what is the most impressive war in the history of america?

You are thinking of a fourth rate. A second rate would be a giant three decker.

Most of the UK's lineships were third rates, with a full row of 32 pounders topped by a full row of 18 pounders. That is about double the power of one full row of 24 pounders.





True, but running from battle is about all they could do if they came up against a fleet of third rates.





But against a fleet of lineships it would be an entirely different story.

Better ships of the line as well.





I've always heard that the UK did train their crews regularly. That is supposed to be the reason so many of those superior French designs ended up flying the British flag. A poorly-designed British ship with a well-trained crew would outfight and capture a well-designed French ship with a poorly-trained crew.

(Perhaps a lesson there on where our military spending priorities should be.)

the one man war that Mitt Romney fought on behalf of the North Vietnamese against the French

sure, everyone thought he was doing "Missionary" (wink, wink) work, but he was really doing was waging a psychological war against the former oppressors of the Vietnamese, this was accomplished by knocking on doors and interrupting lunchtimes, boring people with endless bible quotes and bewitching them with magic underwear

Mitt Romney, Mormon, Saboteur and Enemy of the State

Read Roosevelt. Admiralty policy restricted a captain to the live fire of a nyumber of guns equal to one third of the ship's rating each month. So, for example, in the case of Shannon, that would have been twelve guns fired in 30 days. Capt. Broke was a man of private means, and Shannon had been in commission for five years, having taken many prizes. Broke trained his men because he bought powder and shot out of his own pocket. The Congress, however, authorized the purchase of poweder and shot for the express purpose of training the crews. This can be seen from the log of USS Essex. As she ran down the Atlantic to Cape Horn, day after day, the entries record the men being excercised in small arms and with the "great guns." Additionally, one of the ship's boys was David Farragut, just 12 years old when he joined Essex in Boston. His memoirs also confirm that Essex regularly trained the crew in small arms and the great guns.

So many of the crewmen of Royal Navy vessels were prssed men, or "Lord Mayor's men" (meaning jail birds), and had little experience of the sea or of arms. There is an excellent account of life aboard, i'll go upstairs and see if i can find it later. The man who wrote it, more than 20 years in the Royal Navy, was aboard HMS Macedonian when she was taken by United States. He writes about how unwilling the men were. The midshipmen, rather than being gun crew captains, were given pistols and stationed in the companionways so stop the crew from going below. He speaks very feelingly of just how bad a commander the captain was, and how he roared at and threatened his men. You'd never get away with that on a USN vessel of the same period. England was scraping the bottom of the barrel by 1812.

Also, because many captains could not afford to buy powder and shot to train their men, and because of their contempt for their crews, a great many of them always believed in laying along side to slug it out yardarm to yardarm, and then boarding in the smoke.

The French captured quite a few Royal Navy ships, too.

We had have six ships of the line under construction before the war but the damn Republicans scape them half build with the idea that most of our coast defense could be done on the cheap with gunboats.

I am going to see if I can find out what ships of the line they was met to be.