Help: The Little Belt and the President

[Grim DeGrim]

The below is an excerpt...and it is difficult for me to hold back and not post the entire article herein.  I'd offer that you have a read, as it is genuinely interesting.  LINK. 

 

What I would like help understanding, what does it mean to "wear over from one point of sail to another":

 

".....The Little Belt hoved to and, with guns double-shotted, hoisted her British colours. The crew of the Little Belt became quite busy managing the sails so to wear over from one point of sail to another. She did not want to be raked or to use a land army expression, enfiladed.6 Three times she wore."

 

Grim

[Illusive Tabby]

It means he "wore ship", with the present tense "wear ship".

 

To turn the ship away from the wind in order to change tacks downwind. All of the rigging turns and rubs during the maneuver, causing the gear to wear. Definition: 1) Jibing, or running before the wind.

[Grim DeGrim]

OK...in laymans terms...The American ship was following...so they swung their ship back and forth (aka, flipping broadsides?).  They were worried about being raked, so I'm trying to understand how "wearing" achieved this not happening.

[Illusive Tabby]

As to that, I am not certain. There is a lack of an order of battle diagram anywhere that I have searched, so I have no clue how it was supposed to help. I would figure point the ship at the best angle to the wind as you can and make best speed away if you needed to not get shot to kindling.

[Tom Pullings]

Well, I took a look at the article, and I suspect that Tabby is right and she kept wearing just to keep at a good point of sail to stay ahead of the frigate but also stay on course.  Running dead downwind is a lousy point of sail on a square-rigged ship, and if her course lay dead downwind, or close to it, she would rather zig zag by pointing up a little first on the starboard tack and then on the larboard tack so as to maintain best speed.  Since she only wore three times in that long run while the frigate closed, that's likely why.  

 

If this is the case, then the frigate was likely doing the same, matching tack for tack, so as to try to catch her; until he did, whereupon the frigate hove to in order to bring his broadside to bear and the battle started.  

 

That's my best guess from what we're told.

[Grim DeGrim]

Thank you folks   I had imagined as such, but as is....it was purely that:  my imagination, lol.  You've helped solidify.

[DeRuyter]

Mr. Pullings has it.  Running dead downwind is a bad point of sailing for any ship. Even racing yachts with spinnakers wear or jibe from a broad reach to broad reach on the opposite tack (keeping the wind on the quarter) to maintain the best speed. Although Little Belt was not necessarily running away because the sentence before noted that she hoisted British colors and "hove to" waiting for the frigate to come up to identify herself.

[Grim DeGrim]

The story (long version) does explain that they likely knew right off that it made no difference as they knew "their smaller vessel could hardly be expected to outrun the larger American vessel".

 

I enjoyed the reference, as there have been threads in these forums discussing the larger (well, longer) ships are faster - contrary to the beliefs of many of us landlubbers.

[Tom Pullings]

Speed is usually a factor of waterline length on most vessels.  It's more complicated than that, of course, but as a general rule, the longer the ship the faster.