But that was an order that could not be obeyed. Captain Broke had called his men to the rail to repel boarders, and quickly observed the confusion following after Lawrence was carried below. Throwing down his trumpet and drawing his sword, he shouted to his men the inspiring order:
“Follow me!” And at 6.02 P.M. he stepped over the Shannon’s rail to the muzzle of one of the Chesapeake s quarter-deck guns and thence leaped to the deck of the Chesapeake. He was followed by twenty of his men.
A few Americans, led by Parson Samuel Livermore, the ship’s chaplain, made a “desperate but disorderly” resistance. The parson fired a pistol at Broke but missed him, and before he could recover his extended arm, the captain with a “backward stroke of his good and mighty Toledo blade,” sliced it almost clear of his shoulder, and “felled the patriot to the deck.” Then the boarders charged along the platforms (gangways) on each side of the Chesapeake leading to the forecastle deck.
“Don’t Give Up the Ship!”
Death of Captain Lawrence
From an engraving by Hall of the picture by Chappel.
Forty-four marines had been stationed on the upper deck under Lieutenant James Brown. Of these men, fourteen were already dead, including the lieutenant and a corporal, while two sergeants and eighteen others were wounded. There were left nine marines under a corporal on the forecastle, where some of the sailors remained also. These met and held the dashing Broke and his men at bay until reinforcements came. It was now indeed a desperate fight for the few Americans. The Chesapeake’s mizzen-topmen were firing on the boarders with good aim. A long-nine was fired from the Shannon at this top and the charge cleared the top as a charge of bird-shot destroys a huddled covey of quails. The fore and maintopmen of the Shannon silenced the maintopmen of the Chesapeake—silenced them in death. Then fresh men came to the aid of Broke, who “was still leading his men with the same brilliant personal courage he had all along shown. Attacking the first American who was armed with a pike, he parried a thrust from it and cut down the man; attacking another, he was himself cut down” with a blow that laid open his skull and exposed his brain. He was saved by Gunner Windham, who fired the first shot of the battle. Windham inflicted a mortal wound on the American. But though this American was dying, he still fought on. Clutching a bayonet, he strove to drive it into the English commander, who in turn was trying to kill the American with a dagger, but the American proved the stronger and would soon have ended Broke when a British marine came to the rescue. In the excitement the marine was about to bayonet his own commander, who was underneath the American, but Broke called out:
“Pooh! Pooh! you fool! Don’t you know your captain?” So the American was killed instead.
So stubborn was the resistance that the Englishmen would have been repulsed but for the reinforcements, who when they came gave no quarter. They killed every American on the forecastle.