(WAR OF 1812) | Constitution & Gurriere. [No place or printer, ca. late August–September 1812]

Property from the Eric C. Caren Collection

(WAR OF 1812)

Constitution & Gurriere. [No place or printer, ca. late August–September 1812]

Broadside poem or song (10 1/2 x 8 3/4 in.; 268 x 222 mm), text in nine stanzas of six lines set in two columns, crude woodcut of the two ships engaged in battle at the top, title misspelling the British ship (actually Guerriere); browned and lightly dampstained. Framed and glazed. The consignor has independently obtained a letter of authenticity from PSA that will accompany the lot.

A very rare broadside celebrating the American victory in the first major naval engagement of the War of 1812. In a battle southeast of Nova Scotia, 19 August 1812, the USS Constitution, commanded by Isaac Hull, dismasted and burned HMS Guerriere, whose captain, James Richard Dacres, had engaged even though the American vessel was larger and more heavily armed.

The loss of Guerriere was not consequential to the vastly superior Royal Navy, but it provided an enormous boost to American morale and rallied public support for the War, as well as earning the Constitution the nickname "Old Ironsides." A great number of commemorative broadsides were quickly published throughout the county, but the present one is very uncommon. A copy may have last appeared at auction in the sale of the library of the late Edward Everett Hale at Merwin-Clayton in 1910.

The text parodies a then-current popular song, "The Landlady of France," also known as "Brandy O." The verses, while comic, provide a reasonably accurate account of the battle: "O Cries Hull unto his crew, | We'll try what we can do, | If we beat these boasting Britons we are the dandy O, | The first broadside we pour'd, | Brought the mizen by the board, | Which doused the royal ensign quite handy O."

REFERENCE:

cf. Lawrence, Music for Patriots, Politicians, and Presidents, p. 194