Frigate Duels of the War of 1812 - USS Constitution vs HMS Guerriere

[Music] hello everybody and welcome to this video which is cently sponsored by Squarespace and in the final little tutorial of 2023 we're going to look at some search enging optimization so you can go into your homepage go into settings just here as youve seen and there's a list of things you can customize to make your website appear more or change how it appears in Google search you've got various options as you can see there this shows you what it's going to look like there's some additional Pages if you want to people to find specific pages on your website I'm not particularly bothered by that so I'm happy with the settings I've already preset for the homepage which you can see there at the beginning there's the Des custom description I've written in the bottom but of course of course your website doesn't necessarily just have to appear on Google search so if you go back in there you can see that you can also customize how it appears when it's linked on things like Twitter Facebook and other social media I might change that picture cuz that's not brilliantly formatted but you see there's a nice easy upload box down there at the bottom where you can do that and if you happen to be a little bit of a Code Monkey you can put your own custom code in there as well so nice and easy to optimize your page however you want so if after all these little mini tutorials I've been doing you think you could build a website for maybe ideally Naval History purposes but you never know you might want to do it for some other reason then head over to squarespace.com trenell you can get a free trial and once you're ready that little link will give you 10% off your first website or domain so thanks once again to Squarespace for sponsoring the video and on with the main show in this miniseries we're going to explore the various frig jewels on the high seas that occurred throughout the War of 1812 the reason that this is going to be a Friday miniseries is essentially trying to do a war of 1812 on the high seas video turns out to be pretty much impossible there are too many ship versus ship encounters and too many tactics and so forth to explain essentially would turn that into a video series itself but the frig jewels in particular have extremely VAR amounts of relevant information available about them at least reliable stuff which means that a Wednesday series if we we're covering the war with one frig Jewel per segment might sometimes come up a little bit short and other times might run over quite as quite by quite an amount so by doing them here on Fridays if one of them runs a little short or a little long it doesn't matter quite so much it also means that when I do get round to doing a video or two or three about the oceanic side of the War of 1812 as a whole I can cover all the little details and all those little bits of history that you really like as well as the overall Grand strategy but when it comes to the individual frig Jewels I can just refer people over to this series if you want to hear exactly what happened in each action but with it that said in any case we're going to start two months and one day after the formal declaration of war was signed there had already been one Naval engagement on the Great Lakes and one at Sea that being the capture of the Sloop Hess alert by the frigate USS Essex but this engagement the one we're looking at now would involve the ship that would acquire the nickname old iron sides which is of course USS Constitution herself to be fair she'd not had the most auspicious start to the war sailing out under her Captain Isaac Hull to try and meet up with a squadron under the command of her previous Captain John Rogers he was leading a fairly powerful formation made up of the fretes president United States and Congress along with the Briggs Hornet and Argus on the 17th of July 1812 Constitution had cited five warships cruising off the New Jersey coast and thought hey I found my friends unfortunately it turned out to be four British frig aolis badira who'd actually already had a runin with Roger Squadron Shannon who will meet again in a later video and guier along with them was the small 64 gun Third Rate HMS Africa who on this channel we last met taking on a third of the Franco Spanish Fleet at Trafalga before squaring up to the mighty Santisima Trinidad recognizing a losing Prospect when he saw one Hull made to flee but both sides then found themselves becalmed leading to what was almost certainly the slowest Naval Chase in recorded history as with all sails set and wetted with with water to catch the slightest Breeze and a mixture of ship's boats Towing as well as repeatedly setting and then the ship hauling in its anchors a practice known as king the entire collection of shipping inched their way along the still sea in the end dropping a bunch of supplies overboard to lighten the ship as well as being the first to catch a rising Breeze finally got Constitution to safety but it wasn't exactly a great start to things however just over a month after the chase that had gone on for so long you could almost have grown the corn to make the popcorn which you'd might want to consume whilst watching it Constitution was out looking for a lone British frigate which had been reported in her new sailing area which was somewhat further to the north soon she spotted one of her Earth wild pursuers HMS guier guier was a formerly French frig you might have guessed that by the name built in the last few years of the 1700s she was technically actually a couple of years younger than Constitution and had served for about 6 years in the French navy almost being captured twice once by HMS elephant and another time by HMS codin both ships of the line until her luck had finally run out in July 1806 when she was captured by the