Antique Sea Battle Print Between an American and a British Ship, 1847

A sea battle between the American ship United States and the British ship Macedonian, an original antique print from Das Buch der Welt by Carl Hoffmann, published in Stuttgart in 1847. The sheet carries two images, with the lithographers named as Engelhorn and Hochdanz. The caption below reads "Seetreffen zwischen dem Amerikanischen Schiffe 'United States' und dem Brittischen Schiffe 'Macedonian'."

The upper image is a technical drawing of a large three-masted warship under full sail, with the sails, masts and rigging marked by letters and numbers for a key. The lower image shows the fight itself: two ships, the Macedonian at the left with a shattered rig and the United States at the right under the American flag, side by side with gun smoke between them, on a heaving sea under a dark sky.

The action took place on October 25, 1812, during the War of 1812, when the American frigate captured the British frigate in the Atlantic. The victory was one of the early American naval successes of the war and was widely illustrated at the time and afterward, including in German popular encyclopedias of the 1840s.