60 Naval War of 1812 



that followed them. The British merchantmen 

 sailed in huge convoys, guarded by men-of-war, 

 while, as said before, our vessels went alone, and 

 relied for protection on themselves. If a fishing 

 smack went to the Banks it knew that it ran a chance 

 of falling in with some not overscrupulous Nova 

 Scotian privateer. The barks that sailed from Sa 

 lem to the Spice Islands kept their men well trained 

 both at great guns and musketry, so as to be able to 

 beat off either Malay proas, or Chinese junks. The 

 New York ships, loaded for the West Indies, were 

 prepared to do battle with the picaroons that 

 swarmed in the Spanish Main; while the fast craft 

 from Baltimore could fight as well as they could 

 run. Wherever an American seaman went, he not 

 only had to contend with all the legitimate perils of 

 the sea, but he had also to regard almost every 

 stranger as a foe. Whether this foe called him 

 self pirate or privateer mattered but little. French, 

 Spaniards, Algerines, Malays, from all alike our 

 commerce suffered, and against all our merchants 

 were forced to defend themselves. The effect of 

 such a state of things, which made commerce so 

 remunerative that the bolder spirits could hardly 

 keep out of it, and so hazardous that only the most 

 skilful and daring could succeed in it, was to raise 

 up as fine a set of seamen as ever manned a navy. 

 The stern school in which the American was brought 

 up forced him into habits of independent thought 

 and action which it was impossible that the more 

 protected Briton could possess. He worked more 



