CHESAPEAKE AND SHANNON, Battle of, 1 June 1813. In the War of 1812, the former vessel (Sec CHESAPEAKE AND LEOPARD, AFFAIR OF THE), cruised to no purpose from December 1812 till April 1813, and arrived at Boston 9 April. Her captain, Evans, left her on account of ill health, and about the middle of May was replaced by Capt. James Lawrence, famous for the brilliant victory of the Hornet over the Peacock. He accepted agair-t his will; nearly all the officers and crew were new, and the latter second-rate, totally untrained and sulky over questions of prize money. On 25 May Captain Broke of the Shannon, lying outside, sent away his consort, the Tenedos, to have a fair chance to fight the Chesapeake alone, and repeatedly urged Lawrence to ar range a duel between the ships. In theory they were evenly matched; they were of almost exactly the same length; the Chesapeake now carried 50 guns, the Shannon 52; the Chesa peake had 379 officers and crew against the Shannon's 330, but the latter had been trained for seven years under Broke himself, kept in constant artillery and other practice, and was a thoroughly disciplined fighting machine, men used to each other and the officers. On 1 June, however, Lawrence, whose experience had made him despise British skill and courage alike, sailed out to meet his enemy, and at 5.30 P.M. they engaged. After a couple of broadsides, the Shannon's shot cut the Chesapeake's stays, and the latter drifted helplessly stern foremost toward her adversary. There was no salvation but to make sail forward or to board, and both were impossible. The Shannon's broadsides
and the musketry fire from her tops swept the Chesapeake diagonally from stem to stern, with out the latter being able to fire a shot in reply, beating in the stern ports and killing or wound ing every man on the quarter-deck and the af ter part, including the men at the wheel. Just before the vessels struck, Lawrence ordered up his boarding party; but almost at the same in stant he fell mortally wounded by a musket ball, and was carried below. Not a living per son was on the quarter-deck, and Broke, with 50 boarders, rushed on board unresisted just as the vessels parted. Hz was in deadly peril from his own guns, which killed his first lieutenant as the latter pulled down the American flag, and so fierce was the resistance from that 30 or so of the American crew who had rallied at the forecastle, that 37 of the boarding party were killed or wounded, including Broke him self. Had the rest of the crew shown even decent pluck, not one of the British would have escaped; but the upper party, heavily 'ever matched, were killed or driven below,:,and though the dying Lawrence called out from the cockpit, "Don't give up the ship! Blow her up!' the remainder refused to go above, and surrendered. The Chesapeake lost 61 killed and 85 wounded; the Shannon 33 killed and 50 wounded. The former was towed into Hali fax as a prize, turned into a British war ves sel and in 1820 was broken up. Lawrence died four days after the battle_