# Capture of H.B.M. Frigate Macedonian by U.S. Frigate United States, October 25, 1812

- By: Thomas Chambers (born Whitby, England 1808-died Whitby, England 1869, active USA 1832-1865)
- Date: 1852
- Medium: oil on canvas
- Classification: Paintings
- Dimensions: 34 7/8 x 50 1/4 in. (88.6 x 127.5 cm.)
- Culture: United States
- Credit line: Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Sheldon and Caroline Keck in honor of Elizabeth Broun
- Museum: [Smithsonian Institution](https://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=32726)
- Rights: [CC0 (Smithsonian Open Access)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://invisiblenetwork.ai/thumbs/web/6abd4c98dda3f4e6247ea1bda0a33cb0.jpg
- Who can see it: Teens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

The rolling waves and swirls of smoke in this painting convey the noise and excitement of battle. To patriotic nineteenth-century Americans, the victory of the frigate United States over the British ship Macedonian in 1812 marked a triumph against British sea power. Off the Canary Islands, Stephen Decatur's ship damaged the Macedonian's hull, dismasted, and captured her. Decatur became an American hero who famously proclaimed "Our country-...may she always be in the right; but our country, right or wrong."Exhibition Label, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2006