The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1894-06-23

had been expected that in sevee
months America's flag would be swept
, from the seas and her little navy ami
hilated, it said: Yet down to this
moment not single American frig-
ate has struck her flag" However,, a
change came when the Chesapeake,
under brave Lawrence, surrendered to
the Shannon, under Broke, while the
Essex, too, under Porter, after re-
markably bold cruise n the Pacific, was
overwhelmed by pair of antagonists,
the Phoebe and the Cherub. But she
had meanwhile captured four thou
sand tons of British shipping and had
dealt a heavy blow to British COM
merce.
The American sloops did their part
as brilliantly as the frigates. The Pea
cock was sunk in action by Lawrence's
Hornet, and the Wasp, under Master
Commandant Jones, cut to- pieces the
Frolic. The Argus, however, was
beaten by the British Pelican, and the
Viper and the Vixen fell into the hands
of big frigates without resistance. But
the Enterprise, under Lieut.. Burrows,
who, like his opponent, was killed in
the action, gained fine victory for
America over the Boxer. Perry's mag
nifcent triumph on Lake Erie also be-
longs to the period covered by this
volume. W El
Mr.. Maclay rightly says that the
naval part of the war of 1872 was a
hard blow to British PRIDE and the
harder because Americas laurels were
won by a force which England had
ridiculed The London Statesman of
June TO- 1872 had declared that 'Amer-
lea certainly cannot pretend to wage
war with us. She has nc navy to do it
with" Bpt after the loss Of twq frig-
ates the London Times declared ''oiir
sea spell is broken To appreciate
what our young navy really did we
( must note that at the beginning of 1919
the British navy was lin the zenith of
it's glory. 1t had matched it's strength
against the combined navies of the
greatest maritime nations of the world,
and had come off avictor. In two hum
dred actions between single ships it
had been defeated but five times. and
on those occasions the British ship is
admitted to be of inferior force. But
in two and half years of naval war
with the United States, British COM
merce was almost annihilated, and in
eighteen naval engagements the royal
navy sustained fifteen defeats" Over
| fifteen hundred English vessels and
more than twenty thousand seamep,
says our author, were captured in this
war.
The disparity in losses was another
surprise to the British. At Trafalgar,
Nelson's flagship, Victory, lost fifty
seven killed and one hundred and two
wounded, out of six hundred men and
boys; but the Java lost sixty killed and
one hundred and one wounded out Of
four hundred and twenty-six, and our
Constitution had only nine killed and
twenty-five wounded. In the great
fight off Camperdown, the seventy-four-
! gun ship Monarch, which lost most
| heavily of all on the British side, had
thirty-six killed and one hundred
wounded out of five hundred and nine
ty-three. whereas, ip the eighteen
minute battle between the eighteen
gun sloops Wasp and Reindeer, the
English lost twenty-five killed and
| forty-two wounded. and the Frolic, in
her battle with the Wasp, had fifteen
killed and forty-seven wounded out of
one hundred and ten, the American
| losing only five killed and five wounded.
| In casting about for the reason of
the American successes we must doubt
less trace it, first to the fatal under
rating of our navy by the British.
They had been SO accustomed for gen.
erations to beating others against
odds that they. forgot that it was
/ Il +to, fr,o on1r ;,, r.
way, men of their own seafaring race,
who not only built magnificent ships,
but who armed them more heavily in
proportion to tonnage, and manned
them with crews obtained by free en-
listment; not by impressment. Sir
Howard Douglas admits how much the
British commanders, who had long
been accustomed to contemn all
maneuverihg, learned from the splen-
did battle tactics of American sailors
like Hull. But perhaps the greatest
cause of the American successes was a
superiority in gunnery, obtained by
constant practice, such as few British
ships undertook. The London Times,
commenting on the action of the
Enterprise and Boxer, said 'the fact
seems to be but too clearly estimated
that the Americans have some superior
modes of firing The praise given to
the Constitution as an all-round fine
ship by British officers was as hearty
as that which Vice Admiral Hopkins
recently gave to our New York. The
British also found the Americans using
, fine sheet-lead cartridges, which they
, did not have, chain and bar shot, and
, "a new kind of grape shot and canister.
Such improvements they afterwards