of July 12th did she stand to the eastward and northward.  Light head winds and a strong current delayed her progress till July 17th, when at two o’clock in the afternoon, off Barnegat on the New Jersey coast, the lookout at the masthead discovered four sails to the northward, and two hours later a fifth sail to the northeast.  Hull took them for Rodgers’s squadron.  The wind was light, and Hull being to windward determined to speak the nearest vessel, the last to come in sight.  The afternoon passed without bringing the ships together, and at ten o’clock in the evening, finding that the nearest ship could not answer the night signal, Hull decided to lose no time in escaping.

Then followed one of the most exciting and sustained chases recorded in naval history.  At daybreak the next morning one British frigate was astern within five or six miles, two more were to leeward, and the rest of the fleet some ten miles astern, all making chase.  Hull put out his boats to tow the Constitution; Broke summoned the boats of the squadron to tow the Shannon.  Hull then bent all his spare rope to the cables, dropped a small anchor half a mile ahead, in twenty-six fathoms of water, and warped his ship along.  Broke quickly imitated the device, and slowly gained on the chase.  The Guerriere crept so near Hull’s lee beam as to open fire, but her shot fell short.  Fortunately the wind, though slight, favored Hull.  All night the British and American crews toiled on, and when morning came the Belvidera, proving to be the best sailer, got in advance of her consorts, working two kedge anchors, until at two o’clock in the afternoon she tried in her turn to reach the Constitution with her bow guns, but in vain.  Hull expected capture, but the Belvidera could not approach nearer without bringing her boats under the Constitution’s stern guns; and the wearied crews toiled on, towing and kedging, the ships barely out of gunshot, till another morning came.  The breeze, though still light, then allowed Hull to take in his boats, the Belvidera being two and a half miles in his wake, the Shannon three and a half miles on his lee, and the three other frigates well to leeward.  The wind freshened, and the Constitution drew ahead, until, toward seven o’clock in the evening of July 19th, a heavy rain squall struck the ship, and by taking skillful advantage of it Hull left the Belvidera and Shannon far astern; yet until eight o’clock the next morning they were still in sight, keeping up the chase.

Perhaps nothing during the war tested American seamanship more thoroughly than these three days of combined skill and endurance in the face of the irresistible enemy.  The result showed that Hull and the Constitution had nothing to fear in these respects.  There remained the question whether the superiority extended to his guns; and such was the contempt of the British naval officers for American ships, that with this expedience before their eyes they still believed one of their