On the Ocean 63 



provided with leather boarding-caps, fitted with 

 bands of iron, . . . another strong symptom of 

 fear !" Now, such a piece of writing as this is sim 

 ply evidence of an unsound mind ; it is not so much 

 malicious as idiotic. I only reproduce it to help 

 prove what I have all along insisted on, that any of 

 James's unsupported statements about the Ameri 

 cans, whether respecting the tonnage of the ships or 

 the courage of the crews, are not worth the paper 

 they are written on; on all points connected purely 

 with the British navy, or which can be checked off 

 by official documents or ships' logs, or where there 

 would be no particular object in falsifying, James 

 is an invaluable assistant, from the diligence and 

 painstaking care he shows, and the thoroughness 

 and minuteness with which he goes into details. 



A fair-minded and interesting English critic, 52 

 whose remarks are generally very just, seems to me 

 to have erred somewhat in commenting on this last 

 sloop action. He says that the Avon was first crip 

 pled by dismantling shot from long guns. Now, 

 the Wasp had but one long gun on the side engaged, 

 and, moreover, began the action with the shortest 

 and lightest of her carronades. Then he continues 

 that the Avon, like the Peacock, "was hulled so low 

 that the shot-holes could not be got at, and yielded 



58 Lord Howard Douglas, "Treatise on Naval Gunnery," 

 p. 416. 



