of Hull and his good ship, and doggerel Guerrière was shot away, her main-yard verse in songs and sonnets, like the fol- was in slings, and her hull, spars, sails, lowing, abounded: and rigging were torn to pieces. By a skilful movement the Constitution now

Neath Hull's command, with a taught band, fell foul of her foe, her bowsprit running

And naught beside to back her, Upon a day, as log-books say,

A fleet bore down to thwack her.

"A fleet, you know, is odds or so
Against a single ship, sirs,

So 'cross the tide her legs she tried,
And gave the rogues the slip, sirs."

Hull sent

into the larboard quarter of her antag. onist. The cabin of the Constitution was set on fire by the explosion of the forward guns of the Guerrière, but the flames were soon extinguished. Both parties attempted to board, while the roar of the great guns was terrific. The sea was rolling heavily, and would not allow a safe On Aug. 12 Captain Hull sailed from passage from one vessel to the other. At Boston and cruised eastward in search of length the Constitution became disBritish vessels. He was anxious to find the entangled and shot ahead of the Guerrière, Guerrière, thirty-eight guns, Capt. James when the main-mast of the latter, shatRichard Dacres. The British newspapers, tered into weakness, fell into the sea. The sneering at the American navy, had Guerrière, shivered and shorn, rolled like spoken of the Constitution as a “bundle a log in the trough of the sea, entirely of pine boards sailing under a bit of striped bunting." They had also declared that "a few broadsides from England's wooden walls would drive the paltry striped bunting from the ocean." Hull was eager to pluck out the sting of these insults. He sailed as far as the Bay of Fundy, and then cruised eastward of Nova Scotia, where he captured a number of British merchant vessels on their way to the St. Lawrence. On the afternoon of Aug. 19 he fell in with the Guerrière, in lat. 41° 40', long. 55° 48'. Some firing began at long range. Perceiving a willingness on the part of his antagonist to have a fair yard-arm to yard-arm fight, Hull pressed sail to get his vessel alongside the Guerrière. When the Guerrière began to pour shot into the Constitution, Lieutenant Morris, Hull's second in command, asked, "Shall I open fire?" Hull quietly replied, "Not yet." The question was repeated when the shots began to tell on the Constitution, and Hull again answered, "Not yet." When the vessels were very near each other, Hull, filled with intense excitement, bent himself twice to the deck and shouted, "Now, boys, pour it into them!" The command was instantly obeyed.

at the mercy of the billows.
his compliments to Captain Dacres, and
inquired whether he had struck his flag.
Dacres, who was a "jolly tar," looking
up and down and at the stumps of his
masts, coolly and dryly replied,
"Well,
I don't know; our mizzen-mast is gone;
our main-mast is gone; upon the whole,
you may say we have struck our flag."
Too much bruised to be saved, the Guer-
rière was set on fire and blown up after
her people were removed. This exploit of
Hull made him the theme of many toasts,
songs, and sonnets. One rhymester wrote
concerning the capture of the Guerrière:
"Isaac did so maul and rake her,
That the decks of Captain Dacre
Were in such a woful pickle,
As if Death, with scythe and sickle,
With his sling, or with his shaft,
had cut his harvest fore and aft.
Thus, in thirty minutes, ended
Mischiefs that could not be mended;
Masts and yards and ship descended
All to Davy Jones's locker-

Such a ship, in such a pucker."

Hull had seven men killed and seven wounded. Dacres lost seventy men killed and wounded. The news of this victory was received with joy throughout the country. The people of Boston gave Hull and his officers a banquet, at which 600 citizens sat down. The authorities of New York gave him the freedom of the city in a gold box. Congress thanked him and awarded him a gold medal, and the appropriated $50,000 to be distributed as

The guns of the Constitution were double shotted with round and grape, and their execution was terrible. The vessels were within pistol shot of each other. Fifteen minutes after the contest began the mizzen - mast of

prize-money among the officers and crew the finest vessels in the royal navy. They of the Constitution. The British public were then about 30 miles from the were amazed by the event. Their faith shore, southeast of San Salvador. About in the impregnability of the "wooden walls two o'clock in the afternoon, after runof Old England" was shaken. Its bearing ning upon the same tack with the Conon the future of the war was incalculable. stitution, the Java bore down upon the The London Times regarded it as a serious latter with the intention of raking her. blow to the British supremacy of the seas. This calamity was avoided, and very soon "It is not merely that an English frigate a most furious battle at short range was has been taken," said that journal, "but begun. When it had raged about half that it has been taken by a new enemy- an hour the wheel of the Constitution an enemy unaccustomed to such triumphs, was shot away, and her antagonist, being and likely to be rendered insolent and con- the better sailer, had the advantage of fident by them." her for a time.

