During the war of 1812, the British Frigate captains, to explain their losses, were fond of claiming that American Frigates were too big, and weren't really Frigates, but Ships of the Line. This poem appeared in a British newspaper of the day:
War in Disguise; or
An apology for His Majesty’s Navy
One Stephens, a lawyer, and once a reporter,
Of war and of taxes a gallant supporter,
In some way or other to Wilberforce kin
And a member, like him, of a borough brought in,
Who a master in Chancery since had been made,
Wrote a pamphlet to show that Jonathan’s trade
Was a “War in Disguise”; which, though strange at first sight,
Events have since proved may have been but too right;
For when Carden the ship of the Yankee Decatur
Attacked, with doubting to take her or beat her,
A Frigate she seemed to his glass and his eyes;
But when taken himself, how great his surprise
To find her a seventy-four in disguise!
U.S.S. Constitution vs. H.M.S. Guerriere