Naval Actions of the War of 1812

The _Enterprise_ hauled up on the wind and stood out to sea, preparing for action. Then followed one of the strange circumstances which happened so often in those days. The wind...

He had been out but a few days when he came across a Peruvian corsair. Ordering her to heave to, he boarded her, and found, to his astonishment, that she had on board twenty-fou...

Hull had kept his sails wet with hose and bucket, in order to hold the wind, and by ten o’clock his crew had started cheering and laughing, for they were slowly drawing ahead; t...

On mustering the next morning it was found that there were 277 souls on board, including the crew of the American brig _Hunter_, of Portland, Maine, captured by the _Peacock_ a...

Lieutenant Aylwin, of the _Constitution_, was severely wounded during the action. When the boarders were called to repel boarders, he mounted the quarter-deck hammock cloths, an...

On renewing the engagement the uselessness of continuing to fight was soon made apparent to the commander of the _Epervier_. She had received no less than forty-five shot in her...

Although their crews were exposed to full view and stood waist-high above the bulwarks, they did no dodging; their shots were well directed, and they raked the Englishmen fore a...

Now commenced the usual struggle for the advantage of the weather-gage; but, finding that the _Constitution_ could outpoint them, the British vessels gave up the attempt, and, f...

The account given to his government by Captain Bingham, of the _Little Belt_, gives the lie direct to the sworn statement of the affair, confirmed by all the officers and crew o...

“The aforesaid colors were then laid at the feet of Mrs. Madison. _O tempora! O mores!_ This was rather overdoing the affair. I forgot to say that the flag of the _Guerrière_ wa...

At the end of a hot five minutes there was a sharp crack aloft, and the main-topmast of the _Wasp_ swayed and fell, bringing down the main-topsail yard across the fore-topsail b...

“Our guns on the starboard side being nearly all dismounted or unmanageable, a stern-anchor was let go, the bower-cable cut, and the ship winded with a fresh broadside on the en...

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It had been very calm on the morning of the 28th when the great ship had been sighted which, as Biddle has recorded, every one took to be a large East-Indiaman. As the _Peacock_...