After his decisive victory over the Bainbridge managed his crippled ship Guerrière, Captain Hull generously re- with so much skill that she was first in tired from the command of the Constitu- coming to the wind on the next tack, and tion to allow others to win honors with gave her antagonist a terrible raking fire. her. Capt. William Bainbridge was ap- Both now ran free, with the wind on their pointed his immediate successor, and was quarter, and at three o'clock the Java atplaced in command of a small squadron- tempted to close by running down the the Constitution, Essex, thirty-two guns, Constitution's quarter. She missed her and Hornet, eighteen. Bainbridge sailed aim, and lost her jib-boom and the head from Boston late in October, 1812, with of her bowsprit by shots from the Conthe Constitution and Hornet. The Essex stitution. In a few moments the latter was ordered to follow to designated ports, poured a heavy raking broadside into the and, if the flag-ship was not found at any stem of the Java. Another followed, of them, to go on an independent cruise. when the fore-mast of the Java went by After touching at these ports, Bainbridge the board, crushing in the forecastle was off Bahia or San Salvador, Brazil, and main-deck in its passage. At that

UPERAT JUL. MDCCCXII ANG.CERTA

HULL'S MEDAL.

where the Hornet blockaded an English moment the Constitution shot ahead, sloop-of-war, and the Constitution con- keeping away to avoid being raked, and tinued down the coast. On Dec. 29 she fell finally, after manoeuvring nearly an hour, in with the British frigate Java, forty- she forereached her antagonist, wore, nine guns, Capt. Henry Lambert, one of passed her, and luffed up under her quar

ter. Then the two vessels lay broadside to broadside, engaged in deadly conflict yard-arm to yard-arm. Very soon the Java's mizzen-mast was shot away. The fire of the Java now ceased, and Bainbridge was under the impression that she had struck her colors. He had fought about two hours, and occupied an hour in repairing damages, when he saw an ensign fluttering over the Java. Bainbridge was preparing to renew the conflict, when the Java's colors were hauled down and she was surrendered. She was bearing as passenger to the East Indies Lieutenant-General Hyslop (just appointed governor-general of Bombay) and When Bainbridge relinquished the comhis staff, and more than 100 English offi- mand of the Constitution, in 1813, she cers and men destined for service in the was thoroughly repaired and placed in East Indies. The Java was a wreck, and charge of Capt. Charles Stewart. She left the Constitution's sails were very much Boston Harbor, for a cruise, on Dec. 30, riddled. The commander of the Java 1813, and for seventeen days did not see a was mortally wounded. Her officers and sail. At the beginning of February, 1814, crew numbered about 446. Some of the she was on the coast of Surinam, and, above described passengers assisted in on the 14th, captured the British warthe contest. How many of the British schooner Picton, sixteen guns, together were lost was never revealed. It was be- with a letter-of-marque which was under lieved their loss was nearly 100 killed her convoy. On her way homeward she and 200 wounded. The Constitution lost chased the British frigate La Pique, nine killed and twenty-five wounded. thirty-six guns, off Porto Rico, but Bainbridge, also, was wounded. After she escaped under cover of the night. every living being had been transferred Early on Sunday morning, April 3, when from the Java to the Constitution, the off Cape Ann, she fell in with two former was fired and blown up (Dec. heavy British frigates (the Junon and 31, 1812). The prisoners were paroled La Nymphe); and she was compelled at San Salvador. The news of the victory created great joy in the United States.

Bainbridge received honors of the most conspicuous kind-a banquet at Boston (March 2, 1813); thanks of legislatures; the freedom of the city of New York, in a gold box, by its authorities; the same by the authorities of the city of Albany; an elegant service of silver-plate by the citizens of Philadelphia; and the thanks of Congress, with a gold medal for himself and silver ones for his officers, besides $50,000 in money to Bainbridge and his companions-in-arms as compensation for their loss of prize-money. The conflict between the Constitution and the Java was the closing naval engagement of the first six months of the war. From this time the Constitution was ranked among the seamen as a "lucky ship," and she was called "Old Ironsides."

to seek safety in the harbor of Marblehead. She was in great peril there from her pursuers. These were kept at bay by a quickly gathered force of militia, infantry, and artillery, and she was soon afterwards safely anchored in Salem Harbor. Thence she went to Boston,