Would Bainbridge have waited at Valparaiso with Constitution and Essex?

Would William Bainbridge have waited at Valparaiso with Constitution and Essex for the British to arrive?

The proposed answer is no: he is judged unlikely to have waited for a month while British forces concentrated against him.

The second part of the closing question places William Bainbridge in charge of Constitution and Essex together. The proposed answer is that he would leave before British forces concentrated against him. Bainbridge's interest in victory and reputation is distinguished from a willingness to sit in harbor inviting an enemy to gather. This is a judgment about an unrealized command arrangement, so the exact course of a combined squadron remains unspecified.