On the Ocean 217 



the Congress, 38, sailed on his third cruise. 22 On 

 May 2d he fell in with and chased the British sloop 

 Curlew, 1 8, Captain Michael Head, but the latter 

 escaped by knocking away the wedges of her masts 

 and using other means to increase her rate of sail 

 ing. On the 8th, in latitude 39 30' N., long. 60 

 W., the Congress parted company, and sailed off 

 toward the southeast, making four prizes, of no 

 great value, in the North Atlantic; 23 when about 

 in long. 35 W. she steered south, passing to the 

 south of the line. But she never saw a man-of- 

 war, and during the latter part of her cruise not 

 a sail of any kind, and after cruising nearly eight 

 months returned to Portsmouth Harbor on Decem 

 ber 1 4th, having captured but four merchantmen. 

 Being unfit to cruise longer, owing to her decayed 

 condition, she was disarmed and laid up; nor was 

 she sent to sea again during the war. 24 



Meanwhile Rodgers cruised along the eastern 

 edge of the Grand Bank until he reached latitude 

 48, without meeting anything, then stood to the 

 southeast, and cruised off the Azores till June 6th. 



94 Letter of Commodore Rodgers, Sept. 30, 1813. 



18 Letter of Captain Smith, Dec. 15, 1813. 



* 4 James states that she was "blockaded" in port by the 

 Tenedos during part of 1814, but was too much awed by 

 the fate of the Chesapeake to come out during the "long 

 blockade" of Captain Parker. Considering the fact that she 

 was too decayed to put to sea, had no guns aboard, no crew, 

 and was, in fact, laid up, the feat of the Tenedos was not 

 very wonderful; a row-boat could have "blockaded" her 

 quite as well. It is worth noticing, as an instance of the 



way James alters a fact by suppressing half of it. 



VOL. IX. 10 



