It is rather a remarkable circumstance that the _Belvidera_, which was one of the vessels that in this long chase did her best to come up with the _Constitution_, had some months before declined the honor of engaging the _President_. For, on the 24th of June, Captain Rodgers had fired with his own hand one of the _President’s_ bow-chasers at the _Belvidera_, and thus opened the war. After exchanging some shots, Captain Byron, of the _Belvidera_, decided that discretion was the better part, and, lightening his ship, managed to escape. II THE “CONSTITUTION” AND THE “GUERRIÈRE” [August 19th, 1812] The history of the naval combats of our second war with Great Britain, the career of the frigate _Constitution_, and the deeds of our Yankee commodores will never be forgotten as long as we have a navy or continue to be a nation. England, it must be remembered, had held the seas for centuries. In no combat between single ships (where the forces engaged were anything like equal) had she lost a vessel. The French fleets, under orders of their own government, ran away from hers, and the Spanish captains had allowed their ships’ timbers to rot for years in blockaded harbors. Nevertheless, this was the age of honor, of gallantry, of the stiff duelling code, when men bowed, passed compliments, and fought one another to the death with a parade of courtesy that has left trace today in the conduct of the intercourse between all naval powers. In the duels of the ships in the past that have stirred the naval world, America has records that are monuments to her seamen, and that must arouse the pride of every officer who sails in her great steel cruisers today. Up to the affair of the _Constitution_ and the _Guerrière_, in 1812, the British had not fairly tested in battle the seamanship or naval metal of the Americans. With the exceptions of the actions between the _Bonhomme Richard_ and the _Serapis_, the _Ranger_ and _Drake_, and the _Yarmouth_ and _Randolph_, the war of ’76 was a repelled invasion. The twenty-four hours of the 19th of August, 1812, began with light breezes that freshened as the morning wore on. The _Constitution_ was slipping southward through the long rolling seas. A month before this date, under the command of Commodore Hull, she had made her wonderful escape from Broke’s squadron after a chase of over sixty hours. Her cruise since she had left Boston, two weeks before, had been uneventful. Vainly had she sought from Cape Sable to the region of Halifax, from Nova Scotia to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, for any sign of a foe worthy her metal. It was getting on towards two o’clock; her men had finished their midday meal, the afternoon drills had not begun, and an observation showed the ship to be in latitude 41° 40´ and longitude 55° 48´. Suddenly “Sail ho!” from the mast-head stirred the groups on the forecastle, and caused the officer pacing the weather side of the quarter-deck to stop suddenly and raise his head.