The War of 1812!

[Anomalocaris]

-but when we did, we had the envy of the world in just a few unsinkable ships.

See, we can get it right, after we;ve tried every other thing first!

Err, we basically built 6 frigates that were the 1810 equivalent of German pocket battleships of WWII.   They were not unsinkable.  Nor were they really that fast.   But they were faster than anything that were stronger than they were one on one, and were stronger than anything that were faster than they were.

However, the British in 1812 had about 140 full sized, not pocket, ships of the line or battleships (3rd rate or above) that can easily sink, burn or take them in a stand up fight, but can’t catch them in a running battle.

So what did the British do?

Since they had so many battleships, they were happy to take 6, cut them down one deck so they are lighter and faster and can now have a chance of running down the big american frigates.   But what remains in those ships were still battleship guns and solid battleship construction.   So they can still sink, burn or take the american frigates in one on one action.  Those truncated ships of the line were called razee frigates.  These were ready by 1814.

So I think we look at even such naval actions we managed in too rosy a light.   If the war had lasted longer, the British would have tracked down and sunk, burn or taken all of the american navy, including the 4 of the 6 Big frigates that remains.