09-10-2003, 08:58 PM
(This post was last modified: 09-10-2003, 09:02 PM by Rhydderch Hael.)
I'm having a bit of trouble swallowing this "dastardly American" tangent. As I recall, there was an instance where a British frigate tried to bluff and bluster her way against an American frigate in the darkness of one Mediterranean night (back in the Barbary Wars days) by saying that she was an 80-gun ship of the line. The American skipper, befitting of that "nutter" attitude you alluded to earlier, didn't budge and called the bluff of the dark, standing ready to trade a broadside with what he thought was ship with twice his throwweight. It was the British that had to concede the pissing match and send her boat over for consultation (the whole point of the confrontation being that of who would send their longboat over to trade communications).
The fireship in the harbor incident you described earlier bears resemblence to Stephen Decatur's destruction of the USS Philadelphia, enough so to make me think that is what you are referring to. It wasn't quite as maniacal as you describe, but it took guts: row a fireship into the harbor of Tripoli, put the captured Philadelphia alight, then set the burning frigate loose to wreak what havoc she could to the dockworks.
The fireship in the harbor incident you described earlier bears resemblence to Stephen Decatur's destruction of the USS Philadelphia, enough so to make me think that is what you are referring to. It wasn't quite as maniacal as you describe, but it took guts: row a fireship into the harbor of Tripoli, put the captured Philadelphia alight, then set the burning frigate loose to wreak what havoc she could to the dockworks.
Political Correctness is the idea that you can foster tolerance in a diverse world through the intolerance of anything that strays from a clinical standard.