They were capable of manning what was, in fact, a private navy comprised of fast and formidable cruisers.

The intervening generation had advanced the art of building and handling ships beyond all rivalry, and England grudgingly acknowledged their ability.

The year of 1812 was indeed but a little distance from the resplendent modern era of the Atlantic packet and the Cape Horn clipper.
Already these Yankee deep-water ships could be recognized afar by their lofty spars and snowy clouds of cotton duck beneath which the slender hull was a thin black line.

Far up to the gleaming royals they carried sail in winds so strong that the lumbering English East Indiamen were hove to or snugged down to reefed topsails.

It was not recklessness but better seamanship.