Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 2).djvu/352

 condemned ministers for not carrying on the war against the United States with greater vigour: at that moment, however, every effort was concentrated to strike down Napoleon.

The truth of Mr. Baring's recommendations soon became too apparent. Although the Americans when they declared war had only four frigates fit for service, the Constitution not being then finished, they launched such a fleet of privateers that English merchant vessels were captured in large numbers; but it was only when two of their frigates were taken that the English were aroused to the necessity of meeting with greater force their new rivals on the ocean. It ought, however, to be remembered that in the well-known cases of the capture of the Guerriere, the Macedonian, and the Java, by the Constitution and the United States respectively, the odds were largely on the side of the Americans, especially in the weight of their armaments and size of their vessels. Moreover the American crews were generally one-third English, and, however much we may regret to have to admit the fact, certain it is that, on board the United States, there were men who had actually served under Lord Nelson on board the Victory at Trafalgar. But it was not until the Shannon took the Chesapeake, in the presence, as is related, of a crowd of yachts which had come out from Boston to see the English frigate captured, that the British regained the supremacy they had so long held upon the ocean.

certificates."]*
 * [Footnote: out of a British man-of-war, but who have been wiser in securing