What he objected to most was her armament. She carried forty 32-pound carronades and six long 12-pounders, a total of forty-six guns. The mix of weaponry was the exact opposite of what he wanted. Carronades were most effective as supplements to a main battery of long guns; they were not intended to be a frigate’s primary weapon. As far back as October 12, 1811, Porter had written to Navy Secretary Hamilton complaining that carronades remained “an experiment in modern warfare. . . . I do not conceive it proper to trust the honor of the flag entirely to them.” A little over a month later, after he had returned from a short cruise, Porter wrote to Sam Hambleton, “I am much pleased with my ship, and I wish I could say as much for her armament—She is armed with carronades which in my opinion are very inferior to long guns.” Porter remained so disgruntled that he asked Secretary Hamilton on October 14 to give him another ship, preferably the twenty-eight-gun Adams, sitting in the Washington Navy Yard.
