{"id":"01KG8AMK3Q38E4NF81K49K2QAP","cid":"bafkreieu6xi6mk2zidd6tjqxk655dbvtykeh7ejnddzeb4tyz2unscsdqq","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":12034,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:36.274Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 3","source_file":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","start_line":11979,"text":"twenty-four-pounders; the Macedonian’s of only eighteens. In all, the\r\nNeversink numbered fifty-four guns and four hundred and fifty men; the\r\nMacedonian, forty-nine guns and three hundred men; a very great\r\ndisparity, which, united to the other circumstances of this action,\r\ndeprives the victory of all claims to glory beyond those that might be\r\nset up by a river-horse getting the better of a seal.\r\n\r\nBut if Tawney spoke truth—and he was a truth-telling man this fact\r\nseemed counterbalanced by a circumstance he related. When the guns of\r\nthe Englishman were examined, after the engagement, in more than one\r\ninstance the wad was found rammed against the cartridge, without\r\nintercepting the ball. And though, in a frantic sea-fight, such a thing\r\nmight be imputed to hurry and remissness, yet Tawney, a stickler for\r\nhis tribe, always ascribed it to quite a different and less honourable\r\ncause. But, even granting the cause he assigned to have been the true\r\none, it does not involve anything inimical to the general valour\r\ndisplayed by the British crew. Yet, from all that may be learned from\r\ncandid persons who have been in sea-fights, there can be but little\r\ndoubt that on board of all ships, of whatever nation, in time of\r\naction, no very small number of the men are exceedingly nervous, to say\r\nthe least, at the guns; ramming and sponging at a venture. And what\r\nspecial patriotic interest could an impressed man, for instance, take\r\nin a fight, into which he had been dragged from the arms of his wife?\r\nOr is it to be wondered at that impressed English seamen have not\r\nscrupled, in time of war, to cripple the arm that has enslaved them?\r\n\r\nDuring the same general war which prevailed at and previous to the\r\nperiod of the frigate-action here spoken of, a British flag-officer, in\r\nwriting to the Admiralty, said, “Everything appears to be quiet in the\r\nfleet; but, in preparing for battle last week, several of the guns in\r\nthe after part of the ship were found to be spiked;” that is to say,\r\nrendered useless. Who had spiked them? The dissatisfied seamen. Is it\r\naltogether improbable, then, that the guns to which Tawney referred\r\nwere manned by men who purposely refrained from making them tell on the\r\nfoe; that, in this one action, the victory America gained was partly\r\nwon for her by the sulky insubordination of the enemy himself?\r\n\r\nDuring this same period of general war, it was frequently the case that\r\nthe guns of English armed ships were found in the mornings with their\r\nbreechings cut over night. This maiming of the guns, and for the time\r\nincapacitating them, was only to be imputed to that secret spirit of\r\nhatred to the service which induced the spiking above referred to. But\r\neven in cases where no deep-seated dissatisfaction was presumed to\r\nprevail among the crew, and where a seaman, in time of action, impelled\r\nby pure fear, “shirked from his gun;” it seems but flying in the face\r\nof Him who made such a seaman what he constitutionally was, to sew\r\n_coward_ upon his back, and degrade and agonise the already trembling\r\nwretch in numberless other ways. Nor seems it a practice warranted by\r\nthe Sermon on the Mount, for the officer of a battery, in time of\r\nbattle, to stand over the men with his drawn sword (as was done in the\r\nMacedonian), and run through on the spot the first seaman who showed a\r\nsemblance of fear. Tawney told me that he distinctly heard this order\r\ngiven by the English Captain to his officers of divisions. Were the\r\nsecret history of all sea-fights written, the laurels of sea-heroes\r\nwould turn to ashes on their brows.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 3"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJV9WHZ6H7HPK30XSCB8R","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AMK3HGJ2T8TVBR383SQE7","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AMK3SSXCV4S90SYNR2K8N","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:42.103Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:52.953Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}