Naval War of 1812 91 



When, a few years before, the English Phoebe had 

 captured the French Ncrcidc, their broadsides were 

 respectively 407 and 258 pounds, a greater disparity 

 than in any of our successful fights; yet no author 

 thought of claiming that the Phoebe was anything 

 but a frigate. So with the Clyde, throwing 425 

 pounds, which took the Vestale, throwing but 246. 

 The facts were that i8-pounder frigates had cap 

 tured 12-pounders, exactly as our 24-pounders in 

 turn captured the i8-pounders. 



Shortly before Great Britain declared war on us, 

 one of her i8-pounder frigates, the San Florcnzo, 

 throwing 476 Ibs. in a broadside, captured the 12- 

 pounder French frigate Psyche, whose broadside 

 was only 246 Ibs. The force of the former was 

 thus almost double that of the latter, yet the battle 

 was long and desperate, the English losing 48 and 

 the French 124 men. This conflict, then, reflected 

 as much credit on the skill and seamanship of the 

 defeated as of the victorious side; the difference in 

 loss could fairly be ascribed to the difference in 

 weight of metal. But where, as in the famous ship- 

 duels of 1812, the difference in force is only a fifth, 

 instead of a half, and yet the slaughter, instead of 

 being as five is to two, is as six to one, then the vic 

 tory is certainly to be ascribed as much to superi 

 ority in skill as to superiority in force. But, on the 

 other hand, it should always be remembered that 

 there was a very decided superiority in force. It is 

 a very discreditable feature of many of our naval 

 histories that they utterly ignore this superiority, 



