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1812. again set sail, and stood to the eastward, in the hope. Aug. of falling in with the british 38-gun frigate Spartan, captain Edward Pelham Brenton, reported to be vious cruising in that direction. Having run along the of the coast as far as the bay of Fundy without discovering Consti- the object of her pursuit, the Constitution proceeded tution. off Halifax and Cape Sable, and then steered to the

cruise

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eastward in the direction of Newfoundland. Passing close to the isle of Sable, the american frigate took a station off the gulf of St.-Lawrence, near Cape Race, for the purpose of intercepting vessels bound to or from Quebec and New-Brunswick. On the 15th captain Hull captured, and on account of their small value burnt, two merchant brigs and a bark; and on the 17th recaptured from the british shipsloop Avenger, the american brig Adeline, on board of which he placed a prize-master and six or seven men, to take her to Boston. Having received intelligence, that the squadron which, by a display of so much skill and perseverance, the Constitution had already once evaded, was off the. Grand Bank, captain Hull changed his cruising ground, and stood to the southward. On the 18th, at midnight, an american privateer gave information, that she had the day before seen a british ship of war to the southward. The Constitution immediately made sail in that direction; and, in the course of a few hours, captain Hull found he had not been misinformed.

The Guerrière, when she arrived on the Northof the American station, was armed the same as the other rière. frigates of her class, with 46 guns, including 16 carronades, 32-pounders, and two long nines on her quarterdeck and forecastle. Like most french ships, the Guerrière sailed very much by the head; and, to assist in giving her that trim, as well as to obviate the inconvenience of a round-house which intervened between the foremost and bridle ports on each side, and prevented the gun stationed at the former port from being shifted to the latter when required to be used in chase, two additional 18-pounders, as standing

bow-chase guns, were taken on board at Halifax; 1819. thus giving the Guerrière 48 guns, including 30 long Aug. 18-pounders on the main deck. The mere fact, that, for any use they could be in either broadside, these bow guns might as well have been in the hold, is not the principal point cleared up by the explanation. Those who are aware, that no frigate in the british navy, except the Acasta and Lavinia, and none at all belonging to the french navy, mounts as her establishment 30 long 18-pounders on the main deck, would have a right to consider the Guerrière as a frigate of a superior class and description; and so, for that very reason, is she still generally considered, as well on this as on the opposite side of the Atlantic. We are surprised that neither of our contemporaries, both of whom have given proofs that the first edition of this work has been occasionally consulted by them, has thought it worth his while to point out so important a peculiarity in the Guerrière's armament.*

ty with

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We have already, at some length, shown how Faciliparticular the Americans were in manning their ships; which and how easy, having so few ships to man, it was to the supply them with picked crews. For many years ricans previous to the war, America had been decoying could the men from british ships, by every artful stratagem. their No ship, that anchored in her waters, could send ships. a boat on shore, without having the crew assailed by a recruiting party from some american frigate fitting in the vicinity. Many british seamen had also entered on board american merchant vessels; and the numerous non-intercourse and embargo bills, in existence at different periods during the four years preceding the war, threw many merchant sailors out of employment. So that the captains of the american frigates, when preparing for active warfare, had to pick their complements from a numerous body of seamen. Highly to the credit of the naval administration of the United States, the crews of their ships were taught the practical rules

* Brenton, vol. v. p. 52. Marshall, vol. ii. p. 974, note.

1812. of gunnery; and 10 shot, with the necessary powder, Aug. Were allowed to be expended in play, to make one hit in earnest.

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Very distinct from the american seamen, so called, were the american marines. They were chiefly made rines. up of natives of the country; and a deserter from the British would here have been no acquisition. In the United States, every man may hunt or shoot among the wild animals of the forest. The young peasant, or back-woodman, carries a rifled-barrel gun, the moment he can lift one to his shoulder; and woe to the duck or deer that attempts to pass him, within fair range of his piece. To collect these expert marksmen, when of a proper age, officers were sent into the western parts of the Union; and, to embody and finish drilling them, a marine-barrack was established near Washington: from which dépôt the american ships were regularly supplied.

