...itish newspapers, sneering at the American navy, had spoken of the Constitution as a bundle of pine boards sailing under a bit of striped bunting. They had also declared that a few broadsides from England 's wooden walls would drive the paltry striped bunting from the ocean. Hull was eager to pluck out the sting of these insults. He sailed as far as the Bay of Fundy, and then cruised eastward of N...