On the Ocean 151 



of the crews in gunnery was equally satisfactory. 

 Now, taking the difference of effect as given by Cap 

 tain Garden, we must draw this conclusion that the 

 comparative loss in killed and wounded (104 to 12), 

 together with the dreadful account he gives of the 

 condition of his own ship, while he admits that the 

 enemy's vessel was in comparatively good order, 

 must have arisen from inferiority in gunnery as 

 well as in force." 69 



On the other hand, the American crew, even ac 

 cording to James, were as fine a set of men as ever 

 were seen on shipboard. Though not one-fourth 

 were British by birth, yet many of them had served 

 on board British ships of war, in some cases volun 

 tarily, but much more often because they were im 

 pressed. They had been trained at the guns with 

 the greatest care by Lieutenant Allen. And finally 

 Commodore Decatur handled his ship with abso 

 lute faultlessness. To sum up: a brave and skilful 

 crew, ably commanded, was matched against an 

 equally brave but unskilful one, with an incompetent 

 leader; and this accounts for the disparity of loss 

 being so much greater than the disparity in force. 



At the outset of this battle the position of the 

 parties was just the reverse of that in the case of the 

 Constitution and Guerrtire; the Englishman had the 

 advantage of the wind, but he used it in a very dif 

 ferent manner from that in which Captain Hull had 

 done. The latter at once ran down to close, but 

 manoeuvred so cautiously that no damage could be 



' Lord Howard Douglas, "Naval Gunnery," p. 515. 



