Decatur was cornered, but his guns were served until a fifth of the crew were disabled, the ship was crippled, and a force fourfold greater than his own was closing in to annihilate him at its leisure.

"I deemed it my duty to surrender," said he, and a noble American frigate, more formidable than the _Constitution_, was added to the list of the Royal Navy.
[Illustration: _A FRIGATE OF 1812 UNDER SAIL_ The _Constellation_, of which this is a photograph, is somewhat smaller than the _Constitution_, being rated at 38 guns as against 44 for the latter.

In general appearance, however, and particularly in rig, the two types are very similar.

Although the _Constellation_ did not herself see action in the War of 1812, she is a good example of the heavily armed American frigate of that day--and the only one of them still to be seen at sea under sail within recent years.

At the present time the _Constellation_ lies moored at the pier of the Naval Training Station, Newport, R.I.
Photograph by E.Mueller, Jr., Inc., New York.].