More than nine years after the Constitution gave a pursuing Royal Navy squadron the slip, the episode came back to haunt the commanding British officer, with fatal results.
As captain of the U.S. frigate Constitution, Charles Stewart accomplished the singular feat of capturing two British warships in one engagement. 1 He was making a cruise across the Atlantic on 20 February 1815 when his crew spotted HMS Cyane and Levant 200 miles east-northeast of Madeira. Unaware that Britain and the United States had ratified the Treaty of Ghent and that the War of 1812 was over, the opposing commanders sailed to engage.
