Philip Broke and his naval gunnery

During his long period in command of Shannon, Captain Philip Broke (pronounced 'Brook') of the Royal Navy introduced many practical refinements to his "great guns", which were virtually unheard of elsewhere in contemporary naval gunnery. He had "dispart sights" fitted to his 18-pounder long guns, which improved aiming by compensating for the external narrowing of the barrels from the breech to the muzzle. He had adjustable tangent sights that gave accuracy at different ranges. He had the elevating "quoins" of his long guns grooved to mark various degrees of elevation, so that his guns could be reliably levelled to fire horizontally in any state of heeling of the ship under a press of sail. The carronades were similarly treated, but the elevating screws on these cannon were marked in paint. As the decks of contemporary ships curved upwards towards the stern and bows, he cut down the wheels on the "up-slope" side of each cannon's carriage so that all guns were level with the horizon. He also introduced a system where bearings were incised into the deck next to each gun; fire could then be directed to any bearing independent of the ability of a particular gun crew to see the target. Fire from the whole battery could also be focused on any part of an enemy ship.^[13]

Broke drilled his crew to an extremely high standard of naval gunnery. He regularly had them fire at targets such as floating barrels, often turning the drills into competitions to see which gun crew could hit first and reload fastest. He even had his gun crews fire at targets "blindfold" to good effect; they were only given the bearing to lay their gun on without being allowed to sight the gun themselves. This constituted a very early example of "director firing".^[14] Royal Museums Greenwich describes Shannon as "one of the best frigates in the Royal Navy" and attributes that reputation largely to Broke's regular gunnery practice and drills.^[4]

In addition to these gunnery drills, Broke prepared hypothetical scenarios to test his crew. After all hands had been drummed to quarters, he would describe a theoretical attack and see how they would act to defend the ship. Though the use of cutlasses in training was avoided, a method of swordsmanship training called singlestick was regularly practised. This was a game employing roughly similar cuts, thrusts and parries as were used with the cutlass, but played with wooden sticks with wicker hand guards. It developed quickness of eye and wrist, and many of the crew became expert.^[15][16]

James Lawrence

Commander James Lawrence of the United States Navy returned from a successful war cruise having defeated the sloop HMS Peacock. He was promoted to captain for his victory, and received orders to take command of USS Chesapeake. It was not a command that he particularly wanted, as he had hoped for the larger frigate USS Constitution instead. Lawrence travelled to Boston,^[17] where he found that many of the former crew of Chesapeake had left after a dispute over prize money and had been replaced. Lawrence's prior experience of the Royal Navy worked against him: in his earlier battle with HMS Peacock, the warship had fought bravely, but British gunnery had been poor.^[18]

Chesapeake's crew included many experienced seamen, but Lawrence had little time to turn them, their new officers and his own command habits into a unified fighting ship.^[19] Later writers have differed over the extent of the crew's inexperience: some noted that many of the men had served during the frigate's previous cruise, while others emphasised that Lawrence and several officers were new to the ship and to one another.^[20][21] Lawrence's assumptions concerning the poor quality of the opposition made him over-confident in facing the adversary he was about to encounter.

Issuing a challenge

Eager to engage and defeat one of the American frigates that had already scored several victories over the Royal Navy in single-ship confrontations, Broke prepared a challenge. USS President had slipped out of the harbour under the cover of fog and had evaded the British. Constitution was undergoing extensive repairs and would not be ready for sea in the foreseeable future. Chesapeake, however, appeared to be ready to put to sea. Consequently, Broke decided to challenge Chesapeake, which had been refitting in Boston harbour under Lawrence's command, offering single ship-to-ship combat.

