40 Naval War of 1812 



nore entirely those which terminated unfavorably. 

 Other errors arise from honest ignorance. Thus, 

 James in speaking of the repulse of the Endymion's 

 boats by the Neufchatel gives the latter a crew of 

 1 20 men; she had more than this number originally, 

 but only 40 were in her at the time of the attack. 

 So also when the captain of the Pelican writes that 

 the officers of the Argus report her loss at 40, when 

 they really reported it at 24 ; or when Captain Dacres 

 thought the Constitution had lost about 20 men in 

 stead of 14. The American gunboat captains in 

 recounting their engagements with the British frig 

 ates invariably greatly overestimated the loss of the 

 latter. So that on both sides there were some inten 

 tional misstatements or garblings, and a much more 

 numerous class of simple blunders, arising largely 

 from an incapacity for seeing more than one side 

 of the question. 



Among the early British writers upon this war, 

 the ablest was James. He devoted one work, his 

 "Naval Occurrences," entirely to if; and it occupies 

 the largest part of the sixth volume of his more ex 

 tensive "History of the British Navy." 9 Two other 

 British writers, Lieutenant Marshall 10 and Captain 

 Brenton, 11 wrote histories of the same events, about 

 the same time; but neither of these naval officers 

 produced half as valuable a work as did the civilian 



9 A new edition, London, 1826. 



10 "Royal Naval Biography," by John Marshall (London, 

 1823-1835). 



11 "Naval History of Great Britain," by Edward Pelham 

 Brenton (new edition, London, 1837). 



