It is March 16th. Welcome to Episode 75 of History in a Year. Today, the tiny United States Navy shocks the world. At the start of the War of 1812, the American invasion of Canada is a disaster, but out on the open ocean, a legend is born. We follow the heavy frigate USS Constitution as she engages the British warship HMS Guerriere in a brutal, point-blank naval duel. We witness the terrifying power of American live oak, the moment British cannonballs literally bounce off the hull, and the birth of the immortal nickname: “Old Ironsides.”
STEPHEN:
Welcome to History in a Year: America’s First 250 Years.
LEAH:
Join us every single day as we journey from the Revolution of 1776 to the 250th anniversary of the United States.
STEPHEN:
You can find every episode and join the discussion at PointedWords.com. I’m Stephen.
LEAH:
And I’m Leah.
STEPHEN:
It is March 16th. Welcome to Episode 75. Yesterday, we watched the United States declare war on Great Britain, launching the War of 1812 with an army led by aging, incompetent generals.
LEAH:
And the land war went exactly as poorly as you might expect. The American invasion of Canada immediately stalled out in a mess of logistical failures and terrified commanders.
STEPHEN:
The country desperately needed some good news. And shockingly, they got it from the one branch of the military that everyone assumed was going to be instantly annihilated: The United States Navy.
LEAH:
The numbers were genuinely laughable. The US Navy had about 16 sailable warships. The British Royal Navy, which had just spent a decade crushing the French and Spanish fleets, had over 600.
STEPHEN:
The British didn’t even consider the Americans a threat. They called the American frigates “a few fir-built frigates, manned by a handful of bastards and outlaws.”
LEAH:
But the British were about to learn a very hard lesson about American shipbuilding.
STEPHEN:
Back in the 1790s, when George Washington originally commissioned the first six frigates of the US Navy, they were designed by a brilliant shipbuilder named Joshua Humphreys. Humphreys knew America couldn’t outnumber the British, so he decided to out-build them.
LEAH:
He designed a new class of “heavy frigates.” They were longer and wider than standard frigates, which meant they could carry more massive cannons. But their real secret weapon was what they were made of.
STEPHEN:
They were built using Southern live oak. This is an incredibly dense, incredibly heavy wood that grows in the swamps of the American South. The wood is so hard that it actually dulls the axes of the men trying to chop it down.
LEAH:
And on August 19, 1812, that southern live oak was put to the ultimate test.
STEPHEN:
The USS Constitution, commanded by Captain Isaac Hull, was cruising off the coast of Nova Scotia. Around 2:00 PM, a lookout spotted a sail on the horizon.
LEAH:
It was the HMS Guerriere, a 38-gun British frigate.
STEPHEN:
The British captain, James Dacres, was incredibly confident. He actually had a running bet with an American captain that he could capture an American frigate in under 15 minutes. He ordered his men to hoist the British colors and prepare to fire.
LEAH:
As the two massive ships closed the distance, the Guerriere opened fire first.
STEPHEN:
Captain Hull of the Constitution ordered his men to hold their fire. The American sailors stood at their cannons, completely exposed on the deck, watching British iron fly through the rigging.
LEAH:
Hull wanted to wait until they were right on top of each other. He sailed the Constitution directly into the teeth of the British guns.
STEPHEN:
Finally, when they were less than 50 yards apart—literally pistol-shot range—Captain Hull, who was a rather rotund man, supposedly split his breeches as he jumped up and yelled, “Now, boys, pour it into them!”
LEAH:
The Constitution unleashed a devastating, perfectly timed broadside. The heavy American cannons tore through the British ship, instantly bringing down the Guerriere’s mainmast.
STEPHEN:
But the most famous moment of the battle happened on the American side.
LEAH:
An American sailor was watching the side of his own ship. He saw an 18-pound solid iron British cannonball fly across the water and slam directly into the side of the Constitution.
STEPHEN:
But the cannonball didn’t punch through the wood. The dense, live oak hull completely absorbed the impact. The iron ball just bounced off the side of the ship and splashed harmlessly into the ocean.
LEAH:
The sailor allegedly cheered and yelled, “Huzzah! Her sides are made of iron!”
STEPHEN:
And in that single moment, the legend of “Old Ironsides” was born.
LEAH:
The battle was an absolute slaughter. Within 30 minutes, the Guerriere was a dismasted, shattered wreck floating helplessly in the water. The British captain surrendered.
STEPHEN:
The Guerriere was so badly damaged that Captain Hull couldn’t even tow it back to port as a prize. He had to set it on fire and sink it right there in the Atlantic.
LEAH:
When the USS Constitution sailed back into Boston Harbor, the country went absolutely wild. The invincible British Royal Navy had just been beaten in a one-on-one fight.
STEPHEN:
It was a massive psychological victory. It proved that the young United States could actually punch back against the greatest empire in the world.
LEAH:
But while the Navy was winning the PR war on the ocean, the actual American Army was busy embarrassing itself in Canada.
STEPHEN:
Join us tomorrow for Episode 76. The Surrender of Detroit. We head back to the land war to witness one of the most humiliating defeats in American military history. General William Hull gets completely outsmarted by a brilliant British commander and a terrifying Native American bluff, surrendering an entire American army without firing a single shot.
LEAH:
I’m Leah.
STEPHEN:
And I’m Stephen.
STEPHEN:
You can find every episode at PointedWords.com. And this… is our story.