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Updated: June 17, 2025
The Constitution, during the confusion, caused by the loss of the Guerrière's mast, was laid across the British frigate's bow, and while one or two of the bow guns of the Guerrière could only be brought to bear upon the Constitution, that vessel scoured the decks of the British ship, with a stream of metal.
Inscribed across the Guerrière's mainsail in huge red letters were the words: All who meet me have a care, I am England's Guerrière.
The "Constitution" ranged on very slowly across the "Guerrière's" bows, from left to right; her sails shaking in the wind, because the yards could not be braced, the braces having been shot away.
At three o'clock, in the afternoon, Captain Dacres, the commander of the British frigate, beat to quarters. An hour later and the enemy was close at hand. She seemed to stand across the Guerrière's bows and Captain Dacres wore ship to avoid a raking fire. No sooner had this manoeuvre been executed than the Guerrière ran up her colours and fired several shots at her opponent, but they fell short.
Connecticut sailors were among the seamen that England had impressed, and Connecticut captains had surrendered ships and rich cargoes at the command of the mistress of the seas. But the naval triumphs of the first year caught the popular fancy, for "not until the Guerriere's colors were struck to the Constitution had a British frigate been humiliated on the ocean."
The movement of the convoy, and the "Guerrière's" need of refit, were linked events that brought about the first single-ship action of the war; to account for which fully the antecedent movements of her opponent must also be traced. At the time Rodgers sailed, the United States frigate "Constitution", 44, was lying at Annapolis, enlisting a crew.
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