captain and the resultant wager. In M acedonian, meanwhile, the crew was at quarters and knew they were fac ing an American fri gate. They had not heard, however, of Constitutio n's defining victo ry over HMS Guerriere less than two m onths before, and thus had no idea of how an American heavy fri gate would stand up to powerful British broadsides. Most of them ass umed it would be a sho rt and on e-sided fi ght, and many were disappointed that their oppon ent was no t a Frenchman. There were in the British crew a number of pressed American sailors; they sent a del egation to Captain Carden requesting that they not be forced to fight their own co untrymen, bur were told that should any of them refuse to do his duty, he would be shot. Carden then moved about his gun deck exho rting his crew with N elson's fam o us wo rds at Trafalgar: "England expects every m an to do his du ty!"3 D ecatur and his first lieutenant, William H enry Allen, were stron g beli evers in training, and their men had been wo rked relentlessly at the guns bo th in "dumb show" and in live firin g. By this time, each gun crew worked well as a team, needing no o rders to follow the necessary sequence of firin g the big 24-pounder cannon . The competitions they had held shooting at flo ating targets since putting to sea had succeeded in inspiring cam araderie and pride, which would now come into play when it really mattered . At 9:00 that morning, D ecatur ordered them to open fire with a broadside. T he battle qui ckl y becam e hot. Both ships fired full broadsides, bur the American ra re of fire was nea rly twice that of the British frigate. From the M acedonian's deck, however, rhe wreath of heavy smoke and fire on the United States's side blocked their view of the fr igate, and the British crew let o ut a cheer, thinking their shot had set fire to the enemy ship . When the next barrage of shot hit them, they realized their error; the smoke and flames were from the cannon mouths-not from British fire! Captain D ecatur had to have smiled when he recalled Carden's comments about how British gun crews could handle their 18 pounders with greater ease and speed than the Americans could their 24 pounders! 12
USS United States vs. HMS Macedonian, 1812 by Patrick O'Brien, oil on canvas Wh en the next American broadside rook down the M acedonian's mizzen mast, one of D ecatur's gunners cried out, "Look sir! We've made a brig of her!" Decatur is repo rted to have respo nded, "Aim carefully, lads; she'll soon be a sloop! "4 Shortly afterwards, he instructed his gun crews to "aim at the yellow stripe. H er ri g has seen eno ugh damage." Captain Carden must have tho ught that the American ship had sustai ned damage comparable with that of his own ship. H e ordered his only remaining sail, the fo res'!, hauled around to allow him to cl ose with United States, intending to board and "decide our cause with sword in hand." 5 As soo n as he saw Macedonian begin to move towa rd him , Decatur countered, sailing ahead of the British ship and offering her a devastating rakin g fire, which brought down the last mas t standing, the fo remas t. The British sailors waited for the coup de grace, fully expecting the American ship ro finish the job. Bur instead of fi nishing off the British ship, D eca tur sailed off som e distance and ceased fi ring. In the complete silence that ensued, the only sound the Bri tish could hear was th e groans of their wo unded and the scream s of the patients being treated by the surgeons below. The men threw the dead over the side to make space to wo rk the gun s when the battle wo uld, they ass umed, resume. David H ope, Macedonian's first lieutenant, had urged his captain to close soo ner to
enable their sho rter-range 18-pounders to do th eir work more effi ciently; now he urged his captai n to show "further valor" and maintain the fight ra ther than "dishono r rhe British Navy by surrenderin g to the upstart Jo nath ans." 6 W hen Decatur return ed, sailing his lightly damaged ship across the stern of what Carden described as a "perfect wreck and unmanageable log," he did not fire. H e hailed Carden , whereupo n the British captain o rdered his co lors lowered in surrender. The battle was over, som e ninety minutes after it had started . Deca tur sent a yo un g li eutenant, John N icholson, in a boat to Macedonian with instructio ns ro bring the captain back to United States. Nicholson co uld scarcely believe his eyes when he saw the devastation his ship had caused the British frigate. The gundeck, es pecially, rese mbled m o re a slaughterhouse than the deck of a m anof-war. Physically, the ship was, indeed, as Carden had described it: "a perfect wreck." All three mas ts were down, mo re than 100 shot we re lodged in the hull , whi ch in turn had allowed abo ut eight feet of water to flood the holds. Thirty-six m en were dead, sixty-eight wounded, and all but nine of the quarterdeck sail ors and officers were dead. N icholson , remembering m any of the officers he had m er when Macedonian had visited No rfo lk, was stunned at the carnage. Cap tain Jo hn Carden was equall y stunn ed when he stepped through the
SEA HI STORY 135, SUMMER2011