I would like to take issue with what RW Carden wrote about the Battle of Trafalgar (Letters, June 24).

A couple of years ago, I visited the USS Constitution in Boston Harbour. A contemporary of HMS Victory, this is the oldest wooden ship still afloat.

Few Britons are aware that between 1812 and 1814, Britain was at war with the US - although, on this side of the Atlantic, it was just a side-show compared to the Napoleonic wars in Europe.

The US president's residence is called the White House because a British invasion force captured Washington and burned down the presidential palace.

It was rebuilt and painted white to hide the scorch marks on the original stone and has been the White House ever since.

The fact is, with just six frigates and a number of smaller vessels, the US declared war on the might of the British Navy - and won.

The cause of the war was the British practice of blocking US merchant ships and pressing its seamen into the British Navy. (There were three on board the Victory at Trafalgar).

Today, Americans tell visitors how the Constitution captured the British frigate HMS Guerierre and how, on a second cruise, the US captured HMS Java.

What they do not tell visitors, though, is that the Constitution was a new breed of super frigate - the pocket battleship of its day.

Armed with 24-pound cannons against 18-pound ones, the smaller British ships didn't stand a chance, at least, not in a single ship-to-ship duel against the much larger North American ship.

RW Carden wrote that the Battle of Trafalgar didn't stop Napoleon. This is like saying the Battle of Britain didn't stop Hitler.

Even Napoleon admitted the British Navy stopped him in his tracks wherever there was water to float a Royal Navy ship.

The North Americans tell their children to hold their heads up high and be proud of their nation's history.

Why, therefore, do we British feel the need to apologise to the French, Spanish or anyone else because of what happened 200 years ago? The British people stood up to the might of Napoleon, the Adolf Hitler of his day.

-Stuart Bower, Upper Beeding