Combat· Quasi-War with France
Experiment vs Louisa Bridger
This action near Antigua turned out to be a case of mistaken identity rather than a clean privateer capture.
The Experiment, under Lieutenant Charles Stewart, came up on the Louisa Bridger, ordered her to heave to, and fired a gun when she failed to comply. By then the other vessel had all hands at quarters, and a hard fight followed, four hours by her captain's account, about forty minutes by the American one. When she finally struck and Stewart learned that she was English rather than an enemy French vessel, he did his best to repair the damage he had done. The Experiment had one man killed and two wounded in the exchange. The episode shows the hazard of the war's confused identifications at sea, where a warship might pour fire into a vessel for the better part of an hour only to discover she belonged to a friendly nation.
Podcast episodes on Quasi-War with France
Record no. 189