the War of
the Revolution. It served to show how deep-seated had been the American
conviction that Britain's mastery of the sea was like a spell which
could not be broken.

[Illustration: _COMMODORE STEPHEN DECATUR_

Painting by Thomas Sully, 1811. In the Comptroller's Office, owned by
the City of New York.]

[Illustration: _"CONSTITUTION" AND "GUERRIERE"_

An old print, illustrating the moment in the action at which the
mainmast of the _Guerriere_, shattered by the terrific fire of the
American frigate, fell overside, transforming the former vessel into a
floating wreck and terminating the action. The picture represents
accurately the surprisingly slight damage done the _Constitution_; note
the broken spanker gaff and the shot holes in her topsails.]

CHAPTER VI

MATCHLESS FRIGATES AND THEIR DUELS

It was soon made clear that the impressive victory over the _Guerriere_
was neither a lucky accident nor the result of prowess peculiar to the
_Constitution_ and her crew. Ship for ship, the American navy was better
than the British. This is a truth which was demonstrated with
sensational emphasis by one engagement after another. During the first
eight months of the war there were five such duels, and in every
instance the enemy was compelled to strike his colors. In tavern and
banquet hall revelers were still drinking the health of Captain Isaac
Hull when the thrilling word came that the _Wasp_, an eighteen-gun ship
or sloop, as the type was called in naval parlance, had beaten the
_Frolic_ in a rare fight. The antagonists were so evenly matched in
every respect that there was no room for excuses, and on both sides were
displayed such stubborn hardihood and a seamanship so dauntless as to
make an Anglo-Saxon proud that these foemen were bred of a common stock.

The _Wasp_ had sailed from the Delaware on the 13th of October, heading
southeast to look for British merchantmen in the West India track. Her
commander was Captain Jacob Jones, a name revived in modern days by a
destroyer of the Queenstown fleet in the arduous warfare against the
German submarines. Shattered by a torpedo, the _Jacob Jones_ sank in
seven minutes, and sixty-four of the officers and crew perished, doing
their duty to the last, disciplined, unafraid, so proving themselves
worthy of the American naval service and of the memory of the
unflinching captain of 1812.

The little _Wasp_ ran into a terrific gale which blew her sails away and