The capture of USS Chesapeake, also known as the Battle of Boston Harbor, was fought on 1 June 1813, between the Royal Navy frigate and the United States Navy frigate , as part of the War of 1812 between the United States and the United Kingdom. HMS Shannon, commanded by Captain Philip Broke, captured USS Chesapeake, commanded by Captain James Lawrence, in one of the Royal Navy's clearest single-ship victories of the war. The action lasted only about ten to fifteen minutes, but ended with Chesapeake disabled, boarded, captured, and taken into British service.Padfield 1968, pp. 184–185, 191.
The defeat was especially damaging to American prestige because it was not the result of an obvious superiority in British force. The two frigates were closely matched in size and armament, and Chesapeake carried the larger crew.Toll 2006, pp. 409–410. Chesapeake also sailed from Boston fresh from harbour, while Shannon had been cruising off the coast for weeks and was short of provisions. The result therefore became a pointed demonstration of Broke's gunnery system, discipline, and preparation. Shannon crew, drilled for years in accurate fire and shipboard fighting, disabled Chesapeake helm, swept her quarterdeck, killed or wounded much of her command structure, and boarded before the Americans could recover organisational control.Padfield, pp. 27–29, 37–39, 206.Lambert 2012, pp. 172–178.
The action also carried unusual symbolic weight. It followed several celebrated American frigate victories over Royal Navy warships and was watched from the Boston area by spectators who expected Lawrence to return with a British prize. Local authorities reportedly reserved space for the captured man-of-war, and plans were made for a victory dinner after the expected American success.Ellis, pp. 122–123. Instead, Chesapeake was overwhelmed in view of the coast and carried into Halifax as a British prize. The loss ended the sequence of high-profile American frigate successes and restored British naval confidence after earlier reverses.Unger, p. 166.
Chesapeake suffered heavily in the exchange of gunfire, having her wheel and fore topsail halyard shot away, rendering her unmanoeuvrable. Lawrence was mortally wounded and was carried below. His final order, remembered in the United States as "Don't give up the ship!", became an enduring American naval motto, but it could not prevent the rapid collapse of organised resistance on the upper decks. The British boarding party quickly overwhelmed the remaining defenders. In the short action, 226 men were killed or wounded, giving the battle an exceptionally high casualty rate for a frigate action.Padfield 1968, pp. 184–185. Shannon captain was severely injured in fighting on the forecastle, but survived his wounds.
Chesapeake and her crew were taken to Halifax, Nova Scotia, where the sailors were held as prisoners of war. The ship was repaired and commissioned into the Royal Navy as HMS Chesapeake. In the United States, the capture was regarded as a humiliation, partly because of the public expectation of victory in Boston, partly because the engagement had been a near-equal contest, and partly because the defeated frigate became a British warship rather than returning as the expected American prize.Unger, p. 166. Chesapeake was sold at Portsmouth, England, in 1819 and broken up. Surviving timbers were used to build the nearby Chesapeake Mill in Wickham. Shannon survived longer, being broken up in 1859.
Prelude
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.Padfield, pp. 27–29, 206.
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".Padfield, pp. 37–39. 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.
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.Padfield 1968, p. 120.Brighton, p. 150.
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 instead. Lawrence travelled to Boston,Toll 2006, p. 398. 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.Roosevelt 1882, location 2391.
Chesapeakes 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.Roosevelt 1882, location 2356. 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.Padfield 1968, pp. 140–141. 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. 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 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.Padfield 1968, pp. 144–145.
Broke was copying his adversary. Lawrence had earlier in the war, when captain of the sloop of war , sent a written invitation to the captain of the British sloop of war to a single-ship contest. Lawrence's offer had been declined.Padfield 1968, pp. 126–127.
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.Lambert 2012, pp. 158–162. For Lawrence, recently celebrated for defeating HMS Peacock, the chance to engage Shannon offered an opportunity to extend the American run of naval victories.Gleaves 1904, pp. 144–147.
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.Toll 2006, p. 409. 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.Padfield 1968, pp. 140–141. 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.
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.Ellis, pp. 122–123. 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.