Whilst patrolling offshore, Shannon had intercepted and captured a number of American ships attempting to reach the harbour. After sending two of them off to Halifax, Broke found that his crew was being dangerously reduced. He therefore burned the rest of the prizes in order to conserve his trained crew in anticipation of a battle with Chesapeake. The boats from the burnt prizes were sent into Boston carrying Broke's oral invitation to Lawrence to come out and engage him. Broke had already sent HMS Tenedos away in the hope that the more favourable odds would entice the Americans out, but eventually began to doubt that Chesapeake would come out of the harbour. He finally decided to send a written challenge.^[22]

Broke was copying his adversary. Lawrence had earlier in the war, when captain of the sloop of war Hornet, sent a written invitation to the captain of the British sloop of war Bonne Citoyenne to a single-ship contest. Lawrence's offer had been declined.^[23]

As the Chesapeake appears now ready for sea, I request you will do me the favour to meet the Shannon with her, ship to ship, to try the fortune of our respective flags. The Shannon mounts twenty-four guns upon her broadside and one light boat-gun; 18 pounders upon her maindeck, and 32-pounder carronades upon her quarterdeck and forecastle; and is manned with a complement of 300 men and boys, beside thirty seamen, boys, and passengers, who were taken out of recaptured vessels lately. I entreat you, sir, not to imagine that I am urged by mere personal vanity to the wish of meeting the Chesapeake, or that I depend only upon your personal ambition for your acceding to this invitation. We have both noble motives. You will feel it as a compliment if I say that the result of our meeting may be the most grateful service I can render to my country; and I doubt not that you, equally confident of success, will feel convinced that it is only by repeated triumphs in even combats that your little navy can now hope to console your country for the loss of that trade it can no longer protect. Favour me with a speedy reply. We are short of provisions and water, and cannot stay long here.

The proposed duel was shaped by the morale effects of earlier frigate actions. American victories by USS Constitution over HMS Guerriere, USS United States over HMS Macedonian, and USS Constitution over HMS Java had embarrassed the Royal Navy and encouraged American expectations that its heavy frigates could defeat British opponents in single-ship combat. Broke therefore sought not merely a personal encounter but a victory that would answer those defeats and restore confidence in British seamanship and gunnery.^[25][8] For Lawrence, recently celebrated for defeating HMS Peacock, the chance to engage Shannon offered an opportunity to extend the American run of naval victories.^[26]

Captain Lawrence did not receive Broke's letter. According to Ian W. Toll, he had already decided to leave harbour at the first favourable weather.^[27] Lawrence's decision to meet Shannon reflected the culture of naval honour surrounding single-ship actions, but it also exposed Chesapeake to an immediate battle before the ship's new command had fully settled. In the short time he was in command of Chesapeake, Lawrence had twice exercised his crew at the great guns, walking the decks and personally supervising the drill. He also introduced a bugle call to summon his crew to board an enemy vessel. The only crew member able to produce a note on the bugle was a "dull-witted" loblolly boy, or surgeon's assistant, called William Brown.^[28] Lawrence believed that he would win the battle and wrote two quick notes, one to the Secretary of the Navy pronouncing his intentions, and another to his brother-in-law asking him to look after Lawrence's wife and children in the event of his death.^[27]

Bostonians and their neighbours anticipated great results from the celebrated Lawrence and his crew. Local authorities reserved a space at the docks in expectation of accommodating the captured British man-of-war. Plans were also made for a gala victory banquet. As the American warship moved down the harbour, citizens raced to vantage points to witness the fight. Crowds gathered on heights from Lynn to Malden and from Cohasset to Scituate. A diarist likened the Salem crowds to swarms of bees. The more daring took to boats to follow Chesapeake. A Boston newspaper reported the bay being covered with civilian craft of all kinds.^[29] The public nature of the departure later intensified the effect of the defeat: a large American audience expected to see a British frigate brought into Boston, but the reverse occurred when Chesapeake was taken into Halifax as a prize.^[8][4]

HMS Shannon had been off Boston for 56 days and was running short of provisions, whilst the extended period at sea was wearing the ship down. She would be at a disadvantage facing USS Chesapeake, fresh from harbour and a refit. A boat was despatched carrying Broke's invitation, manned by a Mr Slocum, a discharged American prisoner. The boat had not reached the shore when Chesapeake was seen underway, sailing out of the harbour.^[30] She was flying three American ensigns and a large white flag at the foremast inscribed "Free Trade and Sailor's Rights".^[31]

