Constitution defeats Java off Brazil
- When
- 29 December 1812
- Where
- off the coast of Brazil
USS Constitution under Bainbridge captured HMS Java under Lambert in a three-hour single-ship action on 29 December 1812.
On 29 December 1812, Constitution met HMS Java under Captain Henry Lambert off the coast of Brazil. The engagement was a three-hour single-ship action in which Java was most famously defeated. During the fight Java's masts and rigging were cleared away, and when Constitution returned from repairing her own damage she immediately took a raking position from which Java could not defend herself. The action ended with Java's capture.
Sources
- HMS Java (1811) Wikipedia, revision of 2026-05-06
- USS Constitution Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-13
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.