frigate HMS blanch refitted and commissioned into the Royal Navy she'd then spent the bulk of the intervening period until now patrolling the Caribbean and Western Atlantic taking a number of French prizes as well as being the cause of the USS Spitfire incident which in turn led to the little Belair and which in turn had almost kicked off a war a little bit earlier than has historically occurred by now however she was more than a little worn out and in desperate need of a refit indeed the reason she was no longer attached to the rest of the Squadron that had previously pursued Constitution was that she'd been detached to attain just such a refit over in Halifax nominally rated at 38 guns she actually carried a larger Armament remembering that the ship's rating is for the number of gun ports that the hull is pierced for not necessarily the total number of guns aboard she was actually carrying somewhere around 48 or 49 guns depending on your Source consisting of 28 to 308 pound long guns entirely or almost entirely on the main gun de with another 1632 pounder carad on the upper deck some of them with gunports and some of them just out in the open and then there were also either two 9 pounder long guns or two 12 pounder long guns and an 18 pounder carade up front in the aftermath Constitution reported her Armament as being 3018 Pounders 1632 Pounders two 12 pounder long guns and an 18 pounder Howitzer which doesn't help as it matched es up mostly with some of those other reports but the 12 Howitzer is a bit of a mystery who knows maybe the 18 pound carade ended up pointing at the sky or something Constitution meanwhile was nominally rated at 44 guns but also was carrying more than that although the exact cited figure again varies everyone agrees that she was carrying 30 24 pounder long guns on her gun Deck with 32 pounder carronades stationed above but exactly how many 32 Pounders varies by Source some say 20 others say 24 one even goes as high as to suggest 32 32 pound of carad with varying amounts of bow Chasers cited either no dedicated bow Chasers a single 18 pounder or a pair of additional 24 pounder long guns this would mean that the ship was armed with somewhere between 52 and 63 guns Theodore Roosevelt in his his book on the War of 1812 lists 55 guns carried for this engagement matters aren't helped by the fact that Constitution changed the makeup of her Armament at least three times during the war whatever the precise numbers involved the US ship was carrying more and heavier guns into this fight although as Roosevelt also notes americanmade guns at this time were somewhat more prone to exploding as opposed to firing compared to other people's Cannon and the weight of shot that was being issued was often a little bit short of what it should have been various reasons are given for this but one of the more commonly cited is people being a little bit corrupt and essentially doing an ammunition version of literal penny pinching but on the afternoon of the 19th of August these details didn't matter too much as Constitution was bearing down on guer with the wind at her back having gotten a good look at Constitution at relatively close range in the previous Chase Captain dakra was under No Illusion as to the relative capabilities of the two ships although he was still relatively confident he could take Constitution indeed one of the prisoners aboard guier who was obviously later released reported that dakra thought he would be made for life if he was the first Royal Navy Captain to take an American frigate and he was quite pleased to see Constitution's aggressiveness as he thought that this would enhance the reputation of guier once she captured the ship but since he knew that a straightup fight was unlikely to go his way he had to make the best of the situation he had now it does have to be remembered at this point that it was very rare for ships to enter battle Under full sale the risk of damage fire and the ship running out of control were too great not to mention the lower Sals could get in the way of General action without going into the finer details of which exact sale at which exact station has which precise name a typical rated vessel of the time and bearing in mind a rating includes frig would have three large yards on each Mast these being the horizontal bits that you typically see even when the Sails are fured some ships did have four but most would have three the lowest and largest of these Sals on each Mast would typically then be furled for an action and exactly which sales above this would be used depended on what the ship was trying to do and what the weather was but this overall Arrangement was generally known as battle sale in this guys guier made a run for it but this wasn't obviously simply fleeing as mentioned dcro was trying to ecount whatever advantages he could get as long as he maintained a lead he could periodically swing to present a broadside which would force the Constitution to either bear off and take hits on the side of her Hull thus both sides would lose speed but dher being in control of where and when this occurred would in theory lose less or else the American ship would have to accept a raking broadside coming down the bow constitution on the other hand was limited to using her bow Chasers and whichever of the more forward guns she could bring to bear this maximized Grier's Firepower and minimized constitutions dakra was aiming to try and inflict General damage but in particular to reduce H's ability to sail at top speed if a mast could be brought down then Constitution might be left slow and unwieldy enough for Grier to essentially kite the larger ship in its blind spots and wear it down but obviously that was a relatively unlikely outcome with longrange Gunnery and the primary aim at some point seems to have shifted over to Simply allowing the