with England, the gallant Decatur was given
the command of the frigate _United States_, and with it he captured the
British frigate _Macedonian_, after a hard fight.

Poor Decatur was shot dead in a duel in 1820 by a hot-headed officer
whom he had offended. It was a sad end to a brilliant career, for the
American Navy never had a more gallant commander.

CHAPTER XII

THE GALLANT "OLD IRONSIDES" AND HOW SHE CAPTURED THE "GUERRIERE"

A FAMOUS INCIDENT OF THE WAR OF 1812

WHEN did our country win its greatest fame upon the sea? I think, when
you have read the story of the War of 1812, you will say it was in that
war. It is true, we did not do very well on land in that war, but the
glory we lost on the shore we made up on the sea.

You should know that in 1812 England was the greatest sea-power in the
world. For years she had been fighting with Napoleon, and every fleet he
set afloat was badly whipped by British ships. Is it any wonder that the
people of that little island were proud of their fleets? Is it any
wonder they proudly sang--

"Britannia needs no bulwarks,
No towers along the steep;
Her march is o'er the mountain waves,
Her home is on the deep."

They grew so vain of their lordship of the sea that they needed a
lesson, and they were to get one from the Yankee tars. As soon as war
began between England and the United States in 1812, a flock of British
war-hawks came flying bravely across the seas, thinking they would soon
gobble up the Yankee sparrows. But long before the war was over, they
quit singing their proud song of "Britannia rules the waves," and found
that what they thought was a Yankee sparrow was the American eagle.

There were too many great things done on the ocean in this war for me to
name them all, so I will have to tell only the most famous. And first of
all I must give you the story of the noble old _Constitution_, or, as
she came to be called, _Old Ironsides_.

The _Constitution_ was a noble ship of the old kind. That royal old
craft is still afloat, after more than a hundred years of service, and
after all her companions have long since sunk in the waves or rotted
away. She was built to fight the French in 1798. She was Commodore
Preble's flagship in the war with the Moorish pirates. And she won
undying fame in the War of 1812. So the story of the _Constitution_
comes first in our list of the naval conquerors of that war.

I