We Lost the Naval War of 1812...

5fish

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We were never told our navy got its butt kick in the war of 1812 for we are told of our ships winning engagements with other British ships. In truth our war ships were bottle up in our harbors do to a successful blockade of our harbors by the British. Yes, the British successfully blockaded our ports after 1813...

Here is a link to those successful naval engagements we won... and lost...


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As the War of 1812 progressed, and the British realized the danger of the American heavy frigates, they dedicated more and more naval assets to blockading the American coast. In addition, the British strictly prohibited their ships from challenging the American frigates one-on-one.

Here is another look: Our bottled up war ships and ports blockaded...


snip... The gloss...

Many popular American histories of the War of 1812 portray the conflict as a series of stunning successes for the young nation and the United States Navy in particular. This is a war that included storied events like the U.S. frigate Constitution earning the nickname ‘Old Ironsides,’ the U.S. frigate Essex’s cruise of the Pacific, and numerous victorious frigate duels against the preeminent naval power of the era.

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The war at sea to capture enemy warships and merchantmen was the most desirable objective for naval officers and the most popular in historical accounts. The numerous ship duel victories in this theater are some of the most famous victories of the early U.S. Navy. They include Captain Isaac Hull and the frigate Constitution’s capture of the frigate HMS Guerriere, Captain Stephen Decatur and the frigate United States’ capture of the frigate HMS Macedonian, and Captain William Bainbridge and Constitution’s victory over the frigate HMS Java. These and most other victories at sea, however, occurred in the opening months of the war. By early 1813, the British had eleven ships of the line, thirty-four frigates, and fifty-two other vessels operating off North America, while the U.S. had only two frigates at sea. By November 1813, the British established a commercial blockade that stopped all traffic regardless of nationality across the entire east coast south of New England.

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The resources of the British Navy quickly overwhelmed the U.S. Navy’s famous heavy frigates. After evading the blockade out of New York in May 1813, Decatur’s squadron of the frigates United States and Macedonian and sloop Wasp had to escape to New London, CT. They remained there for the rest of the war. After sinking HMS Java, Constitution saw little action. Even though the British did not yet have Boston under a full blockade, they kept “Old Ironsides” in Boston Harbor for most of the war. The frigate Congress managed to slip out of Boston, only to return by the end of the year too damaged to repair. Her guns were stripped and she spent the rest of the war in ordinary. The frigate Constellation never escaped Norfolk throughout the war. Again with a voice of reason, Mahan evaluated the U.S. Navy’s conduct of the war at sea accurately

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Earlier in April 1814, the British extended their blockade to include New England. American imports shrank more than 25 percent from 1811 and exports dropped from $108 million in 1807 to less than $7 million. In August, the British marched on Washington, D.C. and burned down the capital city. To deny the British any resources, the U.S. Navy burned down the Washington Navy Yard themselves, including the U.S. Navy’s first 74-gun ship of the line, Columbia. Of the seventeen sea-going U.S. Navy vessels at the start of the war, only seven remained by its end. By the end of 1814, the British held almost as many U.S. Navy sailors as prisoners as the U.S. Navy had sailors out to sea. Signed on December 24, 1814, the Treaty of Ghent restored pre-war territorial borders but did not address the U.S.’s greatest concern, impressment. The British had already ceased the practice. They had far less need for sailors after Napoleon’s defeat at Leipzig earlier in October 1814

Here is a look:


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The United States declared war on Great Britain on June 18, 1812. In response, England ordered a naval blockade on November 27, 1812 that was implemented in stages. Local proclamations by the Royal Navy announced the closing by blockade of four successive portions of the coastline: • February 6, 1813 – Chesapeake and Delaware Bays (“Mid-Atlantic”) • May 26, 1813 – New York harbor and Long Island Sound to New London (“New York”) • September 1, 1813 – North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia (“Southern Coast”) • April 25, 1814 – Northern coastline from Rhode Island to Maine (“New England”) The blockade of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast was ordered, but was never implemented by local proclamations. The blockade was lifted on March 6, 1815 after news was received in North America that the December 24, 1814 Treaty of Ghent had ended the war.
 

5fish

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Here is a book on the topic...

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A summary... Its a long summary so here are some highlights,,,


snip....

Numerous historians have pointed to the damaging effects of the British blockade of the American coast during the War of 1812. Donald Hickey argues ‘the British blockade had a deadly effect on the United States. Foreign trade dropped sharply and government revenue dried up ... the coasting trade became perilous, too, forcing American merchants to resort to overland transportation’.(1) The parlous American economy was thrown into chaos with prices soaring and unexpected shortages causing hardship. The Royal Navy's close blockade, particularly off the Middle Atlantic and New England coasts, forced the US Navy's commanders to use caution in dealing with the blockading vessels, which were usually either 74-gun ships or frigates operating in squadrons of two or more. During 1813 and 1814, the frigate Constellation was unable to leave its protected berth at Norfolk, and the frigates United States and Macedonian were bottled up in Long Island Sound by British warships hovering off Sandy Hook, Montauk Point, and Block Island. The frigate Chesapeake sortied from Boston harbor only to be captured by the frigate Shannon during a savage gun duel. The frigates President, Constitution, and Congress were occasionally able to escape from Boston through the blockade when conditions were favorable. In 1814, the sloop of war Adams escaped through the Chesapeake Capes blockade but only after a year's wait in the Potomac River and Chesapeake Bay.

