Naval War of 1812 57 



his present position. The captain had perhaps been 

 a midshipman under Truxton when he took the Ven 

 geance, and had been sent aboard the captured 

 French frigate with the prize-master ; the lieutenant 

 had borne a part in the various attacks on Tripoli, 

 and had led his men in the desperate hand-to-hand 

 fights in which the Yankee cutlass proved an over 

 match for the Turkish and Moorish cimeters. Nearly 

 every senior officer had extricated himself by his 

 own prowess or skill from the dangers of battle or 

 storm; he owed his rank to the fact that he had 

 proved worthy of it. Thrown upon his own re 

 sources, he had learned self-reliance ; he was a first- 

 rate practical seaman, and prided himself on the 

 way his vessel was handled. Having reached his 

 rank by hard work, and knowing what real fighting 

 meant, he was careful to see that his men were 

 trained in the essentials of discipline, and that they 

 knew how to handle the guns in battle as well as pol 

 ish them in peace. Beyond almost any of his coun 

 trymen, he worshiped the "Gridiron Flag," and, 

 having been brought up in the Navy, regarded its 

 honor as his own. It was, perhaps, the Navy alone 

 that thought itself a match, ship against ship, for 

 Great Britain. The remainder of the nation pinned 

 its faith to the army, or rather to that weakest of 

 weak reeds, the militia. The officers of the Navy, 

 with their strong esprit dc corps, their jealousy of 

 their own name and record, and the knowledge, by 

 actual experience, that the British ships sailed no 

 faster and were no better handled than their own. 



