On the Lakes 327 



every fair-minded man must admit the great supe- 

 riority of Perry's fleet over Barclay's, though the 

 advantage was greater in carronades than in long 

 guns. 



But to admit this by no means precludes us from 

 taking credit for the victory. Almost all the victo- 

 ries gained by the English over the Dutch in the 

 1 7th century were due purely to great superiority 

 in force. The cases have a curious analogy to this 

 lake battle. Perry won with 54 guns against Bar- 

 clay's 63 ; but the odds were largely in his favor. 

 Blake won a doubtful victory on the i8th of Feb- 

 ruary, 1653, with 80 ships against Tromp's 70; but 

 the English vessels were twice the size of the Dutch, 

 and in number of men and weight of metal greatly 

 their superior. The English were excellent fighters, 



should give the Constitution more credit or the Phoebe less. 

 So the Confiance, throwing 480 pounds of metal at a broad- 

 side, was really equal to both the Eagle and Saratoga, who 

 jointly threw 678. From her long guns she threw 384 pounds, 

 from her carronades 96. Their long guns threw 168, their 

 carronades 510. Now the 32-pound carronade, mounted on 

 the spar-deck of a 38-gun frigate, was certainly much less 

 formidable than the long 18 on the main-deck; indeed, it 

 probably ranked more nearly with a long 12, in the ordinary 

 chances of war (and it must be remembered that Downie 

 was the attacking party and chose his own position, so far 

 as Macdonough's excellent arrangements would let him). 

 So that in comparing the forces, the carronades should not 

 be reckoned for more than half the value of the long guns, 

 and we get, as a mere approximation, 384 -(- 48 = 432, against 

 168 4- 255 423. At any rate, British writers, as well as 

 Americans, should remember that if the Constitution was 

 greatly superior to her two foes, then the Confiance was 

 certainly equal to the Eagle and Saratoga , and vice versa. 



