Naval War of 1812 63 



Good seaman as the impressed American proved 

 to be, yet he seldom missed an opportunity to escape 

 from the British service, by desertion or otherwise. 

 In the first place, the life was very hard, and, in 

 the second, the American seaman was very patriotic. 

 He had an honest and deep affection for his own 

 flag 1 , while, on the contrary, he felt a curiously 

 strong hatred for England, as distinguished from 

 Englishmen. This hatred was partly an abstract 

 feeling, cherished through a vague traditional re 

 spect for Bunker Hill, and partly something very 

 real and vivid, owing to the injuries he, and others 

 like him, had received. Whether he lived in Mary 

 land or Massachusetts, he certainly knew men whose 

 ships had been seized by British cruisers, their 

 goods confiscated, and the vessels condemned. Some 

 of his friends had fallen victims to the odious right 

 of search, and had never been heard of afterward. 

 He had suffered many an injury to friend, fortune, 

 or person, and some day he hoped to repay them 

 all; and when the war did come, he fought all the 

 better because he knew it was his own quarrel. But, 

 as I have said, this hatred was against England, 

 not against Englishmen. Then, as now, sailors 

 were scattered about over the world without any 

 great regard for nationality; and the resulting in 

 termingling of natives and foreigners in every mer 

 cantile marine was especially great in those of 



can victory because there was a certain number of Americans 

 in Nelson's fleet, than it is to assert that the Americans were 

 victorious in 1812, because there were a few renegade British 

 on board their ships. 



