"I am here supposing our ships to have each their full compliment, which probably was not the case. The Essex, when she left the Delaware in October, 1812, had 376 prime seamen. In killed and wounded our loss was very trifling-about 15. The enemy very severe-about 152. He certainly made a brave defence; but it might have been told with a better grace by any other person than himself. His letter is of immoderate lengthcontains many inconsistencies and much foul language against captain Hillyar. We may allow him to be a little angry, that notwithstanding his cautious plans, the commander of the Phœbc should just nick the time of his being at Valparaiso. Another proof of the judgment of the American government in building such sloops of war as the Wasp, Frolic, and Peacock, has unfortunately occurred in the capture of the Reindeer brig by the first named vessel on the 28th of June, 1814. Never was a ship more ably defended than this ill-fated brig, nor British gallantry more fully displayed than in the unavailing efforts of her heroic crew. All that could be done was done. Poor Manners! thine was a noble spirit; but the unerring rifle set thee at rest ere the proud union of thy country was lowered from the peak. Where would the Wasp have been now, had there been, in men and metal, only a slight odds in her favour? "Originally, the Reindeer, like other brigs of her class, mounted thirty-two pounders, carronades; but it appears she lost part of them in a gale of wind, and leaving the remainder in port, took on board a full set of twenty-fours. She was built of fir in 1814, and had long outlived her contract. She had, it is stated, 20 boys in Her full compliment was 121; which we shall allow her to have had on board. her crew. "The Wasp's force, in guns and men, we are enabled correctly to give. Her commander is highly spoken of. The following particulars will place this action in a proper point of view: "Our loss in killed and wounded is stated to have been fifty or sixty, the enemy's thirty. Owing to the expertness of twenty-six marines stationed in the tops for the purpose, all the Reindeer's officers, except the captain's clerk, were picked off and killed, or disabled. The brig herself was so much shattered as to be destroyed after the action. "On the 11th July, 1814, the Rattlesnake, of 16 guns, 24's and 9's, and 131 men, was taken by the Leander frigate. She had a very choice crew. The officers and men had iron helmets, or skullcaps, to fend off the lusty coup-de-sabres of British boarders, with the motto in front "Don't give up the ship." "While the Rattlesnake and Enterprize (of similar force) were out in company, they obtained information that our brig, the Dotterel, was cruising off Charleston with a crew of sixty men, and those weakly and discontented. A plan was formed to be in concert-satisfied that 260 men would quickly overpower sixty, or even three times the number. It is doubted whether the Enterprize had all her guns on board. However, after many hours of anxious look-out the two heroes were chased away by the Morgiana of 18 guns-16 24lb. carronades and 2 small long guns, with a crew of at least ten men under the half of what were on board the enemy's brigs. It is probable the Morgiana having one more mast than the Dotterel occasioned this panic, as the American sloops of war of the heaviest class have hitherto shown a preference to our brig-rigged sloops. The Dotterel is said to have been on watching the two schooners Caroline and Nonsuch, of 16 and 12 guns, and 120 men each, and who were perhaps better informed of the condition of the Dotterel's crew, and therefore chose to remain blockaded. One of the instances above alluded to occurred in the Frolic (now Florida) of 22 guns and 171 men, avoiding the track of the Herald of 28 guns, (32 and 18 lb. carronades and long sixes) and 135 men, stationed off Baliga, on learning that the latter's main deck battery were carronades and not long sixes, as at first supposed. The Herald throws only twenty-eight pounds more shot than the Frolick, and is not so large by 150 tons. "On the 12th July, 1814, the Syren of 16 guns, two 42 pounders and twelve 24lb. carronades and two long 9's, with 137 men, was captured by the Medway 74. It is conjectured that the 42 pounders were taken from the President frigate, which was in port refitting when the Syren sailed: leaving the former fourteen instead of sixteen 42 pounders on her quarter-deck. The three American 44's were built in 1798; and the United States had become so weak in her upper works that commodore Decatur, in his letter to sir Thomas Hardy off New-London, states her to mount but 49 guns, when we know she carried 56, besides howitzers in her tops, at the capture of the Macedonian. These apparently trivial circumstances are noticed, because should any of these frigates hereafter undergo an inspection by foreigners of any nation, the Ame ricans will not scruple to say, "You see the ship does not mount so many guns as the British gave her." It is in such sophistry as this, and not in fighting, that we are unequal to the Americans. "I am not aware of having to notice the capture of any other man of war by a national vessel of the Americans. Two we have lately lost to American privateers. One of them under such circumstances of bold daring on the part of her commander and crew, that it would be highly unfair to pass it over.