Re

on the

With respect to a british ship of war, her case marks was widely different. Although the captain was crews eased of much of his trouble, by having, in proportion to the size and mounted force of his ship, a conships. siderably smaller crew to collect, by having about

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one-twentieth part of that crew to form of boys and widows' men, or men of straw, and by being permitted to enter a large proportion of landsmen, a rating unknown on board an american ship of war; still was the small remainder most difficult to be procured, even with all the latitude allowed in respect to age, size, and nautical experience. Sometimes, when a captain, by dint of extraordinary exertions, had provided himself with a crew, such as a man of war's crew ought to be, the admiral on the station to which he belonged would pronounce the ship" too-well manned," and order a proportion of her best men to be draughted on board the flag-ship at her moorings, to learn to be idle and worthless; sending, in lieu of them, a parcel of jail-birds and raw hands, to make those among whom they were going nearly as bad as themselves.

paid to

in the

There was another point in which the generality 1812. of british crews, as compared with any one american Aug. crew, were miserably deficient; skill in the art of Inatgunnery. While the american seamen were constantly tention firing at marks, the british seamen, except in par- gunticular cases, scarcely did so once in a year; and r some ships could be named, on board of which not british a shot had been fired in this way for upwards of service. three years. Nor was the fault wholly the captain's: the instructions, under which he was bound to act, forbad him to use, during the first six months after the ship had received her armament, more shots per month than amounted to a third in number of her upperdeck guns; and, after those six months had expired, he was to use only half the quantity. Considering by this, either that the lords of the admiralty discouraged firing at marks as a lavish expenditure of powder and shot, or that the limits they had thus set to the exercise of that branch of naval discipline destroyed its practical utility, many captains never put a shot in the guns until an enemy appeared: they employed the leisure time of the men in handling the sails, and in decorating the ship. Others, again, caring little about an order that placed their professional characters in jeopardy, exercised the crew repeatedly in firing at marks; leaving the gunner to account, in the best manner he could, for the deficiency in his stores. As the generality of french crews were equally inexperienced with their british opponents, the unskilfulness of the latter in gunnery was not felt or remarked: we shall now have to adduce some instances, in quick succession, that will clearly show, how much the british navy at length suffered, by having relaxed in its attention to that most essential point in the business of war, the proper use of the weapons by which it was to be waged.

That our opinion on this subject is in perfect accordance with what was the opinion of a british officer of the first rank and distinction, will appear by the

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1812. following quotation from the work of a contemporary: "The earl of St.-Vincent," says captain Brenton, Aug. "in a letter to the author in 1813, thus expresses nion of himself, I hear the exercise of the great gun is laid Vin- aside, and is succeeded by a foolish frippery and useless ornament.' How far this may have been the subject case," proceeds captain B., " in the Mediterranean, or East or West Indies, with ships of the line, we shall not say; but certainly on the coast of North America it was not so, the ships on that station being kept constantly in exercise under the daily expectation of a war."* Notwithstanding this to us wholly unexpected dissent on the part of captain Brenton from an opinion given by earl St.-Vincent, we shall consider the latter to be the highest authority on the subject; especially as the former, in including the Mediterranean among the stations on which ships, of the line were neglected to be exercised, has overlooked the very strict and commendable attention paid to that important branch of discipline by viceadmiral sir Edward Pellew.

duction

Re- We have already given the best account, which in the the imperfect state of the american records has Consti- enabled us to give, of the construction, size, and arma- established armament of the three american 44-gun

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frigates. We have now to notice a slight alteration, crew. that was afterwards made in the armament of the Constitution. In the summer of 1811, when that frigate was fitting for sea at Norfolk, Virginia, captain Hull considered that her upperworks would not strain so much as they had been found to do, if her 42-pounder carronades were exchanged for 32s. This he got effected; and on or about the 31st of July the Constitution sailed for Cherbourg, with those guns and a reduced crew of 380 men on board. On the 6th or 7th of September the Constitution reached her destination, and in a month or two afterwards returned to her anchorage at Norfolk,

* Brenton, vol. v. p. 44.

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