British ship to gain enough of a speed advantage to escape and perhaps find a friend Hull could not swing his ship to match the broadsides when guier swung because as mentioned each such swing lost speed and whilst daka's broadsides would force Hull to turn as well to avoid being red there was nothing particularly compelling dakra to do anything but keep running at full speed if Hull tried to bring more guns to Bear by turning to present his own broadside Captain dakra also had 10 Americans aboard as crew but such was the code of conduct at the time that he gave orders that these men were allowed to stand down and take shelter in the ship's hold for this battle as they would be fighting against their own countrymen and arra thought that forcing them to do so would be dishonorable however to avoid Constitution closing in enough that she might risk losing some ground in exchange for coming about to present full broadside guier was forced to keep the range quite open as a result for about an hour between 5 5 and 6:00 in the afternoon much iron was exchanged for precious little effect this is reportedly the time where Constitution acquired her nickname of iron sides later to become old iron sides as long range 18 pound a shot obviously robbed of much of its energy by a long flight time striking at an extreme angle against the frig's thicker than average sides which were themselves made of atypically strong wood was at times resulting in the rounds just bouncing harmlessly off into the sea and other times just embedding themselves rather comically in the hull nonetheless tiring of this game and wanting to settle the action before daylight failed Hull ordered more saale to be set especially as it began to look like dcro was finally making a break for it his earlier brao apparently having been worn down somewhat by reality within minutes the superior sailing capabilities of the American ship combined with Daka having to be a little bit careful due to his weakened masts and of course the fact that Constitution was now carrying more sail than guer meant the Constitution rapidly overhauled the British ship with her starboard battery to the British Port both sides immediately opened up with as many guns as possible firing as fast as they possibly could but within 15 minutes Grier's mizen or aftermost M fell over to starboard and began to drag the British ship around whilst also slowing her down Constitution found herself then speeding past her opponent presenting a dangerous situation which was exactly why ships generally didn't try to run alongside with a huge speed difference in these 1v1 Encounters in theory guier could now turn sharply in this case to Port as Constitution passed her and thus get in the most devastating kind of raking fire through the stern however aware of this risk and taking advantage of the Fallen Mast which was making the British ship somewhat unresponsive to the helm Constitution decided to swap that scenario over and instead bore over to starboard cutting across the path of guier and raking the British ship from bow to stern using Constitution starboard battery she then spun almost 180° and repeated the pass using her Port battery the second pass however showed exactly why this tactic was incredibly dangerous ous as Constitution had now lost speed in two tight turns and suddenly the British ship's bow sprit cut across the AR of constitution tangling with the mizen mar rigging lines the two ships drifted now locked together this was a dangerous moment for the American ship as the bow Chasers and some of the starboard bow guns of guier could fire into the AR of constitution but the angle the two ships were locked at meant that neither neither the latter's stern Chasers nor the bulk of the port battery could be brought to bear in response sustained fire into the Constitution Stern could sever the lines that attached the wheel to the rudder set fires and possibly even shatter the base of the mizen M if the two ships then detached the British ship could Coast forward and rake a crippled Constitution from the stern however whilst some fires were started by British gunfire Constitution's crew used the time between the reloads to put them out and both sides called for boarding parties unfortunately for both sides the only way to get to the other ship was over the tangle of lines and wood that made up the G's bow sprit and both ships were heaving quite wildly in a heavy sea it was clear that whoever made a Sally from one ship to the other would likely have many men cut down Exposed on the narrow approach and would would also lose further men who would simply just fall into the sea at something of a stalemate both sides instead commenced a vicious close-range Jewel of small arms most of the American casualties occurring at this stage in the battle including a lieutenant of the Marines be who was killed the ship's first officer and master both of whom were wounded however Constitution's crew decidedly got the better of this exchange of gunfire Captain drro was hit and wounded and many others in the forward section of guer were wounded or killed as well as the wind blew the ships around in something of a circle it eventually filled Constitution Sals enough to let her draw away the wrench combined with the damage from shot previously and the impact of the initial Collision along with most likely not a few severed rigging lines as the bow sprit was torn free added up to the final straw for Grier's much abused and already worn masts the for Mast and Main Mast went over on the starboard side leaving the ship completely without propulsion and with the Ms and sails now acting as massive sea anchors it had been 25 minutes since the main action had been joined seeing that the fight was effectively over Hull took the chance to run clear of gun range and set about some repairs which was a fairly