The American gunboats were shoal draft coastal ships (so they could go in shallow water) about 65-feet long and mounted 2-3 guns. The use of oars enabled them to maneuver even in calm winds. When Thomas Jefferson started to go with these ships to do the Navy's fighting, he started mothballing our super frigates.
Even so, Jefferson's gunboats were called "Bulldogs" and were poorly regarded. Even militia refused to serve on them. Many of the USS Constellation's men were reassigned to the gunboats after that frigate was bottled up behind the guns of Fort Norfolk and Fort Nelson by the British.
On June 18, 1813, the commandant of Gosport Navy Yard, John Cassin, ordered 15 gunboats to go out past Craney Island where they drove off a flotilla of British attack barges that threatened two American sloops and a schooner.
--Brock-Perry
2012 marks the 200th anniversary of America's "Forgotten War," the War of 1812 that took place over three years, 1812 to 1815.
Battle of New Orleans.
No comments:
Post a Comment