvred so as to get the Randolph between herself and the Moultrie, and the latter shijj poured her answer to the Yarmouth's broadside into her sister ship. In the hottest of the action Commo- dore Biddle was dangerously wounded, but he re- fused to leave the deck, saying: "Bring me a chair — carry me forward — there the surgeon will dress my wound. " While his wound was being dressed he continued to animate his men, who were firing three broadsides to the Yarmouth's one. Then a shot entered the magazine of the Randolph — there was a sudden flash, a terrific explosion, and the good ship, with her gallant crew, went down. Out of a crew of about three hundred and twenty only four escaped with their lives, and they were tossed about upon a fi'agment of wreck for four days, half starved and dying with thirst, when they were rescued by Captain Vincent of the Yarmouth, he having suspended a chase to come to their rescue. Captain Biddle was but twenty-eight years of age when he met his heroic end. His loss was accounted a national calamity. His death occurred March 7, 1778.

BIDDLE, Nicholas, financier, was born in Philadelphia, Jan. 8, 1786; son of Charles Biddle, a revolutionary patriot, and nephew of Nicholas Biddle, the gallant naval hero. The ances- tors of the Biddle fam- ily came over with Wil- liam Penn, and took an active and promi nent part in defend- ^^ ing the colonists ^.^'^' against the h o s t i 1 < Indians and other troubles incident to the early colonial days. Young Nicholas was sent to an academy for his preparatory edu- cation, and his intel- lectual powers ma- tured with such rapid- ity that he entered the University of Pennsyl- vania at an abnormally early age, and would have taken his degree in 1799 had it not been considered well to keep the boy of thirteen

t/9uldky.