USS Constitution Vs HMS Guerriere - Aftermath

Aftermath

Captain Dacres was escorted aboard the Constitution. Hull refused to accept Dacres' sword of surrender, saying he could not accept the sword from a man who had fought so gallantly. He also ordered that Dacres' mother's Bible be returned to him. The Guerriere was clearly sinking, and the wounded were transferred to the Constitution. Hull found that ten impressed Americans had been serving aboard Guerriere but Dacres had permitted them to stay below decks instead of fighting their countrymen.

Hull wanted the Guerriere towed in as a prize ship. The Constitution lay by the Guerriere during the night but at daybreak it was obvious that the Guerriere could not be salvaged. The prisoners and the American salvage parties were brought aboard Constitution and at three o'clock in the afternoon, the Guerriere was set on fire, and soon blew up.

Although Constitution was capable of continuing her cruise (she was substantially undamaged and still had two thirds of her ammunition), Hull wanted the American public to have news of the victory. He reached Boston ten days later, and his news (with the obvious proof of more than two hundred prisoners of war) caused rejoicing. The Guerriere had been one of the most active ships of the Royal Navy in stopping and searching American merchant vessels, and the news of her defeat was particularly satisfying to the American seafaring community. Ironically, Hull was never to hold another fighting command. Just three days before he defeated Guerriere, his uncle, General William Hull, had surrendered Fort Shelby to a greatly inferior British force. Another misfortune for Isaac Hull was the death of his brother, who left a widow and children whom Hull was now duty-bound to support. Seeking a commission that would better accommodate his new domestic responsibilities, Hull asked Navy secretary Hamilton if he could exchange commands with Captain William Bainbridge, whom he had served under during the Barbary wars and who was then commander of the Boston Navy Yard. Hamilton agreed, and on 15 September 1812, Hull took over the Navy Yard and Bainbridge the Constitution.

Once released by exchange of prisoners and returned to Halifax, Dacres was tried by court martial, as was customary in the case of a Royal Navy ship lost from any cause. He put forward as his defence the facts that the Guerriere was originally French-built, captured by the Royal Navy in 1806, and therefore not as sturdy as British-built ships, and more importantly, that the Guerriere was badly decayed and in fact on her way to refit in Halifax at the time, and the fall of the mizzen mast which crippled the Guerriere early in the fight had been due as much to rot as battle damage. There was no suggestion that Dacres and his men had not done their utmost, or that Dacres had been unwise to engage the Constitution. (Early in the War of 1812, it was accepted in the Royal Navy that a British 38-gun frigate could successfully engage a 44-gun frigate of any other nation.) Dacres was therefore acquitted.