Shannon carried 276 officers, seamen and marines of her proper complement, eight recaptured seamen, 22 Irish labourers who had been 48 hours in the ship, of whom only four could speak English,^{[Note 2]} and 24 boys, of whom about 13 were under 12 years of age. Broke had trained his gun crews to fire accurate broadsides into the hulls of enemy vessels, with the aim of killing their gun crews rather than attempting to disable the enemy ship by firing at masts and rigging. This was standard Royal Navy practice, but Broke's efficiency in gunnery training distinguished him. Lawrence, meanwhile, was confident in his ship, especially since she carried a substantially larger crew. Previous American victories over Royal Navy ships left him expectant of success.^[32] Just before the engagement, the American crew gave three cheers.

The two ships were about as close a match in size and force as was possible, given the variations in ship design and armament existing between contemporary navies.^[33] USS Chesapeake's armament of 28 18-pounder long guns matched HMS Shannon's main battery. Measurements showed the ships to be about the same deck length; the major numerical difference was in complement: Chesapeake had 379 men against Shannon's 330.^[34] This near equality later complicated American attempts to explain the defeat by reference to superior British force; historians have generally treated training, fire discipline and command cohesion as more important than any decisive material advantage.^[8][35]

Gunnery duel

As the American ship approached, Broke spoke to his crew, ending with a description of his philosophy of gunnery: "Throw no shot away. Aim every one. Keep cool. Work steadily. Fire into her quarters – maindeck to maindeck, quarterdeck to quarterdeck. Don't try to dismast her. Kill the men and the ship is yours."^[38]

The two ships met at half past five in the afternoon, 20 nautical miles (37 km) east of the Boston Light, between Cape Ann and Cape Cod. Shannon was flying a weather-worn blue ensign, and her dilapidated outward appearance after a long period at sea suggested that she would be an easy opponent. Observing Chesapeake's many flags, a sailor asked Broke: "Mayn't we have three ensigns, sir, like she has?" Broke replied: "No, we've always been an unassuming ship."^[39] HMS Shannon refused to fire upon USS Chesapeake as she bore down, nor did USS Chesapeake attempt to rake HMS Shannon, despite having the weather gage.^[40] Lawrence's conduct that day earned him praise from British officers for gallantry.

The two ships opened fire just before 18:00 at a range of about 35 metres (115 ft), with Shannon scoring the first hit, striking Chesapeake on one of her forward gunports with two round shot and a bag of musket balls fired by William Mindham, gun captain of the aftmost of Shannon's starboard 18-pounders.^[41] Chesapeake was moving faster than Shannon, and as she ranged down the side of the British ship, the destruction inflicted by the precise and methodical gunnery of the British crew moved aft, with the American forward gun crews suffering the heaviest losses. The effect was not merely to damage the ship but to strip away the men required to fight and command her upper decks. The American crew returned fire briskly, but many shots struck the water or waterline of Shannon and caused comparatively little damage. American carronade fire did serious damage to Shannon's rigging.^[42] In particular, a 32-pound carronade ball struck the piled shot for Shannon's 12-pounder gun stowed in the main chains, driving the shot through the timbers to scatter across the gundeck.^[43]

As the distance closed, the Shannon's gun crews and topmen kept up a relentless fire, and the unprotected quarter-deck became as uninhabitable as the surface of the moon.

