How Lieutenant Thomas Macdonough not only prevented any further incursions of that kind, but retrieved all the losses he had sustained and shifted the account to the other side--how he fought and whipped a superior force of the enemy, while a clarion-voiced rooster flapped its wings and crowed for victory in the shot-frayed rigging--will be told in the next volume. CHAPTER XVI LOSS OF THE LITTLE SLOOP _ARGUS_ SHE WAS CAPTURED BY THE _PELICAN_, A VESSEL THAT WAS OF SLIGHTLY SUPERIOR FORCE--A CLEAN VICTORY FOR THE BRITISH, BUT ONE THAT IN NO WAY DISHEARTENS THE FIERCEST OF THE AMERICAN PATRIOTS--ILL-LUCK OF “THE WAGGON.” The story of the American Navy during the first eighteen months of the War of 1812 is by no means completed. There were battles which, in spite of the fact that only small forces were involved, were really no less significant in demonstrating the character of the sea-power of the new American nation than were the great victories already described. There was at least one defeat that was in one way most significant. And there were other events that were matters of consideration then and are now. For instance there was the act of the Congress on January 2, 1813, when it was ordered that the Navy be increased by four ships-of-the-line (rating at seventy-four guns), six frigates to rate with the _Constitution_, and six sloops to rate with the _Hornet_, that eventually thrashed the _Peacock_ so effectually. Tremendous, comparatively speaking, as was this addition to the naval strength of the nation, the real significance of the act was found in the change of spirit in the national administration and legislature. For it was but five months to the day since Captain Hull had sailed from Boston _contrary to orders_ that were en route--had sailed on the cruise that ended with the destruction of the boastful _Guerrière_. It was on August 2, 1812, that the _Constitution_ sailed, and at that time the Administration at Washington fully believed that to allow an American frigate to go to sea was to insure that she would be captured and added to the British Navy, and so, like the pusillanimous French Government of the day, it preferred seeing the ships rot to taking the chances of battle. But the magnificent courage and skill of the American naval seaman, in spite of the pusillanimity of the politicians in power--in spite of the fact that they received but half-hearted support from the nation as a whole--had, in five months, shot under water the porcupine policy in naval affairs and replaced the eagle on the American coat-of-arms. And there the eagle remains to this day, albeit he lowers his head with a tinge of shame when he looks for the gridiron flag among the merchant fleets of the world.