236 Naval War of 1812 



of a few years' actual service on the sea. On this 

 occasion, in effect, two captains equally renowned, 

 the honor of two navies, were opposed to each 

 other on two ships of the same tonnage and num 

 ber of guns. Never had the chances seemed better 

 balanced, but Sir Philip Broke had commanded the 

 Shannon for nearly seven years, while Captain 

 Lawrence had only commanded the Chesapeake for 

 a few days. The first of these frigates had cruised 

 for eighteen months on the coast of America; the 

 second was leaving port. One had a crew long 

 accustomed to the habits of strict obedience; the 

 other was manned by men who had just been en 

 gaged in mutiny. The Americans were wrong to 

 accuse fortune on this occasion. Fortune was not 

 fickle, she was merely logical. The Shannon cap 

 tured the Chesapeake on the first of June, 1813, 

 but on the I4th of September, 1806, the day when 

 he took command of his frigate, Captain Broke had 

 begun to prepare the glorious termination to this 

 bloody affair." 



Hard as it is to breathe a word against such a 

 man as Lawrence, a very Bayard of the seas, who 

 was admired as much for his dauntless bravery as 

 he was loved for his gentleness and uprightness, it 

 must be confessed that he acted rashly. And after 

 he had sailed, it was, as Lord Howard Douglas 

 has pointed out, a tactical error, however chivalric, 

 to neglect the chance of luffing across the Shannon's 

 stern to rake her; exactly as it was a tactical error 

 of his equally chivalrous antagonist to have let him 



