Lawrence’s opponent, Captain Broke of the “Shannon,” was an officer whose courage could as little be questioned as his energy or skill. Among all the commanders in the British service Broke had profited most by the lessons of the war. More than seven years’ experience of his ship and crew gave him every advantage of discipline and system. Nearly every day the officers at the Charlestown navy-yard could see the “Shannon” outside, practising her guns at floating targets as she sailed about the bay. Broke’s most anxious wish was to fight the “Chesapeake,” which he considered to be of the same size with the “Shannon.”[410] The two frigates were the same length within a few inches,—between one hundred and fifty, and one hundred and fifty-one feet. Their breadth was forty feet within a few inches. The “Chesapeake” carried eighteen thirty-two-pound carronades on the spar-deck; the “Shannon” carried sixteen. Each carried twenty-eight long eighteen-pounders on the gun-deck. The “Chesapeake” carried also two long twelve-pounders and a long eighteen-pounder, besides a twelve-pound carronade. The “Shannon” carried four long nine-pounders, a long six-pounder, and three twelve-pound carronades. The “Chesapeake’s” only decided advantage was in the number of her crew, which consisted of three hundred and seventy-nine men, while the “Shannon” carried three hundred and thirty all told.
Broke sent the “Tenedos” away May 25, but Lawrence was not aware of it, and wrote, May 27, to Captain Biddle of the “Hornet” a letter, showing that till the last moment he hoped not to sail in the “Chesapeake:”[411]—
“In hopes of being relieved by Captain Stewart, I neglected writing to you according to promise; but as I have given over all hopes of seeing him, and the ‘Chesapeake’ is almost ready, I shall sail on Sunday, provided I have a chance of getting out clear of the ‘Shannon’ and ‘Tenedos,’ who are on the look-out.”
Sunday, May 30, the ship was ready, though the crew was not as good or as well disciplined as it should have been, and showed some discontent owing to difficulties about prize-money. On the morning of June 1 the frigate was lying in President’s Roads, when between eight and nine o’clock the second lieutenant, George Budd, reported a sail in sight. Captain Lawrence went up the main rigging, and having made out the sail to be a large frigate, ordered the crew to be mustered, and told them he meant to fight. At midday he stood down the harbor and out to sea. The “Shannon,” outside, stood off under easy sail, and led the way until five o’clock, when she luffed and waited till the “Chesapeake” came up. As the wind was westerly, Lawrence had the choice of position, but he made no attempt to profit by his advantage, although it might have been decisive. Bringing the “Chesapeake” with a fresh breeze directly down on the “Shannon’s” quarter, at half-past five he luffed, at about fifty yards distance, and ranged up abeam on the “Shannon’s” starboard side.
The “Shannon” opened fire as her guns began to bear, but discharged only her two sternmost guns when the “Chesapeake” replied. The two ships ran on about seven minutes, or about the length of time necessary for two discharges of the first guns fired, when, some of the “Shannon’s” shot having cut away the “Chesapeake’s” foretopsail tie and jib-sheet, the ship came up into the wind and was taken aback. Lying with her larboard quarter toward the “Shannon’s” side, at some forty or fifty yards distance, she began to drift toward her enemy. None of the “Chesapeake’s” guns then bore on the “Shannon,” and the American frigate wholly ceased firing.
From the moment the “Chesapeake” was taken aback she was a beaten ship, and the crew felt it. She could be saved only by giving her headway, or by boarding the “Shannon;” but neither expedient was possible. The effort to make sail forward was tried, and proved futile. The idea of boarding was also in Lawrence’s mind, but the situation made it impracticable. As the “Chesapeake” drifted stern-foremost toward the “Shannon,” every gun in the British broadside swept the American deck diagonally from stern to stem, clearing the quarter-deck and beating in the stern-ports, while the musketry from the “Shannon’s” tops killed the men at the “Chesapeake’s” wheel, and picked off every officer, sailor, or marine in the after-part of the ship. Boarders could not be rallied under a fire which obliged them to seek cover. The men on the spar-deck left their stations, crowding forward or going below.
Chesapeake
Shannon
Nevertheless, Lawrence ordered up his boarders,—he could do nothing else; but the affair hurried with such rapidity to its close that almost at the same instant the “Chesapeake’s” quarter touched the “Shannon” amidships. From the moment when the “Chesapeake” was taken aback until the moment when she fell foul, only four minutes were given for Lawrence to act. Before these four minutes were at an end, he was struck and mortally wounded by a musket-ball from the “Shannon.” His first lieutenant, Ludlow, had already been carried below, wounded. His second lieutenant, Budd, was stationed below. His third lieutenant, Cox, improperly assisted Lawrence to reach the gun-deck. Not an officer remained on the spar-deck, and neither an officer nor a living man was on the quarter-deck when the “Chesapeake’s” quarter came against the “Shannon’s” gangway, as though inviting the British captain to take possession.
As the ships fouled, Broke ran forward and called for boarders. With about twenty men he stepped on the “Chesapeake’s” quarter-deck, and was followed by thirty more before the ships parted. The error should have cost him his life and the lives of all who were with him, for the Americans might easily have killed every man of the boarding-party in spite of the fire from the “Shannon.” For several moments Broke was in the utmost peril, not only from the American crew but from his own. His first lieutenant, Watt, hastening to haul down the American ensign, was killed by the discharge of a cannon from the “Shannon;” and when Broke, leaving the “Chesapeake’s” quarter-deck, went forward to clear the forecastle, enough of the American crew were there to make a sharp resistance. Broke himself was obliged to take part in the scuffle. According to his report, he “received a severe sabre-wound at the first onset, whilst charging a part of the enemy who had rallied on their forecastle.” According to another British account he was first knocked down with the butt-end of a musket, and then was cut by a broadsword. Of his fifty boarders, not less than thirty-seven were killed or wounded.[412]