the sailor was a volunteer, and he shipped in whatever craft his
fancy selected. Throughout the war there were no "picked crews" on
the American side, [Footnote: James' statements to the contrary
being in every case utterly without foundation. He is also wrong
in his assertion that the American ships had no boys; they had nearly
as many in proportion as the British. The _Constitution_ had 31,
the _Adams_ 15, etc. So, when he states that our midshipmen were
generally masters and mates of merchantmen; they were generally
from eleven to seventeen years old at the beginning of the war,
and besides, had rarely or never been in the merchant marine.]
excepting on the last two cruises of the _Constitution_. In fact
(as seen by the letter of Captains Stewart and Bainbridge to
Secretary Hamilton), there was often much difficulty in getting
enough men. [Footnote: Reading through the volumes of official
letters about this war, which are preserved in the office of the
Secretary of the Navy, one of the most noticeable things is the
continual complaints about the difficulty of getting men. The
_Adams_ at one time had a crew of but nineteen men--"fourteen of
whom are marines," adds the aggrieved commander. A log-book of
one of the gun-boats records the fact that after much difficulty
_two_ men were enlisted--from the jail, with a parenthetical
memorandum to the effect that they were both very drunk. British
ships were much more easily manned, as they could always have
recourse to impressment.

The _Constitution_ on starting out her last cruises had an
extraordinary number of able seamen aboard, viz., 218, with but 92
ordinary seamen, 12 boys, and 44 marines, making, with the officers,
a total of 440 men. (See letter of Captain Bainbridge, Oct. 16,
1814; it is letter No. 51, in the fortieth volume of "Captains'