the American naval officer, having been taught to regard his new foe with a portion of dread, sailed forth to meet him with the whole of his energies roused. A moment's reflection taught him, that the honour of his country was now in his hands; and what in the breast of man could be a stronger incitement to extraordinary exertions? Thus situated were the navies of the two countries, when, with damaged masts, a reduced complement, and in absolute need of that thorough refit for which she was then, after a very long cruise, speeding to Halifax, the Guerrière encountered the Constitution, 17 days only from port, manned with a full complement, and in all respects fitted for war.

It was, as we have already stated, about 2 P.M. that the Guerrière, standing by the wind on the starboard tack, under topsails, foresail, jib, and spanker, with the wind blowing fresh from the north-west, discovered the Constitution bearing down towards her. At 3 P.M. each ship made out the other to be an enemy's man-of-war; and at 3 h. 30 m. each discovered, with tolerable precision, the force that was about to be opposed to her. At 4 h. 30 m. P.M. the Guerrière laid her maintopsail to the mast, to enable the Constitution the more quickly to close. The latter, then about three miles distant, shortened sail to double-reefed topsails, and went to quarters. At 4 h. 45 m. P.M. the Guerrière hoisted one English ensign at the peak, another at the mizentopgallantmast-head, and a union-jack at the fore; and, at 4 h. 50 m. P.M.,' opened her starboard broadside at the Constitution. The Guerrière then filled, wore, and, on coming round on the larboard tack, fired her larboard guns, “her shot,” says Captain Hull, "falling short;" a proof, either that the Guerrière's people knew not the range of their guns, or that the powder they were using was of an inferior quality: both causes, indeed, might have co-operated in producing the discreditable result.

At 5 h. 5 m. P.M., having run up one American ensign at the peak, lashed another to the larboard mizen rigging, and hoisted a third flag at the foretopgallantmast-head, the Constitution opened her fire; and, it is believed, none of her shot fell short. To avoid being raked, the Guerrière wore three or four times; and continued discharging her alternate broadsides, with about as little effect, owing to her constant change of position and the nccessary alteration in the level of her guns, as when her shot fell short. After the Constitution had amused herself in this

1 In noticing the time, we shall generally, as on former occasions, take the mean of the two statements.

way for half an hour, she set her maintopgallantsail, and in five minutes, or at about 5 h. 45 m. P.M., brought the Guerrière to close action on the larboard beam; both ships steering with the wind on the larboard quarter. At 6h. 5 m. P.M. a 24-pound shot struck the Guerrière's mizenmast and carried it away by the board. It fell over the starboard quarter, knocked a large hole in the counter, and, by dragging in the water, brought the ship up in the wind, although her helm was kept hard a-port. By this accident to her opponent, who had then sustained only a very slight loss, the Constitution would have ranged ahead; but, bearing up, she quickly placed herself in an admirable position on the Guerrière's larboard bow. Now the American riflemen in the Constitution's tops had an opportunity of cooperating with their friends on deck; and a sweeping and most destructive fire of great guns and small-arms was opened upon the British frigate, whose bow-guns were all she could bring to bear in return.

At 6 h. 15 m. P.M. the two ships fell on board each other, the Guerrière's bowsprit getting foul of the Constitution's starboard mizen rigging. The crew of the latter now prepared to board the Guerrière; but, in addition to the impracticability of the attempt owing to the motion of the ships, a slight pause was created by the fall of some of the American leaders: a shot from a British marine brought down the first-lieutenant of marines while leading forward his party; another well-directed musketshot passed through the body of the first-lieutenant of the ship while at the head of the boarding seamen; and a third shot entered the shoulder of the master, as he was standing near Lieutenant Morris. The riflemen in the Constitution's tops, in the mean time, continued their unerring fire. Among those who suffered on the occasion was Captain Dacres himself, by a ball fired from the enemy's mizentop, which inflicted a severe wound in his back, while he was standing on the starboard forecastle hammocks, animating his crew. Although suffering greatly, he would not quit the deck. At about the same moment the master was shot through the knee, and a master's mate (Samuel Grant) was wounded very severely. In a few minutes the two ships got clear. Having disentangled her bowsprit from her opponent's mizen rigging, the Guerrière now came to a little, and was enabled to bring a few of her foremost guns on the starboard side to bear. Some of the wads from these set fire to the Constitution's cabin, but the flames were soon extinguished. The 1 See diagram at p. 379. Starboard," by mistake, in t e Gazette account

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Guerrière's "bowsprit, at that moment striking the taffrail of the Constitution, slacked the fore-stay of the Guerrière, and, the fore-shrouds on the larboard or weather side being mostly shot away, the mast fell over on the starboard side, crossing the mainstay the sudden jerk carried the mainmast along with it, leaving the Guerrière a defenceless wreck, rolling her main-deck guns in the water."

