Combat· War of 1812
Constitution vs HMS Guerriere
The frigate duel that gave the Navy its first great victory of the war and the Constitution her enduring name.
About 750 miles east of Boston, Captain Isaac Hull brought the Constitution alongside HMS Guerriere and battered her into a dismasted wreck in under an hour, the Marines in the tops keeping up so heavy and accurate a fire that the enemy's deck could not be worked. When the Marines were called aft to board, their commander, First Lieutenant William S. Bush, sprang onto the taffrail sword in hand to lead them across and was shot dead by a British Marine, the first Marine officer killed in the war. Lieutenant John Contee took command. So thoroughly was Guerriere wrecked that Hull burned her rather than try to save the prize. The sight of British shot bouncing off her hull earned the Constitution the name "Old Ironsides."
Podcast episodes on War of 1812
Record no. 86