![]() ![]() So confident was Gosport Navy Yard Commandant John Cassin on June 18 that he ordered 15 gunboats out of the river past Craney Island, where they quickly drove off a flotilla of British attack barges that threatened two American sloops and a schooner.Īnd when the becalmed Junon became separated from its companions by nearly a mile the next day, Cassin dispatched the Constellation’s new commander - Capt. So poorly regarded were Jefferson’s so-called “Bulldogs” that many of Norfolk’s militia defenders refused to serve aboard the suspect vessels.īut after the pursuing British fleet forced the Constellation to seek refuge in the Elizabeth River behind Forts Norfolk and Nelson, many of its officers and men were reassigned to stiffen these crews, giving them a naval experience and skill that had been absent. “But in reality they were only effective if they could take the enemy by surprise and attack in a swarm - and even then they were taking their chances when they went up against larger targets.” “The idea was that any farmer or militiamen could get into one of these gunboats and fight effectively on the water,” Calhoun says. James Barron and built at a Hampton shipyard in 1804 - were no substitute for the famous American frigates that Jefferson began to mothball at the same time. But even the best of them - including an early example designed by Hampton sailor Capt. frigate Philadelphia off Tripoli in 1803, these shoal-draft coastal craft averaged about 65 feet in length and mounted two to three guns.ĭriven by oars as well as sail, they could maneuver in calms that left other vessels stranded. Modeled by President Thomas Jefferson after the North African gunboats that had captured the grounded U.S. Few American sailors who took part in the attack had any illusions about the strength of their relatively small vessels. ![]()
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