The report of the British court that tried the survivors of the crew for the loss of the Boxer said that the defeat of the Boxer was due to “a superiority of force, principally in the number of men, as well as to a greater degree of skill in the direction of her fire, and to the destructive effects of the first broadside.”
To this may be added what the London Times said, editorially, on October 22, 1813:
“But what we regret to perceive stated is, that the Boxer was literally cut to pieces in sails, rigging, spars, and hull; whilst the Enterprise (her antagonist) was in a situation to commence a similar action immediately afterward. The fact seems to be too clearly established that the Americans have some superior mode of firing; and we cannot be too anxiously employed in discerning to what circumstances that superiority is owing.”
Both Captain Blythe and Captain Burrows were buried in Portland with the highest honors known on such occasions. Certainly, the gallant efforts of the British captain deserved all the honors that could be paid. A gold medal was voted by Congress to the nearest male relative of the dead American captain, and it is very likely still cherished as an heirloom in some South Carolina household, for Burrows was a native of that State. He was the son of Lieutenant-Colonel Burrows, previously of the American Marine Corps. He was but twenty-seven years of age when killed.
Medal Awarded to Edward R. McCall After the Battle Between the Enterprise and the Boxer.
After the battle, Master-Commandant James Renshaw was appointed to command the Enterprise. In company with the brig Rattlesnake she cruised off the southern coast of the nation, where she proved so slow that the Rattlesnake, although not a fast vessel, was often compelled to sail under top-sails only, while the Enterprise carried full sail. And yet on several occasions the Enterprise escaped from British frigates, and did so once though chased for seventy hours. If anything had been needed to confirm the old sailormen in their belief in the luck of the Enterprise this prolonged race would have done it. When the frigate appeared and gave chase the two Yankees separated, and the frigate chose to follow the Enterprise. During the three days that the frigate thereafter followed the ill-sparred American, the wind proved exceedingly variable and baffling, but it was without exception baffling in each change for the British ship. Time and again she almost overhauled the little Enterprise, but on each occasion the Yankee was favored by a shift of wind, or a calm where the row-boats could tow her, and at the last she got a breeze that placed her a long way fair to windward of the enemy, and before the frigate’s flapping sails were filled with it the Enterprise beat fairly out of sight and escaped altogether. It is certain that she was handled with consummate skill, just as Hull handled the Constitution, but then the Constitution was lucky, too.
The Rattlesnake was lucky for a time after separating from the Enterprise on this occasion, but was captured by the British frigate Leander later in the war.
The Enterprise, having reached Charleston in safety, was there employed as harbor guard until the end of the war.
So it happened that in spite of the risks taken by the bravest of sea-commanders during four different wars (she was in the second Mediterranean war), this the luckiest of ships known to the American register, perished at last in an honored old age, worn out in the service of the nation.