lly renounce their
claims in this respect, the exploits of the American navy had shown
that the Yankee blue-jackets were prepared to, and would, forcibly
resent any attempt on the part of the British to put those claims into
practice. The British had entered upon the war gaily, never dreaming
that the puny American navy would offer any serious resistance to
Great Britain's domination upon the ocean. Yet now, looking back over
the three years of the war, they saw an array of naval battles, in the
majority of which the Americans had been victorious; and in all of
which the brilliancy of American naval tactics, the skill of the
officers, and the courage and discipline of the crews, put the younger
combatants on a plane with the older and more famous naval service.
Fenimore Cooper, in his "History of the Navy of the United States,"
thus sums up the results of this naval war: "The navy came out of this
struggle with a vast increase of reputation. The brilliant style in
which the ships had been carried into action, the steadiness and
accuracy with which they had been handled, and the fatal accuracy of
their fire on nearly every occasion had produced a new era in naval
warfare. Most of the frigate actions had been as soon decided as
circumstances would at all allow; and in no instance was it found
necessary to keep up the fire of a sloop-of-war an hour, when singly
engaged. Most of the combats of the latter, indeed, were decided in
about half that time. The execution done in these short conflicts was
often equal to that made by the largest vessels of Europe in general
actions; and, in some of them, the slain and wounded comprised a very
large proportion of their crews.... The ablest and bravest captains of
the English fleet were ready to admit that a new power was about to
appear upon the ocean, and that it was not improbable the battle for
the mastery of the seas would have to be fought over again."

CHAPTER XVII.

PRIVATEERS AND PRISONS OF THE WAR. -- THE "ROSSIE." -- SALEM
PRIVATEERS. -- THE "GEN. ARMSTRONG" GIVES BATTLE TO A BRITISH
SQUADRON, AND SAVES NEW ORLEANS. -- NARRATIVE OF A BRITISH
OFFICER. -- THE "PRINCE DE NEUFCHATEL." -- EXPERIENCES OF
AMERICAN PRISONERS OF WAR. -- THE END.

No narrative of the naval exploits of the Americans in the second war
with Great Britain can be complete without some account of the
achievements of the fleets of privateers which for three years swept
t