uthward, until on the night of August 18th he spoke a privateer, which
told him of a British frigate near at hand. Following the
privateersman's directions, the Constitution the next day, August 19th,
[1812,] at two o'clock in the afternoon, latitude 41 deg. 42 min.,
longitude 55 deg. 48 min., sighted the Guerriere.

The meeting was welcome on both sides. Only three days before, Captain
Dacres had entered on the log of a merchantman a challenge to any
American frigate to meet him off Sandy Hook. Not only had the Guerriere
for a long time been extremely offensive to every seafaring American,
but the mistake which caused the Little Belt to suffer so seriously for
the misfortune of being taken for the Guerriere had caused a
corresponding feeling of anger in the officers of the British frigate.
The meeting of August 19th had the character of a preconcerted duel.

The wind was blowing fresh from the northwest, with the sea running
high. Dacres backed his main topsail and waited. Hull shortened sail,
and ran down before the wind. For about an hour the two ships wore and
wore again, trying to get advantage of position; until at last, a few
minutes before six o'clock, they came together side by side, within
pistol shot, the wind almost astern, and running before it, they pounded
each other with all their strength. As rapidly as the guns could be
worked, the Constitution poured in broadside after broadside,
double-shotted with round and grape; and without exaggeration, the echo
of these guns startled the world. "In less than thirty minutes from the
time we got alongside of the enemy," reported Hull, "she was left
without a spar standing, and the hull cut to pieces in such a manner as
to make it difficult to keep her above water."

That Dacres should have been defeated was not surprising; that he should
have expected to win was an example of British arrogance that explained
and excused the war. The length of the Constitution was one hundred and
seventy-three feet, that of the Guerriere was one hundred and fifty-six
feet; the extreme breadth of the Constitution was forty-four feet, that
of the Guerriere was forty feet: or within a few inches in both cases.
The Constitution carried thirty-two long twenty-four-pounders, the
Guerriere thirty long eighteen-pounders and two long twelve-pounders;
the Constitution carried twenty thirty-two-pound carronades, the
Guerriere sixteen. In every respect, and in proportion of ten to seven,
the