244 Naval War of 1812 



stout little craft, with heavy guns, which, acting 

 together, and being handled with spirit and skill, 

 had on several occasions in calm weather captured 

 small British sloops, and had twice so injured frig- 

 ates as to make their return to Great Britain neces- 

 sary; while they themselves had frequently been the 

 object of successful cutting-out expeditions. Con- 

 gress hoped that our gunboats would do as well as 

 the Danish; but for a variety of reasons they failed 

 utterly in every serious attack that they made on 

 a man-of-war, and were worse than useless for all 

 but the various subordinate employments above 

 mentioned. The main reason for this failure was 

 in the gunboats themselves. They were utterly use- 

 less except in perfectly calm weather, for in any 

 wind the heavy guns caused them to careen over so 

 as to make it difficult to keep them right side up, 

 and impossible to fire. Even in smooth water they 

 could not be fought at anchor, requiring to be kept 

 in position by means of sweeps ; and they were very 

 unstable, the recoil of the guns causing them to 

 roll so as to make it difficult to aim with any ac- 

 curacy after the first discharge, while a single shot 

 hitting one put it hors de combat. This last event 

 rarely happened, however, for they were not often' 

 handled with any approach to temerity, and, on the 

 contrary, usually made their attacks at a range 

 that rendered it as impossible to inflict as to receive 

 harm. It does not seem as if they were very well 

 managed; but they were such ill-conditioned craft 

 that the best officers might be pardoned for feeling 



