"Yes, indeed; several things. In the war of 1812-14 there occurred a naval battle near Portland, between the American ship Enterprise and the English brig Boxer. On the morning of the 1st of September, 1813, the Enterprise sailed from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and on the morning of the 3d chased a schooner suspected of being a British privateer, into Portland harbor. The next day she left that harbor and steered eastward looking for British cruisers. On the 5th they discovered in a bay what Captain Burrows supposed to be a vessel of war getting under way. She was a British brig, and on sighting the Enterprise she displayed four British ensigns, fired several guns as signals to boats that had been sent ashore to return, and crowding canvas, bore down gallantly for the Enterprise.
"Seeing that, Burrows cleared his ship for action, sailed out a proper distance from land to have plenty of sea room for the fight, then shortened sail and edged toward the Boxer. That was at three o'clock in the afternoon. Twenty minutes later the two brigs closed within half pistol shot, and both opened fire at the same time. The sea was almost quiet, there was but little wind, and that condition of things made the cannonading very destructive. Ten minutes after the firing began the Enterprise ranged ahead of the Boxer, steered across her bows and delivered her fire with such precision and destructive energy that at four o'clock the British officer in command shouted through his trumpet that he had surrendered, but his flag being nailed to the mast, could not be lowered until the Enterprise should cease firing."
"And did she, grandma?" asked Ned.
"Yes; I do not think our men ever fired on a foe whom they believed to be ready to surrender. Captain Blyth of the Boxer was already dead, having been nearly cut in two by an eighteen-pound ball, and Captain Burrows was mortally wounded. He had been helping the men to run out a carronade, and while doing so a shot, supposed to be a canister ball, struck his thigh, causing a fatal wound. He lived eight hours, and must have suffered terrible agony. He refused to be carried below until the sword of the commander of the Boxer should be brought to him. He took it eagerly when brought, saying, 'Now I am satisfied; I die contented.'"
"What did they do for a commander after their captain was so dreadfully injured?" asked Elsie.
"Lieutenant Edward R. M'Call took command of the Enterprise and showed great skill and courage," replied Grandma Elsie. "On the morning of the 7th he took both vessels into Portland Harbor, and the next day the bodies of the two commanders were buried side by side in the same cemetery, and with all the honors to which their rank and powers entitled them."
"Were the ships quite spoiled, grandma?" asked Ned.
"The Enterprise was not, but the Boxer was much cut up in both hull and rigging," she replied. "The battle showed that the Americans exceeded the English in both nautical skill and marksmanship. Lossing tells us that a London paper, speaking of the battle, said, 'The fact seems to be but too clearly established that the Americans have some superior mode of firing, and we cannot be too anxiously employed in discovering to what circumstances that superiority is owing.'"
"I think the man who wrote that was feeling mortified that one of their vessels had been whipped by one of ours," remarked Ned sagely.