page_title: War of 1812
section_title: Single-ship actions
hierarchical_section_title: War of 1812 / Course of war / Atlantic theater / Single-ship actions
caption_attribution_description: English: A Thomas Buttersworth painting at first, thought to be HMS Belvidera escaping from USS President, this painting depicts the HMS Endymion yawing to rake USS President at dusk as President is ahead of the British frigate and has her after sails cut while the British frigate has her foresails cut. Furthermore, the British frigate in the painting and HMS Endymion were painted all black which was extremely unusual for ships of that size at the time.
context_page_description: The War of 1812 was a conflict fought between the United States and its allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and its own allies. It began when the United States declared war in June 1812 and ended in a stalemate when a peace treaty agreed earlier was ratified by the United States in February 1815. While the war ended in a draw, both sides were happy with the outcome that saw the war ending and indigenous nations are generally seen among historians as the real losers. Historians in Britain often see it as a minor theatre of the Napoleonic Wars while historians in Canada and the United States see it as a war in its own right. From the outbreak of war with Napoleonic France in 1803, Britain had enforced a naval blockade to choke off neutral trade to France which the United States contested as illegal under international law. To man the blockade, Britain pressed merchant sailors into the Royal Navy, including Americans. American sentiment grew increasingly hostile toward Britain due to incidents such as the Chesapeake–Leopard affair, five years before the war. The British were outraged by the 1811 Little Belt affair in which eleven British sailors died.
context_section_description: Both Americans and British felt their navies' honour had been challenged prior to the war. The United States took the Chesapeake–Leopard affair and the Royal Navy's impressment of sailors as an insult and felt it could redeem itself by duelling. Similarly, the British felt their honour was challenged in the Little Belt affair where the United States frigate President fired on the British sloop HMS Little Belt, mistaking it for the British frigate HMS Guerriere. Captain James Dacres of Guerriere began a cycle of frigate duels by challenging President to a single ship duel to avenge the losses aboard Little Belt. Commodore John Rodgers of President declined the challenge because he feared that the rest of the British squadron under Commodore Philip Broke might intervene.
  Meanwhile, USS Constitution commanded by Captain Isaac Hull sailed from the Chesapeake Bay on 12 July 1812. On 17 July, Commodore Broke's British squadron, including Guerriere, gave chase off New York, but Constitution evaded them after two days. Broke detached Guerriere from his squadron to seek out repairs as she had weak scantlings (Beams fastened with a thickened clamp rather than vertical and horizontal knees) and had become leaky and rotten. She had also been struck by lightning, severely damaging her masts. Captain Dacres was eager to engage the American frigate and to redeem British honour as Constitution was the sister ship of President and would serve equally well as an American ship to duel. Constitution had nearly 50 percent more men, more firepower, heavier tonnage and heavier scantlings (this determines how much damage enemy shot does to a ship) than Guerriere.
  Constitution sighted Guerriere 400 miles off the coast of Nova Scotia on August 19, and the two ships engaged in a 35-minute battle. Constitution dismasted Guerriere and captured the crew. Guerriere was beyond repair and the Americans burned it before returning to Boston. Constitution earned the nickname "Old Ironsides" following this battle as many of the British cannonballs were seen to bounce off her hull due to her heavy scantlings.
  On 25 October, the USS United States commanded by Captain Decatur captured the British frigate HMS Macedonian, which he then carried back to port. At the close of the month, Constitution sailed south, now commanded by Captain William Bainbridge. She met the British frigate HMS Java on 29 December off Bahia, Brazil. After a battle lasting three hours, Java struck her colours and was burned after being judged unsalvageable. Constitution seemed relatively undamaged initially, but the crew later determined that Java had successfully hit her masts with 18-pounder shot, but the mast had not fallen due to its diameter. United States, Constitution and President were all nearly 50 percent larger by tonnage, crew, firepower and scantling size than Macedonian, Guerriere and Java. Guerriere was rotten and had lightning damage as well as being weakly built as a French ship while Java had extra marines onboard making the disparity in crew more similar although she too was a French-built ship; Macedonian fitted the 50 percent statistic near perfectly.
  The United States Navy's sloops had also won several victories over Royal Navy sloops of approximately equal armament. The American sloops Hornet, Wasp (1807), Peacock, Wasp (1813) and Frolic were all ship-rigged while the British Cruizer-class sloops they encountered were brig-rigged which gave the Americans a significant advantage. Ship rigged vessels are more maneuverable in battle because they have a wider variety of sails and thus being more resistant to damage. Ship-rigged vessels can back sail, literally backing up or heave to (stop). More significantly, if some spars are shot away on a brig because it is more difficult to wear and the brig loses the ability to steer while a ship could adjust its more diverse canvas to compensate for the imbalance caused by damage in battle. Furthermore, ship-rigged vessels which have three masts simply have more masts to shoot away than brigs with two masts before the vessel is u
caption: The capture of USS President was the last naval duel to take place during the conflict, with its combatants unaware of the signing of the Treaty of Ghent several weeks prior.
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