We must tell the same story of this fight as of the fight with the _Guerriere_. The British did not know how to aim their guns and the Americans did. The British had no sights on their cannon and the Americans had. That was why, all through the war, the British lost so heavily and the Americans so little. The British shot went wild and the American balls flew straight to their mark. You know what must come from that. After while, off went the _Java's_ bowsprit, as if it had been chopped off with a great knife. Five minutes later her foremast was cut in two and came tumbling down. Then the main topmast crashed down from above. Last of all, her mizzen-mast was cut short off by the plunging shot, and fell over the side. The well-aimed American balls had cut through her great spars, as you might cut through a willow stick, and she was dismantled as the _Guerriere_ had been. The loud "hurrahs" of the Yankee sailors proved enough to call the dead to life. At any rate, a wounded man, whom everyone thought dead, opened his eyes and asked what they were cheering about. "The enemy has struck," he was told. The dying tar lifted himself on one arm, and waved the other round his head, and gave three feeble cheers. With the last one he fell back dead. But the _Java's_ flag was not down for good. As the _Constitution_ came up with all masts standing and sails set, the British flag was raised to the stump of the mizzen-mast. When he saw this, Bainbridge wore his ship to give her another broadside, and then down came her flag for good. She had received all the battering she could stand. In fact, the _Constitution_ had lost only 34 men, killed and wounded, while the Java had lost 150 men. The _Constitution_ was sound and whole; the _Java_ had only her mainmast left and was full of yawning rents. _Old Ironsides_ had a new feather in her cap. Like the _Guerriere_, the _Java_ was hurt past help. It was impossible to take her home; so on the last day of 1812, the torch was put to her ragged timbers and the flames took hold. Quickly they made their way through the ruined ship. About three o'clock in the afternoon they reached her magazine, and with a mighty roar the wreck of the British ship was torn into fragments. To the bottom went the hull. Only the broken masts and a few shattered timbers remained afloat. Such is war: a thing of ruin and desolation. Of that gallant ship, which two days before had been proudly afloat, only some smoke-stained fragments were left to tell that she had ever been on the seas, and death and wounds had come to many of her men. After her fight with the _Java_ the _Constitution_ had a long, weary rest. You will remember the _Bon Homme Richard_, a rotten old hulk not fit for fighting, though she made a very good show when the time for fighting came. The _Constitution_ was much like her; so rotten in her timbers that she had to be brought home and rebuilt.