Concluding Operations 203 



the most perfect state of skill and discipline. In 

 Commodore Tatnall's biography (p. 15) it is men 

 tioned that the blockaded Constellation had her men 

 well trained at the guns and at target practice, 

 though still lying in the river, so as to be at once 

 able to meet a foe when she put out to sea. The 

 British captain, often owing his command to his 

 social standing or to favoritism,, hampered by red 

 tape, 90 and accustomed by 20 years' almost unin 

 terrupted success to regard the British arms as in 

 vincible, was apt to laugh at all manoeuvring, 91 and 

 scorned to prepare too carefully for a fight, trust 

 ing to the old British "pluck and luck" to carry him 

 through. So, gradually he forgot how to manoeuvre 

 or to prepare. The Java had been at sea six weeks 

 before she was captured, yet during that time the 

 entire exercise of her crew at the guns had been con 

 fined to the discharge of six broadsides of blank 

 cartridges (James, vi, 184) ; the Constitution, like 

 the Java, had shipped an entirely new and raw crew 

 previous to her first cruise, and was at sea but five 

 weeks before she met the Guerriere, and yet her men 

 had been trained to perfection. This is a sufficient 

 comment on the comparative merits of Captain Hull 



10 For instance, James mentions that they were forbidden 

 to use more than so many shot in practice, and that Capt. 

 Broke utterly disregarded this command. 



91 Lord Howard Douglas, "Naval Gunnery," states this in 

 various places. "Accustomed to contemn all manoeuvring." 



