USS Guerriere

“ The Guerrière suffered still more; most of the men on her forecastle being killed or wounded. Captain Dacres himself was wounded, by a musket ball from the Constitution’s mizzen-top, while he was standing on the hammocks, cheering on his crew. Two of his Lieutenants and his Master were also shot down. Lying thus, the ships gradually worked round till the wind was once more on the port quarter, when they separated, and the Guerrière’s fore and main-masts both went over the side at once, falling on the starboard side, leaving her a sheer hulk, rolling her main-deck guns into the water. ”

“ Impelled by these, the Constitution began to forge within close range, and the projectiles from the Guerrière began to come on board. One big shot through the forward bulwarks knocked no end of splinters across the deck, and some of them pierced several of a gun’s crew hard by. The men were eager to return the fire, but Captain Hull paced the quarter-deck, saying nothing. A rousing cheer from the British crew came over the water as they saw that they had hulled the Constitution. Lieutenant Morris walked aft, and said to Captain Hull:
“The enemy has opened fire and killed two of our men. ”

“ Captain Dacres, of the Guerrière, and Hull were personal friends, as many of the American and British captains were in those days, and there was a standing bet of a hat between them on the result in case their two ships ever came to exchanging broadsides. The Guerrière was an extremely fine French-built frigate, carrying fifty guns,—the Constitution carried fifty-four and her broadside was much the heavier. In men, the Constitution had also the advantage of the British ship, but the damage inflicted by the Constitution was far in excess of her superiority in men and metal. ”

“ Instantly after the loss of the Guerrière the English discovered and complained that American gunnery was superior to their own. They explained their inferiority by the length of time that had elapsed since their navy had found on the ocean an enemy to fight. Every vestige of hostile fleets had been swept away, until, after the battle of Trafalgar, British frigates ceased practice with their guns. Doubtless the British navy had become somewhat careless in the absence of a dangerous enemy, but Englishmen were themselves aware that some other cause must have affected their losses. ”

“ The wand of British invincibility was broken when the flag of the Guerrière came down. That one event was worth more to the Republic than all the money which has ever been expended for the navy. Since that day the navy has had no stain upon its escutcheon, but has been cherished as your pride and glory. And the American sailor has established a reputation throughout the world,—in peace and in war, in storm and in battle,—for heroism and prowess unsurpassed. He shrinks from no danger, he dreads no foe, he yields to no superior. ”

“ The Guerriere was a French vessel taken in 1806, off the Faro Islands, by the Blanche, 38 guns, Capt. Lavie, after a spirited action of 45 minutes.
The prisoners taken from the Guerriere have been treated with every kindness and attention becoming the American character. Much better, we apprehend, than would have been experienced by our brave fellows if the chance of war had placed them in command of the enemy. ”

“ The Constitution, on the contrary, had but seven men killed and seven wounded, and did not lose a mast. As soon as she had replaced a few cut ropes and changed a few sails, she was in condition, even by the testimony of the British historian, to take another Guerrière. The United States took an hour and a half to capture the Macedonian, and the same difference made itself felt in the damage suffered by the two ships. The Macedonian had her masts shattered, two of her main-deck and all her spar-deck guns disabled ”

“ It happened that actual fighting occurred before war was declared, and most significant was one feature of the first battle of the war of 1812. The British frigate Guerrière, of thirty-eight guns, commanded then by Captain Samuel John Pechell, was one of the great host of war-ships that hovered about the American coast in 1811, picking able-bodied sailors from American ships, and in other ways annoying American commerce. ”

“ They went further and admitted all the most boastful Yankee could have wished. They said (vide the British Naval Chronicle) , that “the few on board an American ship-of-war that are designated as boys are as old and stout as most men employed in our service.”
And the last of all is the confession of the same periodical that “had the Guerrière’s men been half as well skilled in the use of great99 guns as the Constitution’s were, the proportion of killed and wounded would not have been so great nor one ship made a complete wreck of while the other suffered no material injury in hull or rigging.” ”

“ Supposing that the failure to answer his signals was due to the ships inshore being Yankees, Captain Dacres wore the Guerrière around and ran away from the Constitution for some time before he discovered his mistake. Meantime the ships inshore had had the benefit of enough wind to bring them within dangerous distance of the Constitution, so that when the wind failed the Constitution, as it did at 5.30 in the morning, her condition was desperate. ”

“ But the most important—rather the most pleasing of all the confessions in the British explanations after defeat is that relating to the superior numbers of the American crews. The count showed 456 individuals on the Constitution, and 272 on the Guerrière. To contend, as the British writers do contend, that the “superiority on the American side “was” in number of men as—nine to five,” is to admit that man for man, an American naval seaman, in spite of his lack of experience, was the equal of the tar-stained, cicatrice-marked British seaman ”

“ After the firing had ceased I went on deck and there beheld a scene which it would be difficult to describe: all the Guerrière's masts were shot away and, as she had no sails to steady her, she lay rolling like a log in the trough of the sea. Many of the men were employed in throwing the dead overboard. The decks had the appearance of a butcher's slaughter-house; the gun tackles were not made fast and several of the guns got loose and were surging from one side to the other.
Some of the petty officers and seamen, after the action, got liquor and were intoxicated ”

“ Men fell dead and blood ran in streams, but still came the heralds of death.
We must tell the same story of this fight as of the fight with the Guerriere. The British did not know how to aim their guns and the Americans did. The British had no sights on their cannon and the Americans had. That was why, all through the war, the British lost so heavily and the Americans so little. The British shot went wild and the American balls flew straight to their mark. ”

