478 CAPTURE OF THE GUERRIERE. 
ends of the two boilers still remain in the river,* all attempts 
to discover them having as yet proved ineffectual. 
The Board of Examiners, appointed by the Connecticut 
River Steam-Boat Company, to inquire into the causes of the 
explosion, consisting of Professors B. Silliman and D. Olm- 
sted, of Yale College, and Messrs. W. C. Redfi-eld, D. Cope- 
land, and J. F. Lawson, Engineers, having met at Essex, 
November 7th, decided, after having examined the wreck and 
heard testimony, thai the explosion of the steo.m-boat New-Eng- 
land was caused by the pressure of steam, produced in the or- 
dinary way, but accumulated to a degree of tension which the 
boilers were U7iable to sustain. It was estimated that the steam, 
at the time of the explosion, must have accumulated to nearly 
or quite thirty inches, giving an aggregate expansive force on 
the internal surface of each boiler, of not less than 3,000,000 
pounds. In all, fifteen persons have died, including those 
whose bodies were found in the river. 
CAPTURE OF THE GUERRIERE. 
|^^¥ 
The action between the U. S. frigate Constitution, Capt. 
Isaac Hull, and the British frigate Guerriere, Capt. Da- 
CREs, which terminated in the capture of the latter vessel, will 
be ever memorable. It took place in lat. 42, Ion. 56 west, on 
the 19th of August, 1812, distant, nearly due east, about 500 
miles from Cape Cod. 
The Guerriere had, by the British, been considered as the 
best frigate on the American station ; and but a few days pre- 
vious to the action, Capt. Dacres endorsed on the register of 
the American brig John Adams, which arrived at New- York, 
September 4th, 1812, the following challenge. 
" Captain Dacres, commander of his Britannic Majesty's 
frigate Guerriere, of forty-four guns, presents his compli- 
ments to Commodore Rogers, of the United States' frigate 
President, and will be happy to meet him, or any other Ame- 
rican frigate of equal force to the President, off Sandy Hook, 
for the purpose of having a few minutes tete-a-tete^ The 
Constitution was precisely of equal force to the President, and 
* Since the examination, both of them have been found in the river; 
they were blown far astern of the steam-boat. 
