Combat· War of 1812
Constitution captures HMS Lord Nelson
On her last wartime cruise, the USS Constitution under Captain Charles Stewart took the British merchant ship Lord Nelson in the Atlantic east of Bermuda.
The ship's Marines stood ready and took part in the boarding that secured the prize. The capture was a routine commerce-raiding success of the kind that filled the days of a frigate at sea, but it carried an odd footnote: it happened on 24 December 1814, the very day the Treaty of Ghent was signed in Europe, formally ending the war that neither the Constitution's crew nor their prize yet knew was over. It was one of the last captures Stewart made before the more famous double action against the Cyane and Levant two months later, in a cruise that closed out "Old Ironsides'" combat career on a string of prizes.
Podcast episodes on War of 1812
Record no. 253