1812	Macedonian and United States	117

to pass to windward of the United-States, to the termination of the contest.

Of her 254 men (deducting the eight foreigners who refused to fight) and 35 boys, the Macedonian had her boatswain (James Holmes), one master's mate (Thomas James Nankivee), her schoolmaster (Dennis Colwell), 23 seamen, two boys, and eight marines killed, her first lieutenant (David Hope, severely), third lieutenant (John Bulford, slightly), one master's mate (Henry Roebuck), one midshipman (George Greenway), one first-class volunteer (Francis Baker), 50 seamen (two mortally), four boys (two with each a leg amputated), and nine marines wounded ; total, 36 killed and 68 wounded.

The United-States is represented, by her captain and his officers, to have had her masts and rigging not materially injured, and to have received only nine shot in her hull. " It is remarkable," adds one of her officers, " that, during an action of one hour and a half, and a fire which I believe was never equalled by any single deck, not an accident occurred, nor a rope-yarn of our gun-tackle strained . " Her loss, from the same authority, amounted to no more than five seamen killed, Lieutenant John Musser Funk and one seaman mortally, and five others badly wounded. The slightly wounded, as in all other American cases, are omitted.

With respect to the damage sustained by the United-States, although Commodore Decatur makes very light of it, Captain Cardan represents, that the United-States " was pumped out every watch till her arrival in port, from the effect of shot received underwater, and that two 18-pounders had passed through her mainmast in a horizontal line. " * The masts of the American 44, it should be stated, are as stout as those of a British 74-gun ship ; and, to render them still more secure from the effects of shot, four large quarter-fishes are girthed upon them. Although none of her masts, except her mizen topgallantmast, were shot away, the rigging of the United-States was much cut. The reason that the American frigate had to refill her cartridges, all of which had been expended in the action, has already appeared ; † and one of her officers, in a letter to a friend, exhibits the practical advantages of sheet-lead cartridges in the statement, that, during the time the Macedonian was firing 36 broadsides, the United-States fired 70. But an allowance must here be made for the inability of the Macedonian, during a third at least of the action, to bring more than a few of her bow-guns to bear.

We shall, as inn the case of the Guerrière, exclude from the broadside force, the Macedonian's boat-carronade. We might be justified in doing the same with the two French 8-pounders ; for, it appears, they " were only fired once, the solder, by which pieces of metal for securing the locks had been affixed to them,

* Marshall, vol. ii., p. 1012. † See p. 103.

^ back to top ^