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On the other hand, Wade G. Dudley (no relation) in Splintering the Wooden Wall: The British Blockade of the United States, 1812-1815 (2), attempted to establish that the blockade was quite ineffective in punishing the United States, pointing out areas where it was weakest, such as in the South and on the Gulf Coast. He remarked that, in 1814, ‘the country as a whole was quite self-sufficient – no one starved, and the implements of war continued to be produced – its government had little money, thanks to the tremendous expenses associate with warfare, Madison's embargo, and the blockade’. The blockade, he suggested, ‘was never the overwhelmingly successful operation painted by [Alfred Thayer] Mahan and numerous other historians

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George Daughan's recent 1812: The Navy's War (3) mentioned the naval blockade as an impediment to the US Navy but expends no effort to examine the British blockade's effectiveness in reducing the flow of trade, the lack of customs receipts, and the virtually bankrupt treasury which was forced rely on loans from its citizens to finance the war in its last two years

snip... Pirates did well...

The one major element Arthur does not seriously account for is American privateering enterprise, which was successful in both naval and financial terms, despite the blockade. Privateer owners were an interesting blend of profit-minded entrepreneurs and patriotic sea warriors. To license and hold them accountable, the government issued 517 commissions for privateer and letter of marque vessels, which captured 1,345 British prizes and inflicted an estimated $45.5 million in damage on the British merchant fleet. The privateers sallied forth from Massachusetts, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Maine, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Virginia, Louisiana, and Georgia. Indeed, many of the sailors who formerly had manned trading vessels signed on as privateersmen in major ports from Portsmouth to New Orleans. The large numbers of these swift-sailing, highly maneuverable schooners and brigs which slipped through the blockade, were a continuing irritation to the blockade commanders as they harried British convoys from the West Indies and took the war even to the chops of the Channel. Arthur minimizes the privateers' efforts as having little impact on Britain's aggregate overseas trade but whether by this he means global or North Atlantic trade he does not say. He balances the losses to privateers and American naval vessels by pointing out that the United States lost 1,407 merchantmen to the Royal Navy. But by this comparison, American privateers did fairly well
 

diane

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Preble's Boys! It put the seal on the deal of American independence whether we won or drew even, and was the birth of American seapower. "In those frigates lies the nucleus of trouble for Great Britain." That's Admiral Horatio Nelson, watching Old Ironsides. Joshua Humphreys, genius ship builder, had developed frigates that were far speedier and carried more armament than the British ships could. (Nelson was a master at using a smaller ship to run circles around a heavier ship - he immediately saw what we did there!)
 

5fish

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Nelson was a master at using a smaller ship to run circles around a heavier ship - he immediately saw what we did there!)
I found this...

The new ships first flexed their muscle off the Barbary Coast of North Africa in 1803. They took an American frigate back from the British, right under Admiral Nelson's nose. Nelson called those ships "a nucleus of trouble for the ships of Great Britain."

this too:
 
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diane

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I found this...

The new ships first flexed their muscle off the Barbary Coast of North Africa in 1803. They took an American frigate back from the British, right under Admiral Nelson's nose. Nelson called those ships "a nucleus of trouble for the ships of Great Britain."
Stephen Decatur's taking of the captured American ship USS Philadelphia (which he had to burn) in 1804 got Nelson's stand-up applause - he called it 'the most bold and daring act of its age'. The Tripolitan Wars against the kleptocracies of Northern Africa were on-going, but once we started winning they began to leave us alone at least. And...we also got the Leathernecks. The pirates on the Barbary Coast dearly loved slicing throats and cutting off heads, so a little added protection was needed for the Marines.
 

5fish

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Privateers of 1812... Here a good little article that goes into the privateers of the war of 1812 and beyond to detail thoughts of privateers...

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Because it involved so many owners and seamen directly, and the American populace indirectly, some earlier historians termed the privateers’ war a “war of the people.”

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Privateering was critical for the American war effort. In the three years of the War of 1812, U.S. Navy warships captured about 250 vessels, but American privateers took at least five times that number of British merchant vessels—at least 1,200, but probably as many as 2,000, although no one knows for sure. The privateers burned some of the British merchant ships they captured, ransomed others back to their owners, lost many to recapture by the British navy, and brought home prize ships and goods that sold for millions of dollars.

