46 ordinary seamen, 12 boys, and 20 marines--140 in all. Sometimes
ships put to sea without their full complements (as in the case of
the first _Wasp_), but more often with supernumeraries aboard.
The weapons for close quarters were pikes, cutlasses, and a few
axes; while the marines and some of the topmen had muskets, and
occasionally rifles.

In comparing the forces of the contestants I have always given
the number of men in crew; but this in most cases was unnecessary.
When there were plenty of men to handle the guns, trim the sails,
make repairs, act as marines, etc., any additional number simply
served to increase the slaughter on board. The _Guerriere_
undoubtedly suffered from being short-handed, but neither the
_Macedonian_ nor _Java_ would have been benefited by the presence
of a hundred additional men. Barclay possessed about as many men
as Perry, but this did not give him an equality of force. The
_Penguin_ and _Frolic_ would have been taken just as surely had
the _Hornet_ and _Wasp_ had a dozen men less apiece than they did.
The principal case where numbers would help would be in a
hand-to-hand fight. Thus the _Chesapeake_ having fifty more men
than the _Shannon_ ought to have been successful; but she was not,
because the superiority of her crew in numbers was more than
counterbalanced by the superiority of the _Shannon's_ crew in
other respects. The result of the battle of Lake Champlain, which
was fought at anchor, with the fleets too far apart for musketry
to reach, was not in the slightest degree affected by the number
of men on either side, as both combatants had amply enough to
manage the guns and perform every other service.

In all these conflicts the courage of both parties is taken for