%267. The Sea Fights.%--While our army on the frontier was accomplishing little, our war ships were winning victory after victory on the sea. At the opening of the war, our navy was the subject of English ridicule and contempt. We had sixteen ships; she had 1200. She laughed at ours as "fir-built things with a bit of striped bunting at their mastheads." But before 1813 came, these "fir-built things" had destroyed her naval supremacy.[1] With the details of all these victories on the sea we will not concern ourselves. Yet a few must be mentioned because the fame of them still endures, and because they are examples of naval warfare in the days when the ships fought lashed together, and when the boarders, cutlass and pistol in hand, climbed over the bulwarks and met the enemy on his own deck, man to man. During 1812 the frigate _Constitution_, whose many victories won her the name of "Old Ironsides," sank the _Guerrière_; the _United States_ captured and brought to port the _Macedonian_; and the _Wasp_, a little sloop of eighteen guns, after the most desperate engagement of the whole war, captured the British sloop _Frolic_. [Footnote 1: One reason for the success of the American navy was the experience it had gained in the clash with France, and also in a war with Tripoli in 1801-1805. At that time the Christian nations whose ships sailed the Mediterranean Sea were accustomed to pay annual tribute to Tripoli and other piratical states on the north coast of Africa, under pain of having their ships seized and their sailors reduced to slavery. A dispute with the United States led to a war which gained for our ships the freedom of the Mediterranean.] When these sloops were some two hundred feet apart, the _Wasp_ opened with musketry and cannon. The sea, lashed into fury by a two days' cyclone, was running mountain high. The vessels rolled till the muzzles of their guns dipped in the water. But the crews cheered lustily and the fight went on. When at last the crew of the _Wasp_ boarded the _Frolic_, they were amazed to find that, save the man at the wheel and three officers who threw down their swords, not a living soul was visible. The crew had gone below to avoid the terrible fire of the _Wasp_. Scarcely was the battle over when the British frigate _Poictiers_ bore down under a press of sail, recaptured what was left of the _Frolic_, and took the _Wasp_ in addition. During 1813 the _Constitution_ took the _Java_; the _Hornet_ sank the _Peacock_; the _Enterprise_ captured the _Boxer_ off Portland, Maine. These and many more made up the list of American victories. But there were British victories also. The _Argus_, after destroying twenty-seven vessels in the English Channel, was taken by the _Pelican_; the _Essex_, after a marvelous cruise around South America, was captured by two frigates. The _Chesapeake_ was forced to strike to the _Shannon._