The winds proved light and baffling all night, but having observed how much better the sails held the air while they were wet, Captain Hull started his force-pumps at work to keep the lower sails wet, and sent men to the highest yards to draw up water in buckets and keep everything drenched to the highest thread. It was a plan that worked admirably. In spite of the baffling zephyrs, the Yankee gained all night, so that at daylight only the loftier sails of the enemy were visible, and at 8.15 on the morning of Monday, July 20, 1812, the British squadron gave it up and squared away for Sandy Hook, leaving the triumphant _Constitution_ to head away to Boston to obtain another supply of water in place of that she had started to decrease her draft. From Friday afternoon until Monday morning the British frigates, including the swift _Belvidera_ that had eluded the _President_, were in chase of the Yankee clipper. Certainly they showed “great perseverance, good seamanship, and ready invitation,” but “the cool old Yankee” justified the praise which Lord Nelson gave us when he said, in the Mediterranean, that “there is in the handling of those transatlantic ships a nucleus of trouble for the navy of Great Britain.” [Illustration: The _Constitution_ Bearing Down for the _Guerrière_. _From an old wood-cut._] CHAPTER V THE _CONSTITUTION_ AND THE _GUERRIÈRE_ THE BRITISH CAPTAIN COULD SCARCELY BELIEVE THAT A YANKEE WOULD BE BOLD ENOUGH TO ATTACK HIM, AND WAS SURE OF VICTORY IN LESS THAN AN HOUR, BUT WHEN THE YANKEES HAD BEEN FIRING AT THE _GUERRIÈRE_ FOR THIRTY MINUTES SHE WAS A DISMANTLED HULK, RAPIDLY SINKING OUT OF SIGHT--“THE SEA NEVER ROLLED OVER A VESSEL WHOSE FATE SO STARTLED THE WORLD”--SUNDRY ADMISSIONS HER LOSS EXTORTED FROM THE ENEMY--A COMPARISON OF THE SHIPS. Having noted, in the stories of the actions hitherto described, somewhat of the training, skill, and good-will of the American seamen in the use of naval weapons, and their masterful knowledge of seamanship, the time arrives for telling how one of these Yankee frigates won the first signal victory of the war--the victory of the _Constitution_ over the _Guerrière_. But it will add to the pleasure of every American reader if the opinions which the British captain expressed about his ship, both before and after the battle, be told before the battle is described. At the time the _Guerrière_ went into the fight she was commanded by Captain James Richard Dacres. In the course of the cruise during which the squadron under Broke chased the _Constitution_, Captain Dacres dined on board the _Shannon_. While pacing the deck of the _Shannon_, after dinner, and talking with Broke, Captain Dacres said emphatically of his ship: “I say, she looks beautiful; and more, she’d take an antagonist in half the time the _Shannon_ could.”