typical procedure for the Victoria ship at the end of a duel in this time period she managed to replace much shot up and severed rigging and patched up damage to the ship's spars and yards half an hour later at 700 p.m. Constitution with her rigging in much better shape bore up to guier once more who realizing that she had no means of propulsion or course change left and with a ship wallowing so much that the gun deck ports had to be closed to avoid being swamped promptly struck her colors of the 272 men aboard the British ship at the start of the battle 15 had been killed and another eight were wounded so badly that they wouldn't survive the next few days with another 56 wounded to varying degrees but would live this meant a total of 248 prisoners since of course 10 of the survivors were Americans who were now free to join Constitution's crew if they wished some sources state that these men had all been impressed into the Royal Navy others don't make much of a claim whether they were impressed or volunteers one way or the other constitutions much larger 456 strong crew had suffered a total of seven killed and seven wounded almost entirely in that small arms exchange mentioned earlier initially it was thought that guier after extensive repairs might make a good addition to the US Navy and a prize crew was thus placed aboard however by the following morning it was quite clear that combat damage along with her wornout condition meant that she was now in a sinking condition and so the prize crew and the prisoners were taken aboard the Constitution and at 3:00 on the 20th of August guer was set Ablaze and a qu of an hour later the fire reached the magazines and what was left of her gunpowder stores exploded Captain dakra noted The Good Conduct of the American Crew who ensured that the British Sailors personal property was where possible also conveyed off of the ship along with the sailors themselves before her destruction the war of words over the exact nature of the conflict in terms of exactly how bad a shaped G had been in before and what the disparity in men and Firepower actually meant for the battle would commence almost as soon as news of the battle reached both Sid Shores but that's an argument for another time the immediate impact of the battle was quite significant on both sides but in different ways for the Royal Navy with over 600 active warships the loss of one slightly worn out X prize was not in and of itself a major blow indeed the Royal Navy would actually lose 20 1 ships in 1812 just to the weather let alone enemy action but from a morale perspective the defeat came as a surprise in the previous two decades the British had at various times fought almost every nation on the planet that had a SEO Navy to speak of and in around 200 single ship actions where both sides had roughly similar capabilities as opposed to a ship of the line versus a frigate or something like that they'd only lost five times which meant that there was broadly speaking an expectation of victory in singleship actions with this turned on its head there were some serious questions asked of Captain Daka once he'd been exchanged and brought back to the UK for the standard Court Marshal that captain always faces in the event of the loss of their ship however after recounting his actions the state of his ship prior to the combat and the materially superior capabilities of the Constitution he would be honorably AC quitted keep that verdict in mind for the next few frate Jewels which of course we'll be covering over the coming months conversely for the Americans the immediate aftermath materially was actually slightly negative as of course there was no prize to be had since it had been burned and with some of guer shot lodged in her masts Hull considered that it was unsafe to continue Constitution's Cruise since the shot would serve as either stress points in bad weather if they were left in or general weak points if they were extracted and the last thing you wanted to do if you were a raiding ship in a ocean full of Royal Navy vessels is to lose your masts and she was of course also quite heavily loaded with prisoners albeit they could be offloaded onto a subsequent prize and what was then called a cartel vessel if they chosen to continue with the voyage nonetheless the battle brought Constitution's first cruise to an end and with it the hope of capturing any subsequent prizes as she went back into port for further repairs once repaired Constitution would have to get back out to sea past any British ships that might be patrolling off the coast once again but the news that one of their frigates had beaten a British frigate was massively morale boosting to the American population for the exact same reason that it was concerning to the British one the news also arrived at a time when the of 1812 as a whole wasn't going too great for the USA as it turned out the invasion of Canada was perhaps not going quite as well as they'd initially hoped it also bolstered the confidence of the US Navy itself specifically since incidents such as the leopard chesap Affair and other similar ones including the one with guier and spitfire prior to the war combined with the overall reputation of the royal Navy had left some rather large questions hanging over the US Navy's ability to do much other than take some merchantmen then inevitably give a good account of themselves in a series of heroic L stands but with this Victory under their belt us captains could feel that license to be even more aggressive than they already were something which will be seen in many of the subsequent frig engagements of the war

Channel: Drachinifel

Views: 139,034

Keywords: wows, world of warships, War of 1812, RN, USN, Captain Hull, Captain Dacres

Id: XQqC5FbNF9Q

Length: 25min 17sec (1517 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 22 2023