280 Naval War of 1812 



enormous disparity in loss was due mainly to the in- 

 finitely greater accuracy of the American fire; ac- 

 cording to my diagram the chief cause was the 

 incompetency of the Macedonian's commander. In 

 one event the difference was mainly in the gunnery 

 of the crews, in the other, it was mainly in the tac- 

 tical skill of the captains. The question is merely 

 as to how soon Garden, in his headlong, foolishly 

 rash approach, was enabled to close with Decatur. 

 I have represented the closing as taking place later 

 than Professor Soley has done; very possibly I am 

 wrong. Could my work now be rewritten I think I 

 should adopt his diagram of the action of the Mace- 

 donian. 



But in the action with the Java it seems to me 

 that he is mistaken. He has here followed the Brit- 

 ish accounts ; but they are contradicted by the Amer- 

 ican authorities, and besides have a very improbable 

 look. When the Constitution came round for the 

 second time, on the port tack, James declares the 

 Java passed directly across her stern, almost touch- 

 ing, but that the British crew, overcome by aston- 

 ishment or awe, did not fire a shot ; and that shortly 

 afterward the manoeuvre was repeated. When this 

 incident is said to have occurred the Java's crew 

 had been hard at work fighting the guns for half 

 an hour, and they continued for an hour and a half 

 afterward ; it is impossible to believe that they would 



