1813	Boxer and Enterprise	219

The established armament of the Boxer was 10 carronades ; and that number, with her two 6-pounders, was as many as the brig could mount with effect or carry with ease. But, when the Boxer was refitting at Halifax, Captain Blyth obtained two additional carronades : had he taken on board, instead of them, 20 additional seamen, the Boxer would have been a much more effective vessel. Against the English 18-pounder carronade, complaints have always been made, for its lightness and unsteadiness in action ; but the American carronade of that caliber is much shorter in the breech, and longer in the muzzle : therefore it heats more slowly, recoils less, and carries farther. The same is the case, indeed, with all the varieties of the carronade used by the Americans ; and they, in consequence derive advantages in the employment of that piece of ordnance, not possessed by the English ; whose carronades are notoriously the lightest and most inefficient of any in use. If the English carronade, especially of the smaller calibers, had displayed its imperfections, as these pages have frequently shown that the English 13-inch mortar was in the habit of doing, by bursting after an hour or two's firing, the gun must either have been improved in form, or thrown out of the service. While on the subject of carronades, we may remark, that even the few disadvantages in the carronade, which the Americans have not been able entirely to obviate, they have managed to lessen, by using, not only stouter, but double, breechings ; one of which, in case the ring-bolt should draw, is made to pass through the timberhead.

Although it was clearly shown, by the number of prisoners received out of her, that the Boxer commenced the action with only 66 men and boys, Captain Isaac Hull was so officious as to address a letter to Commodore Bainbridge at Boston, purposely to express his opinion, that the British brig had upwards of " 100 men on board ; for, " says Captain Hull, " I counted upwards of 90 hammocks. " As the American public did not know that, in the British service, every seaman and marine has two hammocks allowed him, this statement from one of their favourite naval officers produced the desired effect all over the republic, Washington not excepted.

The Boxer measured 181 tons and a fraction, the Enterprise at least 245 tons ; and, while the bulwarks of the latter were built of solid oak, those of the former consisted, with the exception of one timber between each port, of an outer and an inner plank, pervious to every grape-shot that was fired. As a proof of the difference in the size of the two vessels, the mainmast of the Enterprise was 15 inches ; more in circumference than that of the Boxer, and her main yard upwards of 10 feet longer.

We will, however, admit that, but for the twofold disparity an their crews, these two vessels would have been a tolerably fair

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