After two or three broadsides the Chesapeake closed with the Shannon, and they were locked together, so Captain Broke gave orders for boarding, himself setting the example. The Americans made a desperate, but undisciplined, defence, and the assault was so fierce, that after two minutes only, of hand-to-hand fighting, the Americans were driven from every post. In another minute they ceased firing from below, and cried for quarter. The Union Jack was then run up, and the whole was over in fifteen minutes from its commencement. The British lost 23 killed, and 56 wounded, out of a crew of 330 men: the Americans about 70 killed and 100 wounded. Captain Laurence, who was among the latter, subsequently died, and was honourably buried at Halifax. One can scarcely believe the astonishment and humiliation of the spectators on shore of this combat, when they saw their fine ship which sailed away so shortly before, in all the pride of expected victory, taken away in bondage, instead of returning with her captor.
BRITISH VALOUR AND YANKEE BOASTING.
Geo. Cruikshank.
George Cruikshank gives us his idea of the naval engagement in a long etching (which I have divided into two) published in "Town Talk," of the 1st of September, 1813. It is called "British Valour, and Yankee Boasting, or Shannon versus Chesapeake," and is full of bombast, both in drawing, and words. The Americans are evolved out of his inner consciousness, but I presume it was the current type of the time, as our delineation of a Citizen of the United States of America, is, when pourtrayed in one of our comic papers. Evidently they were considered as Puritans, and depicted as Maw-worms. Captain Broke has hold of one by the hair, and is crying out, "Down with your Stripes, you Swabs, or D——me, we'll stripe you." The sailor who has hold of one of the dead, by his pigtail and breeches, calls out to another, "Stand clear, Mess-mate, whilst I heave a few of these lubberly Yankee Doodles overboard." The sailor kicking a Yankee into the sea, says, "Go along, d——n you, don't you see they are waiting dinner for you?" This probably refers to a dinner which was to be given to the victors on their return. In the dinner tent one is saying, "Friends, I think you had better come and sit down, for if we wait till the Chesapeake comes back, I am afraid the dinner will be cold." Another replies, "Why, I don't think they will want much dinner, for they seem to have got their Belly full."
SHANNON v. CHESAPEAKE.
(Published September 1, 1813, for the Proprietor of "Town Talk.")