Although the facts of the movements in battle here given appear in the British histories--although it is admitted that both the _Pomone_ and the _Tenedos_ were beside the _President_ before Decatur surrendered--the British historians treat the battle as a victory won by the _Endymion_, and print a table showing the relative forces of the two ships! And Allen, in his table, prints the number of the crew of the _Endymion_ as three hundred and nineteen, although he says in the body of his story that her crew numbered “three hundred and nineteen men and twenty-seven boys.” The number of officers carried in addition to these is not given. And the British Government, to perpetuate the idea that the _Endymion_ captured the _President_, gave her captain a gold medal and promoted her executive officer. [Illustration: _Tenedos._ _President._ _Pomone._ Capture of the _President_ by a British Squadron. _From a rare lithograph._] However, Rear-Admiral H. Hotham, in reporting her capture to Vice-Admiral Cochrane, said: “I have the honor to acquaint you with the capture of the United States ship _President_ by the following force, _viz._: the _Majestic_, Captain Hayes; the _Tenedos_, Captain Hyde Parker; the _Endymion_, Captain Hope; the _Pomone_, Captain Lumley.” Further than that, all these ships shared in the prize-money. To this may be added the words of Admiral Cochrane, at a public dinner, some years later, when some younger British officers were felicitating themselves on the victory, as they called it, of the _Endymion_. “The _President_ was completely mobbed,” he said. But when all this is said--when it is proved by the enemy’s reports that a squadron captured the _President_--it is perfectly clear to an impartial mind, as Roosevelt says, that Decatur “acted rather tamely, certainly not heroically, in striking to the _Pomone_.” Because the American Navy was insignificant in the number of its ships when compared with the enemy--because it always will be comparatively small in numbers--_it is the duty of every American officer to fight as long as he can float and fire a gun._ Jeremiah O’Brien, with his Machias haymakers on a merchant-sloop, points his finger at Stephen Decatur with a well-disciplined crew on the man-of-war.