However, the later American writers have not been disposed to insist on this point. They can afford to be generous. They allow the figures of James to go into their tables of comparison, for even with but one long six on the engaged side, the _Penguin_ threw two hundred and seventy-four pounds of metal to the Yankee’s two hundred and seventy-nine. [Illustration: Medal Awarded to James Biddle for the Capture of the _Penguin_ by the _Hornet_.] But to a student of history at the end of the nineteenth century there never was a sea-duel where the comparison of the weights of metal in the two broadsides was more ridiculous than in this one between the _Hornet_ and the _Penguin_. For not one solid shot from the _Penguin_ struck the Yankee--not one; and what is worse still, not one solid shot struck the Yankee’s spars. Moreover, the storm of British projectiles was hurled so high that the injury to the Yankee’s rigging was worse above the top-sails than below them. On the other hand, the Yankees, in ten minutes’ firing, in spite of the heavy swell, had destroyed the sail-power of the British boat (by Allen’s own account), and in five minutes more (not including the time after the ships drifted apart, when no great guns were fired) the Yankees had riddled her hull until she was not worth saving. It is not the weight of metal carried, nor the weight of metal thrown; _it is the weight of metal driven home into the enemy that wins the battle_. This, although not the last encounter, was the last real battle of the War of 1812; like the first of the war (_Constitution_-_Guerrière_), and like every other in which the Americans won, and like that between the _Shannon_ and the _Chesapeake_, where the British were victorious, it proved, beyond dispute, that the most important art known to a naval ship is the art of aiming guns accurately. The _Hornet_ lost two killed and nine wounded; the British lost fourteen killed and twenty-eight wounded--nearly one-third of her crew. The numbers of the crews cannot be stated beyond dispute. It is admitted that the _Penguin_ had twelve marines beyond her full complement--she had more men than she needed to work her guns. The Yankees admit that they had enough in spite of the fact that eight had been sent away on a prize, and that nine were too sick to leave their beds. By showing the utmost generosity toward British writers, we find that the _Penguin_ had one hundred and thirty-two in her crew, including “seventeen boys.” The Yankee had at most one hundred and forty-two on board, of whom nine were sick in their hammocks. There were one hundred and thirty-three Yankees at the quarters.