But we can determine the relative efficiency of the two crews much more readily by an examination of the hulls of the flagships. Keeping in mind that the two leading British ships had as great a weight of metal in long guns as the whole Yankee squadron, gun-boats and all, and that these two British ships were relentlessly firing at the American flagship during almost the entire time of the battle, a counting of the round-shot holes in the two flagships gives a measure of British and American marksmanship, which, though less to the credit of the Americans than in some other battles, is unmistakable. The _Saratoga_ was struck by fifty-five round shot; the British _Confiance_ by one hundred and five. And yet it was point-blank range, for long guns, over water that lay dead, while the first broadside from the _Confiance_ was accurate. When the Yankees came to examine into this matter they learned how they had escaped. Having set their guns at the right range for the first broadside the British did not thereafter trouble themselves to look after the range. They loaded and fired “with fury”--with a whoop and a huzza! But each discharge pinched the wedge-shaped quoin a trifle from under the breech of their guns--lowered the breech and elevated the muzzle--so that very soon their shots were flying high over the Yankee hull. But the cooler Yankee gunners kept the quoins in place and the range good. Worse yet, on examining the British guns some were found with shot under the powder instead of on top, and some with wads at the bottom of the bore and some crammed to the muzzle--the veritable method of the tenderfoot on a runway, but not at all what is expected of an experienced naval tar. And yet the _Confiance_ was manned by picked seamen. When the fight was over Macdonough wrote the following letter to Secretary of the Navy William Jones: “The Almighty has been pleased to grant us a signal victory on Lake Champlain, in the capture of one frigate, one brig, and two sloops of war of the enemy.” This letter and his prayer on the quarter-deck have been often used in religious discourses--and very properly so. But for the sake of the honor of the flag, and with no desire whatever to lessen the reader’s reverence for sacred matters, one who has lived with sailors in both ends of the ship is impelled to declare that, for the purpose of rousing seamen to do their best when going into battle, one rooster in the rigging is worth a dozen prayers on the quarter-deck. Because the Battle of Lake Champlain and that on Lake Erie were the only squadron battles of this war, it is worth while comparing the disposition of the forces made by the two youthful commanders who won. Both Perry and Macdonough were very young for such responsible posts as they held--Perry was twenty-seven, and Macdonough was twenty-eight. Neither had ever had an independent command in battle before being called on to handle a squadron against an experienced enemy.