. Naval power in the war (1914-1917). actics. The United States Navy had only twenty-three ves-sels in commission in the War of 1812, including thesquadrons of Perry and McDonough on the lakes, butin this small navy were concentrated skilled officers andmen. Our Navy had gained experience of warfare inthe Tripolitan War, etc., and it was far ahead of its timein construction and armament. Our naval constructors, with an intuition almost pro-phetic, had built a class of frigates, of which the Consti-tution is best known, and placed 24 pounders on an armament was ridiculed abroad, and i
. Naval power in the war (1914-1917). actics. The United States Navy had only twenty-three ves-sels in commission in the War of 1812, including thesquadrons of Perry and McDonough on the lakes, butin this small navy were concentrated skilled officers andmen. Our Navy had gained experience of warfare inthe Tripolitan War, etc., and it was far ahead of its timein construction and armament. Our naval constructors, with an intuition almost pro-phetic, had built a class of frigates, of which the Consti-tution is best known, and placed 24 pounders on an armament was ridiculed abroad, and it was pre-dicted that such ships would be useless—but, in the Warof 1812, these frigates became the wonder of the extract from the London Times shows again thestate of the public mind—The fact seems to be estab-lished that the Americans have some superior mode offiring. The fact that the Times could not under-stand was the great advance in naval construction shownby these frigates of the United States Navy. This ad-. AMERICAN ARMED BRIG TENEDOS, OF BOSTON, ATSMYRNA, JULY 4, 1834. vanced American naval constructors was thebirth of the All big-gun ship idea, which was destinedto dominate naval construction; and the Constitutionmay fairly be called the ancestor of the modern dread-nought. In the War of 1812 the American inventions of thetorpedo and the submarine were of tactical value, al-though not in actual use. Robert Fulton had attemptedto develop the Bushnell inventions, at first for the Frenchand then for the English; but he had returned to Amer-ica discouraged. There was some aid voted for his ma-chines, but nothing was ever done with them in actualwarfare. However, as in the Revolution, the idea thatthe Americans possessed such dangerous weapons proveda good defence for portions of our coast. In the Mexican War, as there was no navy to oppose213
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