jo Naval War of 1812 



("Naval Occurrences," p. 448) : "In the opinion of 

 several British officers there were among them many 

 British seamen" ; but Commodore Decatur, Lieuten 

 ant Gallagher, and the other officers swore that 

 there were none. Of the crew of the Chesapeake, 

 he says, "about 32" were British subjects, or about 

 10 per cent. One or two of these were afterward 

 shot, and some 25, together with a Portuguese 

 boatswain's mate, entered into the British service. 

 So that of the vessels captured by the British, the 

 Chesapeake had the largest number of British (about 

 10 per cent of her crew) on board, the others rang 

 ing from that number down to none at all, as in the 

 case of the Wasp. 



As these eleven ships would probably represent a 

 fair average, this proportion, of from o to 10 per 

 cent, should be taken as the proper one. James, 

 however, is of the opinion that those ships manned 

 by Americans were more apt to be captured than 

 those manned by the braver British; which calls 

 for an examination of the crews of the remaining 

 vessels. Of the American sloop Peacock, James 

 says ("Naval Occurrences," p. 348) that "several 

 of her men were recognized as British seamen"; 

 even if this were true, "several" could not probably 

 mean more than sixteen, or 10 per cent. Of the 

 second Wasp he says, "Captain Blakely was a na 

 tive of Dublin, and, along with some English and 

 Scotch, did not, it may be certain, neglect to have 

 in his crew a great many Irish." Now Captain 

 Blakely left Ireland when he was but 16 months 



