It was well that their condition was so good, for the time was at hand when they were to be put to a fiercer test than any which the French Privateers had been able to apply. There were still old men at Falmouth who could remember how the Packets fared in the first American War, and who knew well that the Privateers of Boston or Newport were ten times more formidable than those of Nantes or of Bordeaux. The national belief in the superiority of British pluck to that of any other country would scarcely hold against sailors of our own race; and, as a matter of fact, it is well known that the American cruisers, both national and private, were largely manned with picked men from the British navy, driven by the somewhat harsh and inconsiderate treatment which was too prevalent in our ships to take service with a power which at least fed and paid them well, and treated them with reasonable consideration. The temptations offered by the Americans to the trained sailors of English ships had always constituted one of the greatest difficulties of the Packet captains, any one of whom had lost at different times numbers of his best men by desertion. Probably many of the sailors who thus deserted their flag rejoined it on the outbreak of war; but it is certain that a great number remained in their adopted service, arguing, perhaps, in some confused way, that a war between two sections of the English race which only a generation ago were one united power was of the nature of a civil war, in which there was no question of treason, but every man might take sides according to his judgment. Whether they salved their consciences with sophistries or not, yet there they were; and the knowledge of this fact was alone sufficient to convince My Lords the Postmaster General that an enemy very different from the French was at hand. It was indeed; but few even of the officers who formed this conclusion could have anticipated such desperate fighting as actually occurred, or could have looked to the little Packets for such splendid conduct as they showed, in what, if the truth must be admitted, was not the brightest period of British naval history. The war broke out in June, 1812, but it was not until September that any one of the Packets was brought to action. On the 15th of that month the “Princess Amelia,” three days out from St. Thomas on her homeward voyage, was brought to action by the Privateer “Rossie” of Baltimore, Commodore Barney. The “Princess Amelia” was commanded by Captain Moorsom, a brave and energetic officer of a family well known in our naval annals, both then and since. The “Rossie” carried ten 12–pounders, in addition to a long 9–pounder mounted on a traverse. The “Princess Amelia” had but six guns—she should have carried eight; the cause of the deficiency is not explained—of which at least four were only 6–pounders, the others 9–pounders, and she carried twenty-eight men and boys as against ninety-five upon the Privateer.