328 Naval War of 1812 



but no better than the Dutch, and none of their 

 admirals of that period deserves to rank with De 

 Ruyter. Again, the great victory of La Hogue was 

 won over a very much smaller French fleet, after 

 a day's hard fighting, which resulted in the capture 

 of one vessel! This victory was most exultingly 

 chronicled, yet it was precisely as if Perry had 

 fought Barclay all day and only succeeded in captur- 

 ing the Little Belt. Most of Lord Nelson's suc- 

 cesses were certainly won against heavy odds by 

 his great genius and the daring skill of the captains 

 who served under him,; but the battle of the Baltic, 

 as far as the fighting went, reflected as much honor 

 on the defeated Danes as on the mighty sea-chief 

 who conquered them. Many a much- vaunted vic- 

 tory, both on sea and land, has really reflected less 

 credit on the victors than the battle of Lake Erie 

 did on the Americans. And it must always be re- 

 membered that a victory, honorably won, if even 

 over a weaker foe, does reflect credit on the nation 

 by whom it is gained. It was creditable to us as a 

 nation that our ships were better made and better 

 armed than the British frigates, exactly as it was 

 creditable to them that a few years before their ves- 

 sels had stood in the same relation to the Dutch 

 ships. 30 It was greatly to our credit that we had 



30 After Lord Duncan's victory at Camperdown, James 

 chronicled the fact that all the captured line-of-battle ships 

 were such poor craft as not to be of as much value as so 

 many French frigates. This at least showed that the Dutch 

 sailors must have done well to have made such a bloody and 



