destined to Boston
from the southward. From Hatteras to the Florida line the enemy's
vessels, mostly of small class, kept in summer well inside the line
from cape to cape, harassing even the water traffic behind the
sea-islands; while at Boston, her port of arrival, the "Siren" was
favored by Broke's procedure. In his eagerness to secure action with
the "Chesapeake," he had detached his consort, the "Tenedos," with
orders not to rejoin until June 14. Under cover of her absence, and
the "Shannon's" return to Halifax with her prize, the "Siren" slipped
into a harbor wholly relieved of the enemy's presence. With such
conditions, a voyage along the coast could well be outside the British
line of cruising.

Owing to the difficulty of the New York entrance, except with good
pilotage, and to the absence thence of ships of war after Decatur's
departure, that port ceased to present any features of naval activity;
except as connected with the lake squadrons, which depended upon it
for supplies of all kinds. The blockade of the Sound affected its
domestic trade; and after May its external commerce shared the
inconveniences of the commercial blockade, then applied to it, and
made at least technically effective. What this pressure in the end
became is shown by a casual mention a year later, under the heading
"progress of luxury. A private stock of wine brought the average
'extraordinary' price of twenty-five dollars the gallon; while at the
same period one auction lot of prize goods, comprising three decanters
and twelve tumblers, sold for one hundred and twelve dollars."[149]
The arrival in August, 1813, of a vessel in distress, which, like the
"Siren," had passed along the whole Southern coast without seeing a
hostile cruiser, would seem to show some lapse of watchfulness; but,
although there were the occasional evasions which attend all
blockades, the general fact of neutrals turned away was established. A
flotilla of a dozen gunboats was kept in commission in the bay, but
under an officer not of the regular navy. As might readily have been
foreseen from conditions, and from experience elsewhere, the national
gunboat experiment had abundantly shown that vessels of that class
were not only excessively costly in expenditure, and lamentably
inefficient in results, as compared with seagoing cruisers, but were
also deleterious to the professional character of officers and
seamen. Two years before the war Captain Campbell, then in co