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seamen. they went where the money was. so the u.s. navy was competing not only with private ears and the u.s. army. certainly didn't have an opportunity to pick the best seamen. most of our crews were british subjects. that was not true. there had been a fair number serves in the navy, but after the chesapeake affair in 1807, the navy department ordered that no more british suggests be employed and most once war was declared, left the us navy any way because they knew if they were captured, they were likely to be hanged. teddy roosevelt who is a great historian reckoned that no war s...

was, and about 5% were seamen. they went where the money was. so the u.s. navy was competing not only with privateers, but also with the u.s. army. and certainly didn't have an opportunity to pick the best seamen. the british also argued that most of our crews were british subjects. that was simply not true. there had at one time been a fair number of british serving chesapeake affair in 1807, the navy department ordered that no more british subjects be employed. and most of them, once war was declared, left the u.s. navy anyway, because they knew if they were captured, they would li...

likely be hanged. teddy roosevelt, who is the great naval historian of this war, reckoned that no u.s. warship had as many as 10% of its crew as british tars. and i think he's probably right about that. so u.s. frigates were not ships of the line in disguise, they didn't rely on picked crews and they didn't rely on british tars. now, the last part of this myth is the american myth. that because we won a series of duels on the high seas, that we won the war at sea. not so. the british gave about as good as they got in the course of the war. won about as many duels as they lost. more i...