His Majesty’s frigate JAVA (nearest), Captain Henry Lambert, replies her first broadside against the American heavy-frigate CONSTITUTION, Commodore William Bainbridge, early in the 3-hour action fought off San Salvador, 29 December 1812. At about 2:10PM and close on the weather bow of his opponent, which had opened the action already having fired three broadsides, Captain Lambert answered with effect: shooting away CONSTITUTION's steering wheels and main backstay, dismounting several guns and maiming her crew. Feeling his enemy’s full sting Commodore Bainbridge wore his ship in smoke to run to leeward, hoping both to save his crew, and to better suit his long-shot tactics of disabling his enemy's masts.
          The British frigate turned nobly in chase, however could scarcely have fallen in with a more formidable adversary. Constitution was a crack ship, materially superior in every respect to JAVA: mounting 53 guns to JAVA’s 46; 722-pound broadsides to JAVA’s 427; 24-pounders to JAVA’s long-18’s, and being one third larger and stronger in burden, hull and spars. So superior was the American, that she would probably have been more evenly-matched fighting a British two-decker ship of the line than a fifth-rate frigate. And by contrast to CONSTITUTION’s complement of veteran fighting sailors, JAVA’s complement comprised mostly inexperienced and recently pressed landsmen who, with the exception of 8 volunteers from the ship-of-the-line RODNEY, had never fired a gun in anger. In fact, and with the exception of 6 rounds of blank, practice shot fired the previous night, most had never fired a gun at all.
          As the duel evolved, from her position of weather-advantage JAVA could twice have raked CONSTITUTION through her stern; the appalling result of cannon shot sweeping the full length of her decks would probably have induced any wary adversary to flight; yet, through want of better gunnery, the British frigate failed to capitalise on these perfect opportunities. As JAVA, so superbly helmed, first crossed her enemy’s stern, Lieutenant James Saunders, one of the ship's supernumerary officers, ran to the bow to fire the 9-pounder into CONSTITUTION’s quarter gallery. His example however was ill-followed. It is said that the 8 RODNEYs practically fought JAVA’s entire main battery by themselves; and as JAVA crossed CONSTITUTION's stern for the second time, tacking so as to engage the opposite battery from that which had already been fought, sailors crossed her rolling deck in the thick smoke of the guns and the orders rang out: "STARBOARD FORWARD DIVISION – FIRE POINT BLANK! AS SHE BEARS – NUMBER ONE! – NUMBER TWO! – NUMBER THREE! . . ." at most two or three guns fired and hit home, with the rest silent in the confusion, blinding smoke and noise. When the smoke again cleared it became apparent that a second vital opportunity had been missed; and from there the American swiftly asserted the advantage one would have expected.
          Better gunnery practice and outright material superiority would see the famous American heavy frigate take another British prize. One by one JAVA's masts and spars all fell. Yet as terrible as the situation was to become, British gallantry held true. The green sailors at the guns, by now hastily accustomed to their new trade, and following the example of the RODNEYs, poured fire on CONSTITUTION at such a rate that her own hull was steadily on fire because of the wreck of sails and spars laying over its side. A last-resort call to boarders was eventually made. The boarding parties leapt up, but only to be mown down and crushed at the gangways under the wreck of the fore and maintopmasts as they were shot away. The attempted boarding having failed; what was left of JAVA’s bowsprit fouled itself in CONSTITUTION’s mizzen rigging and pulled the British frigate alongside CONSTITUTIONs quarter. The hapless endeavour received an appalling reply of three more full-raking broadsides from CONSTITUTION, poured through the British frigate’s bow. Shortly thereafter, protesting and unwilling to leave his post, Captain Henry Lambert was taken below; a musket ball lodged in his chest close to his heart. With her commanding officer now mortally wounded, charge of the stricken frigate devolved upon First Lieutenant Henry Chads, himself also badly wounded. JAVA had by now only her maintopsail still bent; the rest of her sails and spars having been shot away. CONSTITUTION, also so badly cut up as to be barely manageable, retired to make repairs to her running rigging. It is told that as CONSTITUTION sailed away the British Blue-Jackets cheered her to return and finish the fight. Jury-repairs were hurriedly made aboard JAVA as well during the lull. Yet when CONSTITUTION again returned, assuming a potent raking position off the bow of a now completely dismasted JAVA, Lieutenant Chads and his surviving officers conferred that the last British flag, the fallen Union Jack now nailed to the stump of the mizzen, should be struck. Thereby barely seaworthy, and so badly damaged as to negate any value in being taken a prize, the gallant JAVA, former RENOMEÉ, a French prize taken the previous year off Madagascar at the Battle of Tamatave, captured twice and burned once, met her end. CONSTITUTION meanwhile was only part way through an illustrious wartime career, and would take numerous other British prizes, never losing an engagement herself throughout the War of 1812.
          This action being a well-patronised subject, I hoped to approach it differently by focusing not just on CONSTITUTION, but on JAVA as well. Being early in the action is was possible to depict the British frigate showing nearly all of the flags she had aloft that day, including the ‘Midshipman’s Coverlet’, the fallen Red Ensign that was given to comfort badly wounded 13-year-old Midshipman Eddie Keele after the mizzenmast was shot away.