The Constitution was ready for an all-night battle. The Guerrière was ready only for the torch. She was “a perfect wreck.” She could not be carried into port and had to be burned.
There was no flag flying on the Guerrière when the Constitution returned to her, and so Third Lieutenant George Campbell Read was sent off in a boat to hail her. Pulling under her lee quarter he found Captain Dacres leaning over the rail, and asked him if he had surrendered. According to the careful Maclay the following conversation took place—when Captain Dacres replied:
“I don’t know that it would be prudent to continue the engagement any longer.”
“Do I understand you to say that you have struck?” asked Lieutenant Read.
“Not precisely,” returned Dacres, “but I don’t know that it will be worth while to fight any longer.”
“If you cannot decide, I will return aboard my ship and we will resume the engagement,” said the American officer.
To this Captain Dacres called out somewhat excitedly: “Why, I am pretty much hors de combat already. I have hardly men enough left to work a single gun, and my ship is in a sinking condition.”
“I wish to know, sir,” peremptorily demanded Lieutenant Read, “whether I am to consider you a prisoner of war or an enemy. I have no time for further parley.”
Captain Dacres replied with evident reluctance: “I believe now there is no alternative. If I could fight longer I would, with pleasure; but—I—must—surrender.”
