238 Naval War of 1812 



panegyrist. The facts of the case unquestionably 

 are that Captain Broke, in fair fight, within sight 

 of the enemy's harbor, proved conqueror over a 

 nominally equal and in reality slightly superior 

 force; and that this is the only single-ship action of 

 the war in which the victor was weaker in force 

 than his opponent. So much can be gathered by 

 reading only the American accounts. Moreover 

 accident had little or nothing to do with the gain 

 ing of the victory. The explanation is perfectly 

 easy; Lawrence and Broke were probably exactly 

 equal in almost everything that goes to make up 

 a first-class commander, but one had trained his 

 crew for seven years, and the other was new to 

 the ship, to the officers, and to the men, and the 

 last to each other. The Chesapeake 's crew must 

 have been of fine material, or they would not have 

 fought so well as they did. 



So much for the American accounts. On the 

 other hand, the capture of the Chesapeake was, and 

 is, held by many British historians to "conclusively 

 prove" a good many different things; such as, that 

 if the odds were anything like equal, a British frig 

 ate could always whip an American, that in a hand- 

 to-hand conflict such would invariably be the case, 

 etc.; and as this was the only single-ship action of 

 the war in which the victor was the inferior in force, 

 most British writers insist that it reflected more 

 honor on them than all the frigate actions of 1812 

 put together did on the Americans. 



These assertions can be best appreciated by ref- 