Captain Lawrence realised that his ship's speed would take it past Shannon and ordered a "pilot's luff", a small turn to windward intended to make the sails shiver and reduce the ship's speed.^[45] Just after Chesapeake began this turn away from Shannon, she had her means of manoeuvring disabled by a second round of accurate British fire. The men and officers on Chesapeake's quarterdeck suffered heavily. The helmsmen were killed by a 9-pounder gun that Broke had ordered installed on the quarterdeck for that purpose, and the same gun shortly afterwards shot away the wheel itself.^{[Note 3]} Surviving American gun crews landed hits on Shannon in their second round of fire, especially carronade fire which swept Shannon's forecastle, killing three men, wounding others and disabling Shannon's forward 9-pounder gun.^[46] One round shot demolished Shannon's ship's bell.^[47]

At almost the same time as Chesapeake lost control of her helm, her fore-topsail halyard was shot away, her fore-topsail yard dropped, and she "luffed up".^{[Note 4]} Losing her forward momentum, she yawed further into the wind until she was "in irons", with her sails pressed back against her masts. She then made sternway. Her port stern quarter made contact with Shannon's starboard side and was caught by the projecting fluke of one of Shannon's anchors, which had been stowed on the gangway. Chesapeake's spanker boom swung over the deck of the British ship. Mr Stevens, Shannon's boatswain, lashed the boom inboard to keep the two ships together, losing an arm as he did so.^[48]

Trapped against Shannon at an angle in which few of her guns could bear, Chesapeake's stern became exposed and was swept by raking fire. Earlier in the action, Shannon's gunnery had devastated Chesapeake's forward gun crews; the same destruction was now inflicted on the aft guns. The American ship's situation worsened when a small open cask of musket cartridges abaft the mizzen-mast exploded. When the smoke cleared, Broke judged that the time was right and gave the order to board. Captain Lawrence also gave the order to board, but the frightened bugler aboard Chesapeake, William Brown, failed to sound the call, and only those near Lawrence heard his command. By this time Lawrence was the only officer left on the upper deck, as Lieutenants Ludlow and Ballard had been wounded.

Lieutenant Cox, who had brought men up from below to form a boarding party, reached the quarterdeck only to find that Lawrence had been mortally wounded by musket fire. Lawrence was clinging to the binnacle in order to stay upright. Cox carried him down to the cockpit with the help of two sailors. As he was taken below, Lawrence called out, "Tell the men to fire faster! Don't give up the ship!"^[49] Donald R. Hickey notes that other versions rendered Lawrence's words as "Don't surrender the ship!", "Never give up the ship" or "Never strike the flag of my ship."^[50]

The British board

Contrasting impressions of the taking of the Chesapeake

Broke leads the boarding party aboard Chesapeake. In reality Broke wore a round hat when boarding instead of a bicorne.

George Cruikshank portrayed the Americans as hapless and cowardly.

In contrast to the confusion and loss of leadership aboard the American vessel, the British boarding party was effectively organised. Small-arms men rushed aboard Chesapeake, led by Broke and accompanied by the purser, Mr G. Aldham, and the clerk, Mr John Dunn. Aldham and Dunn were killed as they crossed the gangway, but the rest of the party made it onto Chesapeake. Captain Broke, at the head of not more than twenty men, stepped from the rail of the hammock netting onto the muzzle of the port-side carronade of Chesapeake closest to the stern, and then jumped down to her quarterdeck. As the British boarded, there were no American officers left on the quarterdeck to organise resistance.^[51]

The maindeck of Chesapeake was almost deserted, having been swept by Shannon's gunfire. The surviving gun crews had either responded to the call for boarders or had taken refuge below. Two American officers, Lieutenant Cox and Midshipman Russell, saw that the aftmost 18-pounders on the port side still bore on Shannon. Working between them, they managed to fire both.^[49]

Lieutenant Ludlow, who had gone down to Chesapeake's cockpit for treatment, returned to the upper decks and rallied some of the American crew. Lieutenant Budd joined him with men he had led up the fore hatch. Ludlow led a counter-attack which pushed the British back as far as the binnacle. A wave of British reinforcements arrived, Ludlow received a mortal wound from a cutlass, and the Americans were again thrown back. Lacking officers to lead them and lacking support from below, the Americans were driven back by the boarders. American resistance then fell apart, except for a group on the forecastle and men in the tops. Some of the Americans driven from the upper decks jostled each other to get down the main hatchway to the comparative safety of the berth deck. Seeing this, Cox called to them, "You damned cowardly sons of bitches! What are you jumping below for?" When asked by a nearby midshipman if he should stop them by cutting a few down, Cox replied, "No sir, it is of no use."^[52]

