228 THE CALL OF THE SEA 



while our men continued deliberately to load and 

 fire, till they had made the victory secure. 



Robert Sou/hey. 



Affair of the Chesapeake and Shannon (1813) 



(From Bit/ain's Sea- Kings and Sea-Figh(s) 



TTOWEVER gaUing it had been to the British 

 to see frigate after frigate beaten, there was 

 one man who had " spotted '' the secret of the 

 Americans' success. This was Captain Philip 

 Bowes Vere Broke, of the Shannon. He knew that 

 the British sailors possessed the same fine sea- 

 manly qualities as of yore,but that their captains had 

 allowed drill to go rusty, and paid far too much 

 attention to the polishing of brass and the holy- 

 stoning of decks. Aboard his ship he had his 

 men well in hand : in musketry and broadsword 

 exercise they were as perfect as three hours' daily 

 drill could make them, and the great guns were 

 fired twice a week — a pound of 'bacca every time 

 a man sent a shot through the bull's-eye. It was 

 odd that public opinion looked to Broke as the 

 man to retrieve Britain's glory. With this object 

 in view he had taken the Shannon to the United 

 States, destroying all his captures rather than re- 

 duce his crew by manning and sending in his 

 prizes. To Captain John Lawrence, of the Chesa- 



