Jul

15

The rules for American warfare are painfully simple: we win the ones that other people start, and we lose the ones that we start. Today is the formal anniversary of the first loser war by the American Republic. Congress, at the urging of President Adams and his Secretary of the Navy, Benjamin Stoddert, revokes its treaty with France. Because the revocation put the country in a state of war with France but is not a formal declaration by Congress, our history books call it a "Quasi-War". Conventional history does its best to pretend that this was a success. History Today tells us "the Navy gained respect as a powerful force. It grew from a mere six vessels to about 30 commissioned ships. American warships captured more than 80 French vessels during the Quasi-War."

U.S. launches the Quasi-War with France, the first conflict since the Revolution

Total tonnage of ships captured during the Quasi-War
(the figures given are a range because the sizes of the individual ships captured have to be estimated; there are not enough surviving records to know how large each ship was.)

• American ships captured by French Navy: 200,050–400,100 tons
• French ships captured by U.S. Navy: 5,200–10,000 tons

We have better numbers for the the number of ships captured:

• American ships captured by French Navy: roughly 2,000
• French ships captured by U.S. Navy: 85-86

The American records are much more precise because the captures had to be valued; prize money was the incentive pay for the officers and sailors.

Steve Ellison writes:

Paul Johnson, in A History of the American People, wrote that Thomas Jefferson during his two terms as president was endlessly vexed by the depredations of both the British and French navies on American shipping. One wonders why we start any wars if we are guaranteed to lose.

Stefan Jovanovich responds:

The data for the war that the Democrat-Republicans (Jefferson and Madison) wanted and formally declared - the one that started in 1812 and is still looking for a name:

• U.S. Captures: 44,412–63,912 tons (200–250 vessels)
• U.K. Captures: 144,799–424,799 tons (1,406 vessels)


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