1813     THE SCHOONER CLASSES     151

vessel diminishes. This is the reason that frigate-built ships below 580 or 600 tons, carrying eight or ten guns upon the quarterdeck and forecastle, are usually so crank and unsafe ; and one cause of their sailing so ill is, that their masts must be shorter, and their sails smaller, to counteract the strong heeling propensity of their hulls.

Fortunately for the honour of the captains appointed to the new 20-gun ships, some newspaper of the day exaggerated their force and size, and extolled them as very formidable vessel. The consequence was, that the Wasp, Frolic, Peacock, and Hornet avoided every three-masted man of war they fell in with ; confining the exercise of their prowess to the British brig-sloop, the utmost extent of whose force was well known to them. While we are making this assertion, we bear fully in mind the braggadocio that took place between the Hornet and the Bonne-Citoyenne ; but we shall very soon establish the fact, that the behaviour of the Americans on the occasion was nothing but braggadocio, and that of the most despicable kind.

The schooner-classes of the two names will require but a few words. None can compete with the Americans in the size, beauty, swiftness, or seaworthiness of their schooners. They will arm a schooner of 200 tons, with seven guns, including a traversing 18 or 24 pounder, and give her a crew of at least 100 able-bodied men. If this schooner is captured by the British and deemed eligible for the navy, her bulwarks are raised, and pierced with ports fire and aft, 14 carronades, 18 or 12 pounders, are crowded upon her deck, and she is established (there is no crowding here) with a crew of 45 or 50 men and at least six or seven very young boys. The tophamper necessarily diminishes the vessel's rate of sailing ; and another impediment frequently arises from the inexperience of her commander, in the art of working to advantage a schooner-rigged vessel.

To whatever is classed under one head, people are apt, and very naturally, to attach an idea of equality; and the stronger party is sure to triumph in his victory, until the weaker party has shown the disparity of force against which he had to contend. It too frequently happens, that this is not done ; and, before it can be done with effect, two operations are necessary : the removal of one impression, and the substitution of another. The President and the Southampton * are " frigates ; " the Peacock and the Childers † are " sloops of war ; " and the following statement will show, that one " man-of-war schooner " may differ in force and size from another, to even a greater extent than in the case of the frigate or the sloop. The American privateer-schooner Harlequin, of Boston, measured 323 tons, and mounted 10 long 12-pounders, with a crew of 115 men. Her mainmast was 84 feet, and her fore yard 64 feet, in length. Her bulwark was of

* See pp. 5 and 7.     † See Vol. v., p. 28.

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