On the Ocean 165 



tants have already been stated ; I will give the com 

 plements shortly. The following is the 



COMPARATIVE FORCE AND LOSS 



Tons Weight Metal No. Men Loss 

 Constitution 1576 654 475 34 



Java 1340 576 426 150 



Relative Relative Loss 



Force Inflicted 



Constitution 100 zoo 



Java 89 23 



In hardly another action of the war do the ac 

 counts of the respective forces differ so widely; 

 the official British letter makes their total of men at 

 the beginning of the action 377, of whom Commo 

 dore Bainbridge officially reports that he paroled 

 378 ! The British state their loss in killed and mor 

 tally wounded at 24; Commodore Bainbridge reports 

 that the dead alone amounted to nearly 60! Usu 

 ally I have taken each commander's account of his 

 own force and loss, and I should do so now if it 

 were not that the British accounts differ among 

 themselves, and whenever they relate to the Ameri 

 cans are flatly contradicted by the affidavits of the 

 latter's officers. The British first handicap them 

 selves by the statement that the surgeon of the Con 

 stitution was an Irishman and lately an assistant 

 surgeon in the British navy ("Naval Chronicle," 

 xxix, 452) ; which draws from Surgeon Amos A. 

 Evans a solemn statement in the Boston "Gazette" 

 that he was born in Maryland and was never in the 

 British navy in his life. Then Surgeon Jones of 

 the Java, in his official report, after giving his own 



