The loss in men corresponded with the injury to the ships. The “Shannon” lost eighty-three killed and wounded; the “Chesapeake” lost one hundred and forty-six. Thirty-three of the “Shannon’s” men were killed or died of their wounds; sixty-one of the “Chesapeake’s” number were killed or mortally wounded.
The injuries suffered by the “Chesapeake” told the same story, for they were chiefly in the stern, and were inflicted by the “Shannon’s” second and third broadsides, after the “Chesapeake” ceased firing. The “Chesapeake’s” bowsprit received no injury, and not a spar of any kind was shot away. The “Shannon” carried her prize into Halifax with all its masts standing, and without anxiety for its safety.
The news of Broke’s victory was received in England and by the British navy with an outburst of pleasure that proved the smart of the wound inflicted by Hull, Decatur, and Bainbridge. The two official expressions of Broke’s naval and civil superiors probably reflected the unexaggerated emotion of the service.
“At this critical moment,” wrote Admiral Warren[418] by a curious coincidence the day before his own somewhat less creditable defeat at Craney Island, “you could not have restored to the British naval service the pre-eminence it has always preserved, or contradicted in a more forcible manner the foul aspersions and calumnies of a conceited, boasting enemy, than by the brilliant act you have performed.”
A few days later he wrote again:[419]—
“The relation of such an event restores the history of ancient times, and will do more good to the service than it is possible to conceive.”
In Parliament, July 8, John Wilson Croker said:[420]
“The action which he [Broke] fought with the ‘Chesapeake’ was in every respect unexampled. It was not—and he knew it was a bold assertion which he made—to be surpassed by any engagement which graced the naval annals of Great Britain.”
The Government made Broke a baronet, but gave him few other rewards, and his wound was too serious to permit future hard service. Lawrence died June 5, before the ships reached Halifax. His first lieutenant, Ludlow, also died. Their bodies were brought to New York and buried September 16, with formal services at Trinity Church.
By the Americans the defeat was received at first with incredulity and boundless anxiety, followed by extreme discouragement. The news came at a dark moment, when every hope had been disappointed and the outlook was gloomy beyond all that had been thought possible.