152 Naval War of 1812 



men. Had there been no other vessels in chase, 

 Commodore Decatur, his adversary, having been 

 thus rendered perfectly helpless, could have simply 

 taken any position he chose and compelled the latter 

 to strike, without suffering any material additional 

 loss himself. As in such a case he would neither 

 have endured the unanswered fire of the Endymion 

 on his quarter for the first half hour, nor the subse 

 quent broadsides of the Pomone, the President's 

 loss would probably have been no greater than that 

 of the Constitution in taking the Java. It is diffi 

 cult to see how any outsider with an ounce of com 

 mon-sense and fair-mindedness can help awarding 

 the palm to Decatur, as regards the action with the 

 Endymion. But I regret to say that I must agree 

 with James that he acted rather tamely, certainly 

 not heroically, in striking to the Pomone. There 

 was, of course, not much chance of success in doing 

 battle with two fresh frigates; but then they only 

 mounted eighteen-pounders, and, judging from the 

 slight results of the cannonading from the Endym 

 ion and the first two (usually the most fatal) broad 

 sides of the Pomone, it would have been rather a 

 long time before they would have caused much dam 

 age. Meanwhile the President was pretty nearly as 

 well off as ever as far as fighting and sailing went. 

 A lucky shot might have disabled one of her op 

 ponents, and then the other would, in all probability, 



