Constitution_ and the _United States_ was far-reaching
in improving the efficiency of the American navy, it can be said also
that the victory of the _Shannon_ taught the British service the value
of rigorous attention to gunnery and a highly trained and disciplined
personnel.

American chagrin was somewhat softened a few weeks later when two very
small ships, the _Enterprise_ and the _Boxer_, met in a spirited combat
off the harbor of Portland, Maine, like two bantam cocks, and the
Britisher was beaten in short order on September 5, 1813. The
_Enterprise_ had been a Yankee schooner in the war with Tripoli but had
been subsequently altered to a square rig and had received more guns and
men to worry the enemy's privateers. The brig-of-war was a kind of
vessel heartily disliked by seamen and now vanished from blue water. The
immortal Boatswain Chucks of Marryat proclaimed that "they would
certainly damn their inventor to all eternity" and that "their common,
low names, 'Pincher,' 'Thrasher,' 'Boxer,' 'Badger,' and all that sort,
are quite good enough for them."

Commanding the _Enterprise_ was Captain William Burrows, twenty-eight
years old, who had seen only a month of active service in the war.
Captain Samuel Blyth of the _Boxer_ had worked his way up to this
unimportant post after many years of arduous duty in the British navy.
He might have declined a tussel with the _Enterprise_ for his crew
numbered only sixty-six men against a hundred and twenty, but he nailed
his colors to the mainmast and remarked that they would never come down
while there was any life in him.

The day was calm, the breeze fitful, and the little brigs drifted about
each other until they lay within pistol shot. Then both loosed their
broadsides, while the sailors shouted bravely, and both captains fell,
Blyth killed instantly and Burrows mortally hurt but crying out that the
flag must never be struck. There was no danger of this, for the
_Enterprise_ raked the British brig through and through until resistance
was hopeless. Captain Blyth was as good as his word. He did not live to
see his ensign torn down. Great hearts in little ships, these two
captains were buried side by side in a churchyard which overlooks Casco
Bay, and there you may read their epitaphs today.

The grim force of circumstances was beginning to alter the naval policy
of the United States. Notwithstanding the dramatic successes, her flag
was almost banished from the high seas