Other vic 1812 possession of the Frolic when the British ship-of-the-line Poictiers, of seventy-four guns, came along and took both him and his prize. A week later the United tories at sea, States, commanded by Commodore Decatur, met the Macedonian about 500 miles west of the Canaries, and took her after a hard fight, the ships being of about equal size. On December 29 the Constitution, Captain Bainbridge, had a remarkable encounter with the Java off the coast of Brazil. After a two hours' fight the British ship was completely disabled and the American ship had to draw off for repairs before receiving the surrender. The Java had to be burned as she was too seriously injured to be taken to port. On February 24, 1813, occurred the last of the five naval duels that took place during the first period of the war. The Hornet, Captain Lawrence, encountered the Peacock off the mouth of the Demarara River and soon forced her to strike her colors. As she did so she signaled distress, and the Americans at once came to her aid, but she went down almost immediately carrying nine of her own crew and three of the Hornet's. The American coast blockaded, March, 1813 Great Britain did not put forth her naval strength until the early spring of 1813. In September, 1812, Admiral Sir John Warren had been placed in charge of the American station with Halifax as the base of operations. He had under his command eleven ships-of-the-line, thirty-four frigates, thirtyeight sloops, and other vessels, making a total of ninetyseven. His mission was partly diplomatic and he sent to President Madison proposals of peace. The president replied that the abandonment of impressment was an indispensable condition, but as the British were not willing to concede this the negotiations came to naught. In February and March, 1813, Admiral Warren proceeded to blockade the coast from Narragansett Bay to Florida, bottling up naval ships and merchant vessels, and capturing those that were rash enough to venture out. The New England coast was not strictly blockaded until the following year, as the people were violently opposed to the administration of Madison and were willing to supply the British naval station at Halifax with provisions. The first serious disaster on the seas was the loss of the Chesapeake in a fight with the Shannon off Boston, June 1, 1813. Captain Lawrence, fresh from his vic- Isolated tory over the Peacock in February, had been encounters, transferred to the Chesapeake and had just 1813-1814 shipped a new and inexperienced crew at Boston when he was challenged by Captain Broke of the Shannon to come out and fight. He unwisely accepted the challenge though neither he nor his crew had tried the ship at sea. The result was that he got the worst of it. The Chesapeake surrendered after a desperate fight in which Lawrence was killed. In August the American brig Argus, Captain Allen, after taking nineteen prizes in English waters, was captured by the Pelican off the coast of Wales, but not until her captain was mortally wounded. In September the Enterprise, Lieutenant Burrows, had a fight with the British ship Boxer off the Maine coast, in which the Americans were successful. Both commanders were killed in the action. In June, 1814, a remarkable fight occurred off the English Channel between the American sloop Wasp, Captain Blakeley, and the British Reindeer. The Reindeer was taken in nineteen minutes and burned by Blakeley, as the risk of sending her to an American port was too great. Blakeley then cruised southward and after taking two or three more prizes the Wasp disappeared from human view. She was never heard from again. The United States frigate Essex, thirty-two guns, made a notable cruise under Captain David Porter. A month after the war broke out she put to sea and during the re The cruise mainder of the year she took ten prizes and 423 men. She then went to the South Atlantic and finally around Cape Horn, and captured a number of British whalers of the Essex, off the Galapagos Islands. She was finally block1812-1814 aded in Valparaiso harbor in February, 1814, and captured a month later. With Porter was David Farragut, then a midshipman thirteen years old. These incidents in remote waters had little or no effect on the contest, however gratifying they were to American pride. Privateers The work of American privateers was as brilliant as that of the regular navy. Ships were fitted out and armed at great expense to prey on British commerce, and and prizes a successful cruise brought great profits to the owners and shareholders who had taken stock in the enterprise. Nearly five hundred privateers were granted commissions during the war. Of these Maryland furnished the largest number; New York and Philadelphia came next; while the Massachusetts coast towns and Charleston, South Carolina, also sent out a number. It is almost impossible to give exact figures of the number of captures on either side. During the earlier part of the war the Americans took the larger number of prizes, but after the blockade was established the British figures were swelled by bay craft and oyster boats of little value. There were probably as many as 1700 prizes taken on each side, including the work of both privateers and war vessels. After the blockade became effective there were few American merchantmen on the seas to be taken, while American cruisers continued their depredations on British commerce in distant waters, though many of the prizes which they took were recaptured before they could be brought to an American port. On May 30, 1814, general peace was signed in Europe, and Napoleon having been sent to the island of Elba, England was free to direct her resources against America. On commerce the seas May 31 she ordered a stricter blockade of the American coast, including New England which had hitherto been largely spared. She was now able to place an American overwhelming division on blockade before each American port and a ship-of-the-line with each driven from division. The American frigates were thus successfully excluded from the ocean. When the war ended the only American vessels on the seas were the Constitution, three sloops, and one brig. When therefore we consider the effect of the war on the commerce of the two countries, we see that England had the overwhelming advantage. In fact American commerce was practically driven from the seas. Exports from the United States in 1807, the last year of unrestricted commerce, were $108,000,000; in 1814 they amounted to less than $7,000,000. The war on the 1813 After the surrender of Detroit, General Harrison, whose defeat of the Indians at Tippecanoe had made him popular with the men of Kentucky and the Northwest, was appointed to succeed Hull. He soon formed a plan of attacking Fort Malden Canadian frontier, by crossing over on the ice, but this plan was thwarted by the defeat of the leading division under Winchester at Frenchtown on the Raisin River in January, 1813. As Winchester was preparing to drive the British from this post he was attacked by a superior force from Fort Malden. Five hundred Americans were taken prisoners, nearly four hundred killed or massacred by the Indians after the battle, and less than forty escaped back to the main army. Weakened by this loss Harrison had to withdraw from his position on the Maumee, and as the terms of the militia expired in February, he had to delay further operations until he could enlist a new army. During the summer of 1813 Captain Oliver Hazard Perry, who was given the naval command on Lake Erie, pushed forward the construction of brigs and gunboats on the tory on Lake Erie, September 10, 1813 stocks at Presque Isle with such energy that by September he was able to put to sea with a fleet of six ships, which in tonnage, metal, and men was superior to that of Perry's vic- the British. On September 10 he won a brilliant victory, and sent to General Harrison the dispatch: "We have met the enemy and they are ours. Two ships, two brigs, and one sloop." The destruction of the British fleet on Lake Erie caused the army to abandon Detroit and opened the way for the invasion of Canada. Harrison's force of 4500 men was transported across the lake and landed near Malden, from which the British promptly withdrew. They burned both Detroit and Malden before retiring. Harrison followed the retreating British and forced them to fight at the Thames River. The engagement was short and the victory decisive for the Americans. Among the slain was the Indian chief Tecumseh, who had organized the Indians of the Northwest against the United States. The Indians had been the mainstay of the British control of this region and they now retired from the contest. The United States was now secure in the possession of Michigan Territory and Harrison dismissed most of his troops. OLIVER H. PERRY. On Lake Ontario the Americans were not so successful. Commodore Chauncey, the American commander, and Sir |