Naval War of 1812 



Americans. Nor was this all. The Pike, with her 

 15 long 24's in battery, was an overmatch for any 

 one of the enemy's vessels, and bore the same rela- 

 tion to them that the Confiance, at a later date, did 

 to Macdonough's squadron. She should certainly 

 have been a match for the Wolfe and Melville to- 

 gether, and the Madison and Oneida for the Royal 

 George and Sydney Smith. In fact, the three heavy 

 American vessels ought to have been an overmatch 

 for the four heaviest of the British squadron, al- 

 though these possessed the nominal superiority. 

 And in ordinary cases the eight remaining Ameri- 

 can gun-vessels would certainly seem to be an over- 

 match for the two British schooners, but it is just 

 here that the difficulty of comparing the forces comes 

 in. When the water was very smooth and the wind 

 light, the k>ng 32'$ and 24*5 of the Americans could 

 play havoc with the British schooners, at a distance 

 which would render the carronades of the latter 

 useless. But the latter were built for war, pos- 

 sessed quarters and were good cruisers, while 

 Chauncy's schooners were merchant vessels, with- 

 out quarters, crank, and so loaded down with heavy 

 metal that whenever it blew at all hard they could 

 with difficulty be kept from upsetting, and ceased 

 to be capable even of defending themselves. When 

 Sir James Yeo captured two of them he would not 

 let them cruise with his other vessels at all, but 

 sent them back to act as gunboats, in which capacity 

 they were serving when recaptured; this is a toler- 

 able test of their value compared to their opponents. 



