Captain Dacres, of the _Guerrière_, returning to Halifax to refit after convoying another fleet of merchantmen, fell in with the large United States' frigate _Constitution_, commanded by Captain Hull. The _Guerrière_ was old and rotten, wanting a thorough refit, or, rather, laying entirely aside. In addition to other defects she was badly supplied with ammunition. The _Guerrière_ had only two hundred and forty-four men and nineteen boys; the _Constitution_ had four hundred and seventy-six men, and a great number of expert riflemen amongst them, which the American men-of-war always carried to pick off the enemy, and especially the officers, from the tops. Yet Captain Dacres stayed and fought the _Constitution_ till his masts and yards were blown away, and his vessel was in a sinking state. In this condition Dacres, who was himself severely wounded with a rifle-ball, struck, the only alternative being going to the bottom. The old ship was then set on fire, the British crew being first removed to the American ship. Though the contest had been almost disgracefully unequal, the triumph over it in the United States was inconceivable. Hull and his men were thanked in the most extravagant terms, and a grant of fifty thousand dollars was made them for a feat which would not have elicited a single comment in England. But when our officers and men were carried on board the _Constitution_, they discovered that nearly one-half--a number, in fact, equal to their own--were English or Irish. Some of the principal officers were English; many of the men were very recent deserters; and so much was the American captain alarmed lest a fellow-feeling should spring up between the compatriots of the two crews, that he kept his prisoners manacled and chained to the deck of his ship during the night after the battle, and for the greater part of the following day. [Illustration: DUEL BETWEEN THE "GUERRIÈRE" AND THE "CONSTITUTION." (_See p._ 36.)]