As soon as Key heard of the arrest of Dr. Beanes, one of his most
intimate friends, he hurried, under the protection of a flag of
truce, to the British fleet at the mouth of the Patuxent to
arrange for his release. John S. Skinner of Baltimore, then
commissioner for exchange of prisoners, accompanied him with his
cartel ship.
When Key and Skinner reached the British fleet it was already on
its way up the Chesapeake Bay to the attack on Baltimore. Its
destination was too evident for Cockburn to allow Key to depart
and give the alarm. He was informed in the admiral's grimmest
manner, that while he would not hang Dr. Beanes at the yard-arm,
as he had threatened, yet he would have to keep every man on
board a close prisoner until certain circumstances occurred which
would render their release advisable. When the ships arrived at
their destination he assured them that it would be only a matter
of a few hours before they would be free.
From the admiral's flag-ship the Surprise, upon which he was then
detained, Key saw some of the finest soldiers of the British
army, under General Ross, disembarked at North Point, to the
southeast of the city of Baltimore. Then on Tuesday morning,
September 13, 1814, the fleet moved across the broad Patapsco,
and ranged themselves in a semicircle two and a half miles from
the small brick and earth fort which lay low down on a jutting
projection of land guarding the water approaches to Baltimore on
that side.
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