That Dacres should have been defeated was not surprising; that he should have expected to win was an example of British arrogance that explained and excused the war.  The length of the Constitution was one hundred and seventy-three feet, that of the Guerriere was one hundred and fifty-six feet; the extreme breadth of the Constitution was forty-four feet, that of the Guerriere was forty feet:  or within a few inches in both cases.  The Constitution carried thirty-two long twenty-four-pounders, the Guerriere thirty long eighteen-pounders and two long twelve-pounders; the Constitution carried twenty thirty-two-pound carronades, the Guerriere sixteen.  In every respect, and in proportion of ten to seven, the Constitution was the better ship; her crew was more numerous in proportion of ten to six.  Dacres knew this very nearly as well as it was known to Hull, yet he sought a duel.  What he did not know was that in a still greater proportion the American officers and crew were better and more intelligent seamen than the British, and that their passionate wish to repay old scores gave them extraordinary energy.  So much greater was the moral superiority than the physical, that while the Guerriere’s force counted as seven against ten, her losses counted as though her force were only two against ten.

Dacres’s error cost him dear; for among the Guerriere’s crew of two hundred and seventy-two, seventy-nine were killed or wounded, and the ship was injured beyond saving before Dacres realized his mistake, although he needed only thirty minutes of close fighting for the purpose.  He never fully understood the causes of his defeat, and never excused it by pleading, as he might have done, the great superiority of his enemy.

Hull took his prisoners on board the Constitution, and after blowing up the Guerriere sailed for Boston, where he arrived on the morning of August 30th.  The Sunday silence of the Puritan city broke into excitement as the news passed through the quiet streets that the Constitution was below in the outer harbor with Dacres and his crew prisoners on board.  No experience of history ever went to the heart of New England more directly than this victory, so peculiarly its own:  but the delight was not confined to New England, and extreme though it seemed, it was still not extravagant; for however small the affair might appear on the general scale of the world’s battles, it raised the United States in one half-hour to the rank of a first class Power in the world.

Selections used by permission of Charles Scribner’s Sons, Publishers.

JOHN ADAMS

(1735-1826)