172 Naval War of 1812 



new shipped for the voyage, and had been at sea 

 but six weeks; in the Constitution's first fight her 

 crew had been aboard of her but five weeks. So 

 the chances should have been nearly equal, and the 

 difference in fighting capacity that was shown by 

 the enormous disparity in the loss, and still more 

 in the damage inflicted, was due to the fact that 

 the officers of one ship had, and the officers of the 

 other had not, trained their raw crews. The Con 

 stitution's men were not "picked," but simply aver 

 age American sailors, as the Java's were average 

 British sailors. The essential difference was in the 

 training. 



During the six weeks the Java was at sea, her men 

 had fired but six broadsides, of blank cartridges; 

 during the first five weeks the Constitution cruised, 

 her crew were incessantly practiced at firing with 

 blank cartridges, and also at a target. 90 The Java's 

 crew had only been exercised occasionally, even in 

 pointing the guns, and when the captain of a gun 

 was killed the effectiveness of the piece was tem 

 porarily ruined, and, moreover, the men did not 

 work together. The Constitution's crew were exer 

 cised till they worked like machines, and yet with 

 enough individualityto render it impossible to cripple 

 a gun by killing one man. The unpracticed British 

 sailors fired at random ; the trained Americans took 



90 In looking through the logs of the Constitution, Hornet, 

 etc., we continually find such entries as "beat to quarters," 

 "exercised the men at the great guns," "exercised with mus 

 ketry," "exercised the boarders," "exercised the great guns, 

 blank cartridges, and afterward firing at mark." 



