Page:Royal Naval Biography Marshall v2p2.djvu/521

As no correct account of the Macedonian’s armament has hitherto been published, we shall here give an authentic statement, shewing the comparative force of that ship and her formidable opponent.

			MACEDONIAN				UNITED STATES
Main-deck ...			28	long eighteen-pounders			30	long twenty-four-pounders.
Quarter-deck, and Forecastle,	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$	$\scriptstyle {\left\{{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right.}$	16	thirty-two-pounder carronades,	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$	$\scriptstyle {\left\{{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right.}$	22	forty-two-pounder carronades,
			2	long twelve-pounders,				and
			2	ditto brass eight-pounders[1].			2	long twenty-four-pounders.
	Total		48	guns, exclusive of a boat’s carronade.			54	guns, exclusive of three howitzer-pieces in the tops, and a travelling carronade.

Broadside weight of metal	$\scriptstyle {\left\{{\begin{matrix}\ \\\ \end{matrix}}\right.}$	long guns,	272	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$	528 pounds.	$\scriptstyle {\left\{{\begin{matrix}\ \\\ \end{matrix}}\right.}$	long guns,	384	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$	846 pounds.
		carronades,	256				carronades,	462

Complement	$\scriptstyle {\left\{{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right.}$	Officers	23	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$	Total 297[2]	$\scriptstyle {\left\{{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right.}$	80	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$	Total 509[3].
		Seamen and Marines	178				478
		Landsmen	61				[4]
		Boys	35				1
Size in tons			1081				1670[5].

broadside fell far short, and that one of the first that struck her was a forty-two-pounder, which killed the serjeant of marines. The mizen topmast was shot away at the cap about the same time, and fell forward into the main-top.

1. The two brass 8-pounders (prize guns) were only fired once – the solder by which pieces of metal for securing the locks had been affixed to them having run the first discharge, and filled the touch-holes.
2. Among the Macedonian’s crew were many men said to be native Americans, and other foreigners, eight of whom refused to fight, and were consequently sent below. This reduced the number actually at quarters to 289 officers, men, and boys: few of the latter were worth ship room in time of action.
3. Captain Garden, in his official letter, gave the United States a complement of 478 men; but he did not include in that number 30 officers, whose names were not entered in her victualling book, from whence he took his account.
4. There is no rating for landsmen allowed in the American navy.
5. Taken from the register of New York dock-yard. – The United States was superior to any ship of her class in the American navy. Her sides, on the cells of her main-deck ports, were of the same scantling as our 74-gun ships on their lower-deck port-cells, composed of live-oak; and her sides such a mass of this wood, that carronade grape would scarcely penetrate them. She was termed the “Waggon of the American Navy,” from her thick scantling, having been originally intended for a larger class ship; and her masts were precisely the same dimensions as those of our then second class seventy-fours.