and _Frolic_ were carried to Bermuda. The
American crew was soon exchanged, and Congress applied balm to the
injured feelings of these fine sailormen by filling their pockets to the
amount of twenty-five thousand dollars in prize money.

It was only a week later that the navy vouchsafed an encore to a
delighted nation. This time the sport royal was played between stately
frigates. On the 8th of October Commodore Rodgers had taken his squadron
out of Boston for a second cruise. After four days at sea the _United
States_ was detached, and Captain Stephen Decatur ranged off to the
eastward in quest of diversion. A fortnight of monotony was ended by a
strange sail which proved to be the British thirty-eight-gun frigate
_Macedonian_, newly built. Her commander, Captain Carden, had the
highest opinion of his ship and crew, and one of his officers testified
that "the state of discipline on board was excellent; in no British ship
was more attention paid to gunnery. Before this cruise the ship had been
engaged almost every day with the enemy; and in time of peace the crew
were constantly exercised at the great guns."

The _United States_ was a sister frigate of the _Constitution_, built
from the same designs and therefore more formidable than her British
opponent as three is to two. Captain Carden had no misgivings, however,
and instantly set out in chase of the American frigate. But he was
unfortunate enough to pit himself against one of the ablest officers
afloat, and his own talent was mediocre. The result was partly
determined by this personal equation in an action in which the
_Macedonian_ was outgeneraled as well as outfought. And again gunnery
was a decisive factor. Observers said that the broadsides of the
_United States_ flamed with such rapidity that the ship looked as though
she were on fire.

Early in the fight Captain Carden bungled an opportunity to pass close
ahead of the _United States_ and so rake her with a destructive attack.
Then rashly coming to close quarters, the _Macedonian_ was swept by the
heavy guns of the American frigate and reduced to wreckage in ninety
minutes. The weather was favorable for the Yankee gun crews, and the war
offered no more dramatic proof of their superbly intelligent training.
The _Macedonian_ had received more than one hundred shot in her hull,
several below the water line, one mast had been cut in two, and the
others were useless. More than a hundred of her officers and men wer