“And the men with guts enough to cannily utilize her. ...”
The entire forum would be well-advised to note Darksheare’s words and reflect: “ships of wood, men of iron” is too flabby a phrase, when it comes to honoring American sailors of the late 18th and early 19th century.
Man for man, gun for gun, ships by ship, the US Navy equaled or surpassed the very best Great Britain’s Royal Navy could send to sea. Only in numbers could Britain make any claim to superiority over the US in 1812, commanding resources from around the globe, and relying on traditions of excellence and innovation already two centuries in the making.
Historian Robert K. Massie wrote on the second page of his book _Dreadnought: Britain, Germany, and the Coming of the Great War_, that for more than 100 years after Horatio Nelson and 17,000 British sailors bested the combined French and Spanish battle fleets at Trafalgar, the Royal Navy exuded a “confidence above arrogance”.
Which made it all the more outrageous, that in the War of 1812, a handful of vessels from the most adolescent nation then extant, dealt the Royal Navy such stunning defeats, even though they were but strategic pinpricks to the British Empire. Those cheeky Americans: how dare they stick a pin in the balloon of British confidence?
Sailors and ships were two sides of the same coin: without the vessels, no sailor, no matter how skilled and brave, could do the job. And without the sailors, the mightiest, most brilliantly conceived ship afloat could never be more than a helpless, soulless pile of timber, iron, brass, tar, and cloth.
Imagination, skill, and stalwart industry floated USS Constitution and stocked her for battle. Imagination, skill, intrepidity, dash, and guts - to look the enemy in the eye and not blink - transformed her into the most fearsome weapon.
The earliest manifestation of the military industrial complex doing its duty. May the Republic ever find such, in any future hour of need.
As far as I know, kedging was only used in combat to move a ship by us, the Brits watched our guys do that and said, “Why, that’s preposterous. Uh.. they’re getting away.”
They then decided to try it themselves and the outcome was that our ship eventually got away.
[U.S.S. Constitution at the outbreak of hostilities in 1812, used kedge anchors to move in “becalmed” conditions. Engagement lasted from 17 July to 19 July, and began off Egg Harbor.]