“ The Federalists since 1801 had constantly called for a larger navy. The first-known and most famous sea-fight of 1812 was the victory on Aug. 19 of the Constitution over the Guerriere, a vessel with which a London paper had declared no American ship could cope. “We have always contended that on an equal footing Americans can be whipped by none,” cried the Evening Post. “Man for man and gun for gun, even the veteran British tars can get no advantage over the Americans.” ”

“ As soon as Captain Dacres reached the Constitution's deck, he attempted to hand his sword to Hull, who said,—
[163]
"No, no, I cannot take the sword of a man who knows so well how to use it; but—I'll thank you for that hat!"
The business of transferring the prisoners then began. It was seen at once there was no hope of saving the Guerrière, and it was determined to remove everything of value and then blow her up. The damages to the Constitution were repaired in an hour. She had lost seven men killed and seven wounded. The Guerrière had lost seventy-nine in killed and wounded. ”

“ She had hauled her wind, and lay with her topsails aback, gallantly waiting for her enemy. Her officers and crew prepared to meet the Americans with the spirit of British seamen. There were ten Americans in the crew who came to Captain Dacres and told him they could not fight against [159] their own country. The captain magnanimously told them to go below, and assist in the cockpit with the wounded.
As soon as the Constitution got within range, the Guerrière let fly her batteries, firing the starboard guns, then wearing and giving the Constitution her port guns. ”

“ The American officers, smarting under past indignities to the service and to themselves, went into the many actions with determination and enthusiasm, combined with the experience of a rough-and-tumble sea,—experience which with anything like an equal [119] force meant either victory or absolute destruction.
The “Constitution,” under Hull, had escaped from the British squadron, under Broke, off the Jersey coast, had defeated the frigate “Guerriere,” and in all her history had shown herself to be a lucky ship. ”

“ The enemy, it appear, cut their cables, fearing they should be attacked at anchor, although in a neutral port. ↑ The Newcastle was now two miles ahead of the Leander, and one mile on the lee-bow of the Acasta. The enemy standing to the eastward. ↑ The Guerriere, rated as a 44-gun frigate, was a new ship, mounting 56 guns, 28 of which were 32-pounders, called Columbians, resembling those used in the British navy under the names of their inventors, Gover and Congreve. ”

“ In this affair, the ship, no less than those who worked her, gained a high reputation, if not with the world generally, at least with those [208] who, perhaps, as seldom err in their nautical criticism as any people living.” Not long after this affair, Captain Hull met the British frigate Guerriere, and, to the surprise of the whole world, conquered her. That fight was of more importance to America than all the subsequent victories, because it demonstrated that the notion of the British navy being invincible on the seas was incorrect. ”

“ During the season of almost uninterrupted success on land and on our inland waters, we had but few vessels at sea, the greater part being blockaded, but those few nobly sustained the reputation won by the navy in the two previous years. The Guerriere 44, the Independence 74, and the Java 44, were launched during the summer, but remained in their docks till the close of the war. In the January previous Captain Morris, commanding the Adams, which had been cut down to a sloop of war, got to sea and took a few prizes. ”

“ But, as the wind now held, the American gained on them so rapidly that at last they unwillingly abandoned the chase; and, disbanding the fleet, each ship set off on an individual cruise, in the hopes that the enemy which had shown such ability in flight when overpowered would not deign to fly if encountered by a single hostile ship. This expectation was fully realized some weeks later, when the "Constitution" fell in with the British frigate "Guerriere." ”

“ She was made out to be a man-of-war, and concluding that she was the Guerrière, the commodore resolved to speak to her, and, to quote from a contemporary, “he hoped he might prevail upon her commander to release the impressed young man” (what8 arguments he intended to use are not stated) . But no sooner had the stranger perceived the President, whose colors were flying, than she wore and stood to the southward. Rodgers took after her, and by evening was close enough to make out that she was beyond all doubt an English ship. ”

“ On board the Guerrière, four were wounded, and no one killed. Two days later, off Cape Palos, he took a brig of twenty-two guns and one hundred and eighty men. He then sailed into the harbor of Algiers with his prizes, and offered peace, which was accepted. ”

“ When there were plenty of men to handle the guns, trim the sails, make repairs, act as marines, etc., any additional number simply served to increase the slaughter on board. The Guerrière undoubtedly suffered from being short-handed, but neither the Macedonian nor Java would have been benefited by the presence of a hundred additional men. Barclay possessed about as many men as Perry, but this did not give him an equality of force. The Penguin and Frolic would have been taken just as surely had the Hornet and Wasp had a dozen men less apiece than they did. ”

“ It gave impetus to naval operations and fired our captains with impatience to get to sea and bring the enemy under their guns. It encouraged swarms of privateers to cover the Seven Seas and attack the enemy’s vital trade routes.
Admiral Sir John Jervis is reported to have said to his flag captain as he sighted the Spanish fleet off Cape St. Vincent that a victory was very necessary to England at that moment. With equal justice Isaac Hull might have made a similar remark on sighting the Guerriere. ”

“ Mere hearsay reports, such as "it has been said," "a prisoner on board the opposing fleet has observed," "an American (or British) newspaper of such and such a date has remarked," are of course to be rejected. There is a curious parallelism in the errors on both sides. For example, the American, Mr. Low, writing in 1813, tells how the Constitution, 44, captured the Guerrière of 49 guns, while the British Lieutenant Low, writing in 1880, tells how the Pelican, 18, captured the Argus of 20 guns. ”