_Java_ only struck when she had been razed like a sheer hulk; she
had twenty-two men killed and one hundred and two wounded.

* * * * *

"This war should be studied with unceasing diligence; the pride of
two peoples to whom naval affairs are so generally familiar has
cleared all the details and laid bare all the episodes, and through
the sneers which the victors should have spared, merely out of care
for their own glory, at every step can be seen that great truth, that
there is only success for those who know how to prepare it.

* * * * *

"It belongs to us to judge impartially these marine events, too
much exalted perhaps by a national vanity one is tempted to excuse.
The Americans showed, in the War of 1812, a great deal of skill
and resolution. But if, as they have asserted, the chances had
always been perfectly equal between them and their adversaries, if
they had only owed their triumphs to the intrepidity of Hull,
Decatur, and Bainbridge, there would be for us but little interest
in recalling the struggle. We need not seek lessons in courage
outside of our own history. On the contrary, what is to be well
considered is that the ships of the United States constantly fought
with chances in their favor, and it is on this that the American
government should found its true title to glory. * * * The Americans
in 1812 had secured to themselves the advantage of a better
organization [than the English]."

The fight between the _Constitution_ and the _Java_ illustrates