Chapter Three/Part One: Naval War of 1812 Illustrated - Blue Water

The United States went to war on June 18, 1812 and the battle cry of the nation was "Free Trade and Sailors' Rights." It was largely on blue water that the United States maritime forces and American privateers found their greatest success in the "Second War of Independence with Great Britain." And most of these victories occurred in the early months of the War before the United Kingdom realized the power of the American frigates and the competence of American gunnery and seamanship and before it could devote naval resources to the American theater from the hard fought European wars. When they eventually did and began to blockade American ports, warfare on blue water by the Americans greatly diminished.

The naval war opened in June when the predecessor of the United States Coast Guard, the Revenue Cutter Service, had the honor of taking the first ship of the conflict when the United States Revenue Cutter Jefferson captured the British brig Patriot. But tables turned against the Cuttermen when the British took the U.S.R.C. Commodore Barry (6) on August 3 and the U.S.R.C. James Madison (10) on August 22. However, by that time, the United States Navy had joined the fray for U.S. Navy Commodore John Rodgers had readied his squadron in New York and put to sea an hour after the news of the declaration of war reached the city from Washington. He sailed on the U.S. Frigate President (44) and had in his squadron: the U.S. Frigate United States (44) under Commodore Stephen Decatur; the U.S. Frigate Congress (38) under Captain John Smith; U.S. Brig Hornet (20) under Captain Lawrence and U.S. Brig Argus (20) under Lieutenant Sinclair. At sea they learned of a convoy bound from Jamica to Britain and, pursuing it, encountered the H.M. Frigate Belvidera (36) under Captain Byron that was escorting the convoy. The President and the Congress pursued with the President under Commander Rodgers taking the lead. When within range, Rodgers himself used a bow chaser to fire the first shot of the war at a British frigate -- a war the Belvidera did not know had been declared. It and two following shots found their mark, damaging the British frigate and killing or wounding nine men. Faced with this gunning accuracy and out matched by two to one as the Congress closed in, the Belvidera looked doomed.

[exarmydoc]

According to CS Forester(TheAge of Fighting Sail) the Royal Navy had not lost a battle in over 9 years prior to 1812. In the 2 1/2 years of the War, the Royal Navy lost 11 of 13 battles it fought against the US Navy. The Royal Navy took more losses fighting the US Navy than it did in 9 years of fighting the Navies of the world prior to the War of 1812.

[CaptLawrence]

While this is highly entertaining and well narrated I hope that it is understood that the british did not loose most of these fights due to inaccuracy or slowness of firing. They lost because their intentions were submission and capture meanwhile the american crew's had no plan of capture as is evident by their loss of almost every prize. Winning for winnings sake was not tolerated by british admiralty

[jackjosh]

I'm sorry but the British ships in these 1v1 battles you are raving about were out sized, out gunned and out manned, the closest thing the usa had to a fair fight was uss chesapeake vrs hms Shannon and Shannon won that day despite being the smaller of the 2, and tbh roosevelt's history of 1812 naval war has had so many holes picked into many of the accounts that I'm mythed to why it is still seen as the go to for information, it's more propaganda than fact I guess the criticisms do not get heard in the usa, it's a shame that national pride was more important than historical facts. patriotic spin is uss constitutions biggest victory