* "The Landrail cutter of four 12 pound carronades, commanded by lieutenant Lancaster, with a compliment of only 19 men and boys, fell in with, on the 12th July, the large American privateer schooner Syren; carrying, according to the American account, two 12 pound carronades, four long 6's, one long 12 pounder on a traversing carriage, and 78 men; with this unequal adversary the cutter sustained a running fight of one hour and 20 minutes: and a close action of within half pistol shot of 40 minutes more, when boarding gave her to the enemy. Nor were her exertions wholly in vain; for she killed the privateer's captain and one or two of his officers, wounded eight men, and had but one wounded herself. The cutter has since been re-captured by the Wasp sloop of war; but her gallant captain and crew are prisoners in America. "The crews of the American privateers are generally obtained in the same way (with the exception of pressing) as those of our • The other was the Ballahon schooner, of four guns and thirteen men, prize to the Perry privateer, of five guns and one hundred and twenty men. ships of war: and therefore a stated number of such men from each nation combatting together would afford a much fairer specimen of the gallantry of their respective countries, than opposing the "choice and pick" of one side against the "ordinary riffraff" of the other. Have not instances then daily occurred of our little packets with thirty or forty men and boys beating off the largest American privateers with crews of a hundred men and upwards? "One of the late numbers of the Naval Chronicle contains copies of a correspondence between sir Thomas Hardy, commodore of the British squadron off New-London, and the commander of the American squadron in port, blockaded by them; which, without a little explanation, may give rise to very erroneous ideas of American gallantry. "From the vicinity of the two squadrons, and the constant intercourse with the shore by means of licensed vessels, the American commodore was fully apprised that the Endymion, besides her great inferiority in metal, was many men short of her compliment: and that that compliment, when full, scarcely exceeded half the crew of the United States; which had been greatly increased since the capture of the Macedonian. His assertion of having reduced the number of his guns was a manœuvre worthy of Americans. The fact is, the United States is very much hogged; which induced the commodore to take off five or six of her bow guns, and no doubt for that reason only, to substitute eight long 32 pounders for the same number of her midship main-deck 24's, which were shifted into the Macedonian; thus making both ships heavier than they were before, instead of lighter, as is apparent from the commodore's very candid letter of challenge. His "incautious" consent, as expressed in his second letter, to allow the Endymion and Statira's crews to be made up from the Ramillies and Borer, was not mentioned in his first letter; therefore must afterwards been verbally given when the commodore found he had gone too far to retreat. "How very anxious both captains Hope and Stackpole were that this meeting should take place, is notorious to all on the American station. Captain Decatur declined a meeting between the Statira and Macedonian singly: evidently afraid of the same disappointment recurring that ensued from that of the Shannon and Chesapeake. "No sooner did the correspondence terminate than the American papers teemed with paragraphs, reflecting upon the courage of the British commanders: and of course extolling to the skies that of captains Decatur and Jones, and their officers and men. This it was that occasioned a British subject to get copies of the letters, and to publish them in a Boston paper. So unexpected an event astounded the blustering miscreants, and they were afterwards content with whispering what they dared not again preclaim. "A very popular writer among the Americans gravely passes the following exordium upon the character of his country's seamen:-" In all the qualities essential to success on the ocean, the American seamen are not only equal, but superior to the British seamen. It is no merit of their's. Nature and circumstances have made them so. But so it is they are physically superior-they are morally superior. The warm and variable climate of the United States has, to a certain degree, melted the original English constitution of our ancestors, till, instead of the broad-shouldered and ruddy form of the people of Great Britain, the Americans. are a thinner race of men, with less personal strength and stamina, but with more quickness, more alertness." "Is the above hodge-podge of character the best dish this political purveyor can serve up? I have neither room nor leisure now to pass an opinion upon its merits; having only faithfully handed down the receipe, that others may profit by it. "Within these few months the Americans have published a work entitled, "The Naval History of the United States." The book is intended to exalt the naval character of the Americans at the expense of our well tried seamen. They have never beat us; but we were fully equal to them. We have never beat them; but they were greatly inferior to us! The British NAVAL CHRONICLE is of a far different stamp; and will be read with interest all over Europe when that book will be thrown aside with disgust: as its glaring falsehoods and new fangled phraseology shall outrage the feelings, or puzzle the understanding. "I cannot dismiss the book, however, without exposing one or two attempts to aggrandize the exploits of the American public and private armed vessels. One of the numbers of the British Chronicle records the loss of some men on board the Yarmouth 64, in consequence of the sudden blowing up of the American ship Randolph, that by accident got within reach of her guns. A day or two after the event two men were picked up on a piece of the wreck, and preserved by the Yarmouth's people. These fellows, upon reaching home, mentioned the loss of men, &c. on board the 64; and perhaps added a few embellishments of their own. Be that as it may, the story was already in good hands: a splendid oil painting was prepared to perpetuate the daring attack made by the gallant captain Biddle in his little 32 gun frigate upon a British 64-the latter's spars are seen tumbling about her decks, her sails pierced with shot holes, and she evidently had the worst of the action-and doubtless would have struck but for the unfortunate blowing up of her antagonist: the description in print out-Americans this, and to be duly appreciated, must be read at length. I wish I could give it, but cannot. Again--that a privateer of 8 or 10 guns and 120 or 140 men should capture a merchantman of 10, 12, or 14 guns, and at most perhaps 16 men, can create no surprise. But "the American privateer schooner |