An Exciting Sea Battle

An Exciting Sea Battle

I've reading George Coggeshall's History of the American Privateers, and Letters-of-marque, During Our War With England in the Years 1812, '13, and '14 (New York: 1861) at the moment in preparation for a law review paper about the Constitution's letters of marque and reprisal clause. Even though it is quite tangential to the subject, Coggeshall has an account of the escape of the U.S.S. Constitution (Old Ironsides) from British warships off Long Island at the start of the war that, in spite of Coggeshall's writing style, is quite rousing! If you have read Patrick O'Brian's Master and Commander, or some of the other books in the same series, you will probably appreciate the human drama and ingenuity involved.

I've never been a sailor (in the "sail" sense of the word), so a lot of the terms and expressions have required me to read in one tab, and look up phrases in another. Kedging, for example. This is a technique originally developed for pulling ships that had run aground loose by sending out small boats, having them anchor solidly to the bottom, then pulling the ropes between ship and boat until the ship pulled loose. In this case, the clever tars of the Constitution used it in a dead calm sea, to pull away from the similarly becalmed British warships that were just out of cannon range (and vice versa). The water was only 25 fathoms deep, and kedging allowed them to move forward.