Fighting had also continued between the tops of the ships, as rival sharpshooters fired on opponents and sailors on the exposed decks below. While the ships were locked together, the British marksmen, led by midshipman William Smith, stormed Chesapeake's fore-top over the yard-arm and killed all the Americans there. The wind then tore the two ships apart, and Chesapeake was blown around the bows of Shannon, leaving about fifty British boarders stranded. Organised resistance aboard the American ship had almost ceased by this time.^[53]

Broke himself led a charge against Americans who had rallied on the forecastle. Three American sailors, probably from the rigging, descended and attacked him. Taken by surprise, he killed the first, but the second hit him with a musket and the third sliced open his skull with a sabre or cutlass, knocking him to the deck. Before the sailor could finish him, the American was bayoneted by a British Marine named John Hill. Shannon's crew rallied to defend their captain and carried the forecastle, killing the remaining Americans. Broke sat, dizzied and weak, on a carronade slide while William Mindham bound his head with his own neckerchief. One of Shannon's lieutenants, Provo Wallis, believed that Broke's three assailants were probably British deserters, who would have faced the death penalty under the Royal Navy's Articles of War if identified.^[54] Meanwhile, Shannon's First Lieutenant, George T. L. Watt, attempted to hoist the British colours over Chesapeake's, but this was misinterpreted aboard Shannon, and he was struck in the forehead by grapeshot and killed.^[55]

Chesapeake is taken

The British had cleared the upper decks of American resistance, and most of Chesapeake's crew had taken refuge on the berth deck. A musket or pistol shot from the berth deck killed a British marine, William Young, who was guarding the main hatchway. British crewmen began firing through the hatchway at the Americans crowded below. Lieutenant Charles Leslie Falkiner of Shannon, the leader of the boarders who had rushed the maindeck, restored order by threatening to shoot the next person to fire. He demanded that the Americans send up the man who had killed Young, adding that Chesapeake was taken and that any further act of hostility would lead to men being called up one by one and shot. Falkiner was given command of Chesapeake as a British prize-vessel.^[56]

Shannon's midshipmen during the action were Messrs Smith, Leake, Clavering, Raymond, Littlejohn and Samwell. Samwell was the only British officer other than Broke to be wounded in the action; he later died from an infection of his wounds. Mr Etough was the acting master and conned the ship into action. Shortly after Chesapeake had been secured, Broke fainted from loss of blood and was rowed back to Shannon to be treated by the ship's surgeon.^[57]

The engagement had lasted ten minutes according to Shannon's log, or eleven minutes by Lieutenant Wallis's watch. Broke more modestly claimed fifteen minutes in his official despatch.^[58] Shannon lost 23 men killed and 56 wounded. Chesapeake had about 48 killed, including four lieutenants, the master and many other officers, and 99 wounded.^[1] Shannon had been hit by 158 projectiles, Chesapeake by 362, including grapeshot. In the time the batteries of both ships were firing, the Americans had been exposed to 44 roundshot, while the British had received 10 or 11 in reply. Some of Chesapeake's shot was fired low, bouncing off Shannon's side at the waterline. Even before being boarded, Chesapeake had lost the gunnery duel by a considerable margin.^[59] The rapidity of the result became central to later assessments: a frigate that had left Boston amid public expectation of victory had been disabled, boarded and captured in roughly a quarter of an hour.^[8][9]

A large cask of un-slaked lime was found open on Chesapeake's forecastle, and another bag of lime was discovered in the fore-top.^[60] Some British sailors alleged that the intention was to throw handfuls into the eyes of Shannon's men as they attempted to board, though this was never done by Chesapeake's crew. Albert Gleaves, historian and biographer of Lawrence, called the allegation "absurd", noting that lime was carried in ships' stores as a disinfectant and could have been left on deck by neglect.^[61] Martin Bibbings later wrote that the presence of the lime was never fully explained by the American prisoners.^[62]