At about 6 h. 23 m.2 the Constitution ranged ahead: and the Guerrière soon began clearing away the wreck of her masts, to be ready to renew the action. Just, however, as she had succeeded in doing so, her spritsail-yard, upon which she had set a sail to endeavour to get before the wind, was carried away. The Guerrière now lay an unmanageable hulk in the trough of the sea, rolling her main-deck guns under water: to secure which required increased efforts, the rotten state of the breechings, as well as of the timber-heads through which the longbolts passed, having caused many of them to break loose. While the British frigate was in this state, the Constitution, at 6 h. 45 m. P.M., having rove new braces, wore round and took a position within pistol-shot on her starboard quarter. It being utterly in vain to contend any longer, the Guerrière fired a leegun, and hauled down the union-jack from the stump of her mizenmast. The following diagram will show the progress of this action, from the time the two ships closed to the moment of the Guerrière's surrender.

Much to his credit, the moment the Constitution hoisted her colours, Captain Dacres ordered seven Americans, that belonged to his reduced crew, to go below: one accidentally remained at his gun, the remainder went where they had been ordered. This just left 244 men and 19 boys. Out of this number,

the Guerrière had her second-lieutenant (Henry Ready), 11 seamen, and three marines killed, her captain (severely), first-lieutenant (Bartholomew Kent, slightly), master (Robert Scott), two master's mates (Samuel Grant and William John Snow), one midshipman (James Enslie), 43 seamen, 13 marines, and one boy wounded; total, 15 killed and 63 wounded, six of the latter mortally, 39 severely, and 18 slightly. Out of her 468 men and boys, the Constitution, according to Captain Hull's statement, had one lieutenant of marines (William S. Bush) and six seamen killed, her first-lieutenant (Charles Morris, dangerously), master (John C. Alwyn, slightly), four seamen (three of them dangerously), and one marine wounded; total, seven killed and seven wounded. But several of the Guerrière's officers counted 13 wounded; of whom three died after amputation. An equal number of killed and wounded, as stated in the American return, scarcely ever occurs, except in cases of explosion. In the British service, every wounded man, although merely scratched, reports himself to the surgeon, that he may get his smart-money, a pecuniary allowance so named. No such regulation exists in the American service; consequently the return of loss sustained in action by an American ship, as far as respects the wounded at least, is made subservient to the views of the commander and his government.

Although Captain Hull does not give his prize any guns at all, no other American account gives the Guerrière less than 49 guns. It is true that, besides the 48 guns already specified, the ship had an 18-pounder launch carronade, mounted upon the usual elevating carriage for firing at the tops; but the primingiron, when put into the touch-hole just before the action commenced, broke short off and spiked the gun. In this state it was found by the captors. Consequently, as the two bow 18-pounders were equally useless, the Guerrière, out of her 49 guns, could employ in broadside only 23. We have already shown that the American 44-gun frigate, without making any use of her concealed gangway ports, could present 28 carriageguns in broadside; but the Constitution could and did, as we now verily believe, present one gun more.1 Of the fact of one of her two upper-deck 24-pounders being stationed on the forecastle and the other on the quarter-deck, we have not a doubt, from the following entry in the log of the Constitution when she was pursued by the British off New York, and was about to open a fire from her stern-chasers,-"Got the forecastle gun aft." But 1 See p, 376.

the disparity in her action with the Guerrière is sufficiently great without adding this gun to the Constitution's broadside : we shall therefore, as in common cases, take no more than half the mounted number.

As it would be not only unjust, but absurd, to compare together the totals of two crews of men and boys, in a case where each opponent uses the latter in so very different a proportion as the British and the Americans, we shall, making an ample allowance for those in the American crew, exclude the boys altogether from the estimate.

This action affords a strong practical proof of the advantages possessed by a large and lofty ship. While the main deck of the Guerrière was all afloat with the roughness of the sea, the Constitution's main deck was perfectly dry. If that was the case before the fall of the Guerrière's masts had destroyed her stability, what must it have been afterwards? It is this consideration that renders the tonnage so important an item in any statement of comparative force. The relative scantling is another essential point, for which the one-third disparity in size between these figures will partly allow. By an unfortunate typographical (as we take it) error, Captain Brenton represents the Constitution as an American frigate of the same force as the President, though inferior (superior?) as to scantling." Now, the extraordinary thickness and solidity of the Constitution's sides had long obtained her, among the people who best knew her, the name of "Old Ironsides." We have already shown that the President, an acknowledged lighter ship, possessed stouter sides than a British 74: we may therefore consider, that the topsides of the Constitution were at least equal in thickness to the topsides of a British 80.

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With respect to the advantages of stout scantling, we are willing to take the opinion of the Americans themselves. A letter from Mr. Paul Hamilton, the secretary of the American navy, written a few months after the Guerrière's capture, and addressed to the "Chairman of the Naval Committee of the House of Representatives," contains the following paragraph : "A 76 is built of heavier timber, is intrinsically much stronger than a frigate in all her works, and can sustain battering much longer, and with less injury. A shot which would sink a frigate might be received by a 76 with but little injury: it might pass between wind and water through a frigate, when it would stick in the frame of a 76." Nor is this merely the

1 Brenton, vol. v., p. 49.