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The privateering business was thoroughly modern and capitalistic, with ownership consortiums to split investment costs and profits or losses, and a group contract to incentivize the crew, who were paid only if their ship made profits. A sophisticated set of laws ensured that the capture was “good prize,” and not fraud or robbery. In addition, the government took a large cut of the proceeds off the top as customs duties, which flowed into the Treasury.

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The psychological effect (and the financial effect) on Liverpool and London merchants as the American privateers made brazen captures in the Irish Sea and the English Channel ultimately may have played a role in curbing British enthusiasm for continuing the war against America

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Andrew Lambert acknowledges the impact of privateers in the first months of the war, but asserts that the Royal Navy minimized and ultimately defeated the privateer threat. While he acknowledges that the privateers’ guerre de course resulted in the capture of 7.5 percent of the British merchant fleet, because those losses did not produce an existential threat such as the U-boat campaigns of the world wars, Lambert concludes the privateers were “never significant.” He notes that Lloyd’s (the London insurance consortium) maintained wartime maritime insurance rates in September 1814, and infers that the stability of the insurance rates means that privateers had little effect

snip... But!

But even if Lambert’s facts about insurance are true, his inference is questionable: The fact that maritime insurance rates could not be reduced by September 1814, five months after Napoleon had abdicated and Britain had returned to peace with France, is an indication of the huge and ongoing damage wrought by the American privateers
 

5fish

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Baltimore almost burned because of a privateers success... and we got the "Star-Spangle Banner"


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Some American privateer captains became heroes during the War of 1812, and their exploits were celebrated in American newspapers.

Privateers sailing from Baltimore, Maryland were especially aggravating to the British. London newspapers denounced Baltimore as a "nest of pirates." The most significant of the Baltimore privateers was Joshua Barney, a naval hero of the Revolutionary War who volunteered to serve in the summer of 1812 and was commissioned as a privateer by President James Madison.

Barney was immediately successful at raiding British ships on the open ocean and received press attention. The Columbian, a New York City newspaper, reported on the results of one of his raiding voyages in the issue of August 25, 1812:

"Arrived at Boston the English brig William, from Bristol (England) for St. Johns, with 150 tons of coal, &; a prize to the privateer Rossie, commodore Barney, who had also captured and destroyed 11 other British vessels, and captured the ship Kitty from Glasgow, of 400 tons and ordered her for the first port."
The British naval and land attack on Baltimore in September 1814 was, at least in part, intended to punish the city for its connection to privateers.

Following the burning of Washington, D.C., British plans to burn Baltimore were thwarted, and the American defense of the city was immortalized by Francis Scott Key, an eyewitness, in "The Star-Spangled Banner."
 

Matt McKeon

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The American fleet played the role of 'Fleet in being" a constant threat that had to be guarded against using much more resources. The Constitution as the Tripitz. The decisive naval battle in my mind would be the Battle of Lake Erie and the Battle of Plattsburg on Lake Champlain.
 

diane

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The American fleet played the role of 'Fleet in being" a constant threat that had to be guarded against using much more resources. The Constitution as the Tripitz. The decisive naval battle in my mind would be the Battle of Lake Erie and the Battle of Plattsburg on Lake Champlain.
The Battle of Lake Erie was very significant - Oliver Hazard Perry build him a little fleet right there. Before, American ships were privateers - such as Joshua Barney or John Paul Jones - and privateers didn't get much respect from the Brits. Perry worked with Joshua Humphreys to build ships in the lake, much like Old Ironsides, and this battle very definitely got the attention of the British. It also had significant ramifications for Natives - this battle directly led to the defeat of the confederacy Tecumseh was attempting to build.
 

O' Be Joyful

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Baltimore almost burned because of a privateers success... and we got the "Star-Spangle Banner"


snip...

Some American privateer captains became heroes during the War of 1812, and their exploits were celebrated in American newspapers.

Privateers sailing from Baltimore, Maryland were especially aggravating to the British. London newspapers denounced Baltimore as a "nest of pirates." The most significant of the Baltimore privateers was Joshua Barney, a naval hero of the Revolutionary War who volunteered to serve in the summer of 1812 and was commissioned as a privateer by President James Madison.

Barney was immediately successful at raiding British ships on the open ocean and received press attention. The Columbian, a New York City newspaper, reported on the results of one of his raiding voyages in the issue of August 25, 1812:

The British naval and land attack on Baltimore in September 1814 was, at least in part, intended to punish the city for its connection to privateers.

Following the burning of Washington, D.C., British plans to burn Baltimore were thwarted, and the American defense of the city was immortalized by Francis Scott Key, an eyewitness, in "The Star-Spangled Banner."
A note of interest: The commander of Fort McHenry during the attack on Baltimore was Major George Armistead, the uncle of Gen. Lewis Armistead C.S.A.



 
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