![]() Finally, the Royal Navy’s decisive victory over the French at Trafalgar had given the service somewhat of an air of invincibility- the idea that a ship of the Royal Navy, the greatest force on the seas, could be defeated by anyone else was unthinkable. British historian Jeremy Black notes that the Royal Navy’s ships at Halifax were poorly maintained and their crews had not been drilling as often as they could have. These efforts had the effect of draining supplies and ships away from the Royal Navy’s American squadron, based out of Halifax and Bermuda. Most of the British ships were engaged in blockading the French fleet in their home ports as well as supporting British army operations on the European continent. However, the Royal Navy which faced the Americans in 1812 was not the same force which had met the French in battle at Trafalgar. In addition, the British could draw upon their enormous victory over the French Navy at Trafalgar seven years earlier. ![]() The Royal Navy enjoyed an overall superiority in numbers, with 657 ships in service in 1811. This small force of seventeen ships was all that the US Navy could field against the Royal Navy, at that time the world’s largest navy. At the time of the war’s outbreak, the US Navy could count on the services of another eleven ships in addition to the heavy frigates. These ships, which could be considered as heavy frigates (or sometimes referred to as “super-frigates”), would form the backbone of the US Navy as the War of 1812 began. Each displaced over 1,000 tons, had a deck length over 175 feet, carried at least thirty twenty-four pound long guns plus varying numbers of carronades. These vessels were designed to be capable of taking on any pirate ship they might encounter. This act, designed to combat Barbary pirates engaged in the capture of American merchant vessels in the Mediterranean Sea, allowed for the construction of the famous six frigates, United States, President, Chesapeake, Constellation, Constitution, and Congress. Only with the passage of the Act to Provide a Naval Armament in 1794 would there be further naval shipbuilding. For nine years after the decommissioning of the USS Alliance, there were no active ships serving in the US Navy. Following the Revolution, the Navy had effectively ceased to exist. Thanks in part to the general mistrust of standing military forces during the years following the Revolution, the American Navy was still in its infancy during the War of 1812. The US Navy was, much like the rest of the country, not prepared for the War of 1812. Despite this lack of interest the War of 1812 was an important period for the US Navy, which performed well against an opponent regarded as the best in the world. Most historians appear to also have avoided the topic, with relatively few books on the topic being published. Even at the time of the war it was only on the periphery of the British public, whose main interest was in the massive Napoleonic Wars taking place across the English Channel. More recent and much larger wars from the past century remain at the forefront of many when thinking of their nations’ military history. The War of 1812 today tends to fall into a list of wars that are commonly forgotten by both Americans and British. Though it was not the first conflict that the still fledgling US Navy had taken part in, the War of 1812 would be the first real test of the Navy’s mettle.
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