370 : The Atlantic 



captured Golden Eagle. On the return journey he encountered three 

 merchantmen which he attacked one after the other. One of these 

 had twelve guns and the other two each fourteen guns. On a later 

 cruise he fought and captured a heavily armed brig with full crew — 

 a king's packet. 



At the end of the war the privateers were reconverted presumably 

 to legal and peaceful pursuits — though some of them might have 

 become slavers or smugglers. With no navy and no privateers it was 

 only good fortune and a lot of heavy uphill shipbuilding and crew 

 raising that brought the United States through the batdes with the 

 French and the 1812 War with England. Jefferson was a learned man 

 interested in many fields but devoid of any sense about the sea. He 

 evolved ideas on seaboard defense that were childishly nai've. Fortu- 

 nately Adams was able to create a navy and one of the best bits of 

 good fortune was the selection in 1794 of Joshua Humphreys as 

 naval constructor. It was he who designed and built the great frig- 

 ates Constitution, Constellation, Congress, Chesapea\e, President, 

 United States. 



These were a new type of vessel; they were smaller than line-of- 

 battle ships, which America could ill afford, but they were also 

 much faster; they were also, however, larger, faster and better armed 

 than any British frigate so that they gave a new meaning to that 

 word. American gunnery was another asset. Just as in naval con- 

 struction the object was to build a few ships of very excellent quali- 

 ties, so in gunnery the aim was to increase range and accuracy rather 

 than to depend on the mere weight of projected metal. The new 

 ships outsailed and outshot the traditional British vessels that were 

 ponderous and impressive but were slow on their feet and with a 

 short reach. England had forgotten the lesson she taught Spain in 

 Elizabeth's day and had to learn it again from new states. 



Of course the United States could not successfully meet an Eng- 

 lish fleet in battle either at the time of the Revolution or in the War 

 of 1812. What she did do successfully was to send out her best ships 

 and fighters in the hope of winning an individual duel or small en- 

 gagement against one or a very few British ships or French ships. 

 Thus we had such battles as John Paul Jones in Bon Homme Rich- 

 ard vs Serapis, Truxtun in Constellation against L'Insurgente, etc. 

 A full scale naval battle was quite another matter. It was one of the 

 marks of Washington's great capacity and insight that he knew it 

 was futile for him to attempt to win a major land victory until he 



