170 Naval War of 1812 



pletely dismasted, had fifteen men killed, sixty-three 

 wounded, and more than thirty shot below the water- 

 line. She sank twelve hours after the combat. The 

 Constitution, on the contrary, had but seven men 

 killed and seven wounded, and did not lose a mast. 

 As soon as she had replaced a few cut ropes and 

 changed a few sails, she was in condition, even by 

 the testimony of the British historian, to take an 

 other Guerriere. The United States took an hour 

 and a half to capture the Macedonian, and the same 

 difference made itself felt in the damage suffered by 

 the two ships. The Macedonian had her mast shat 

 tered, two of her maindeck and all her spardeck guns 

 disabled; more than a hundred shot had penetrated 

 the hull, and over a third of the crew had suffered 

 by the hostile fire. The American frigate, on the 

 contrary, had to regret but five men killed and seven 

 wounded; her guns had been fired each sixty-six 

 times to the Macedonian's thirty-six. The combat 

 of the Constitution and the Java lasted two hours, 

 and was the most bloody of these three engagements. 

 The Java only struck when she had been razed like a 

 sheer hulk; she had twenty-two men killed and one 

 hundred and two wounded. 



"This war should be studied with unceasing dili 

 gence; the pride of two peoples to whom naval af 

 fairs are so generally familiar has cleared all the de 

 tails and laid bare all the episodes, and through the 

 sneers which the victors should have spared, merely 

 out of care for their own glory, at every step can be 



