222 Naval War of 1812 



Meanwhile the British frigate Shannon, 38, 

 Captain Philip Bowes Vere Broke, was cruising off 

 the mouth of the harbor. To give some idea of 

 the reason why she proved herself so much more 

 formidable than her British sister frigate it may be 

 well to quote, slightly condensing, from James : 



"There was another point in which the generality 

 of British crews, as compared with any one Ameri 

 can crew, were miserably deficient; that is, skill in 

 the art of gunnery. While the American seamen 

 were constantly firing at marks, the British seamen, 

 except in particular cases, scarcely did so once in a 

 year ; and some ships could be named on board which 

 not a shot had been fired in this way for upward of 

 three years. Nor was the fault wholly the cap 

 tain's. The instructions under which he was bound 

 to act forbade him to use, during the first six months 

 after the ship had received her armament, more 

 shots per month than amounted to a third in number 

 of the upper-deck guns ; and, after these six months, 

 only half the quantity. Many captains never put a 

 shot in the guns till an enemy appeared; they em 

 ployed the leisure time of the men in handling the 

 sails and in decorating the ship." Captain Broke 

 was not one of this kind. "From the day on which 

 he had joined her, the I4th of September, 1806, 

 the Shannon began to feel the effect of her captain's 

 proficiency as a gunner and zeal for the service. 

 The laying of the ship's ordnance so that it may be 

 correctly fired in a horizontal direction is justly 

 deemed a most important operation, as upon it de- 



