US fleet, 1812: 5000 seamen, 1000 marines
British fleet, 1812: 140,000 seamen incl 31,000 marines
The two are barely even on the same scale.
1810 RN count of ships of the line 152
1815 count 126
1810 RN count of cruising ships 183
1815 count 151
(1810 count of FRA+NLD+ESP+DNK+RUS liners = 46 + 13 + 28 + 2 + 43 = 132)
1810 US count of ships of the line
0
1815 count
3
1810 count of US frigates including those on ways
10 (of which three ready for action)
1815 count
12
1810 count of US sloops of war
4
1815 count
8
The US fleet is not far off a rounding error.
how many privateers? (as they are attacking British ships we should count them).... (peak strength a little over 500)
which took about 1300 ships (of which half were recaptured, the USN took another 165 (after adjusting for recaptures) (so around 800 British ships if you round to the nearest).
a reasonably even handed look at the War of 1812 can be found here
http://www.usni.org/magazines/navalhistory/2008-08/british-view-naval-war-1812
this page has several interesting links
http://www.eighteentwelve.ca/?q=eng/Topic/66
basically the US inflicted some damage but really was in about the same situation at sea as the Germans were in both World Wars. Able to inflict serious damage but unable to deny British sea control
Except on the Great Lakes, where it turned out to matter decisively that the British were denied sea control and the Americans got it.