A History, of the War of 1812-15 Between the United States and Great Britain

by Rossiter Johnson

The brilliant victories achieved on the ocean in 1812 reversed the opinion the Government had entertained as to the value of the navy, and early in 1813 Congress authorized the building of four ships-of-the-line, six frigates, six sloops-of-war, and as many vessels on the lakes as the service might require.

But in the second year of the war the American sailor did not meet with that uniform success which in the first year had surprised and confounded the self-styled Mistress of the Seas. One battle, in which a noble ship was lost and many lives were sacrificed, through drunkenness, was a grievous mortification to the whole American people. The commander of the defeated vessel was fortunate in not surviving the action, as he would probably have been court-martialled and disgraced.

The first naval engagement of the year took place in West Indian waters. Lieutenant James Lawrence, in the Hornet, of twenty guns, was cruising up and down the coast of Guiana, and had taken few prizes, when on the 24th of February sighted the English brig Peacock, Captain Peake, which carried twenty guns. Both drew down upon each other. They passed within half pistol-shot; and as they passed, each delivered the full broadside of the larboard battery. The Peacock then put her helm hard up, intending to wear round and rake the Hornet. But Lawrence quickly imitated the movement, got the better of his antagonist, and with all his guns blazing bore down upon her quarter. He then closed, and kept up so terrific a fire that in fifteen minutes from the beginning of the action the Englishman not only struck his colors, but hoisted them in the fore-rigging with the union down—which is a signal of distress. A few minutes later, the Peacock's main-mast tumbled.

An officer sent on board to take possession found that she had six feet of water in the hold, and was settling rapidly. Captain Peake and four of his men had been killed, and thirty-three wounded. Every effort was made to save the wounded men. Both vessels anchored, for the water here was but thirty-three feet deep. The prisoners were removed as fast as possible, while, to keep the Peacock afloat, her guns were thrown overboard, the shot-holes plugged, and the pumps manned; but in spite of this she went down, carrying nine of her men and three of the Hornet's. Four of the crew took the stern boat, which was supposed so damaged as to be useless, and paddled Four others climbed into the rigging of the fore-top, and as this remained above the surface when the hull touched bottom, they were saved. On the Hornet one man had been killed and two wounded by the enemy's fire, and her rigging was considerably damaged.

As another British war-vessel was not far away, the Hornet had to be put in fighting trim again with all speed, which was accomplished within four hours after the action. As she was crowded with prisoners and was short of water, she turned her prow toward home, arriving at Martha's Vineyard on the the 19th of March, and proceeding through Long Island Sound to New York. Congress voted Lawrence a gold medal, and to each of his commissioned officers a silver one; and he was soon promoted to the rank of captain, and given command of the frigate Chesapeake, then lying in Boston harbor. The very next naval battle was the one in which Lawrence lost his life, lost his ship, and lost a great part of his reputation. Captain Philip Bowes Vere Broke, commanding the British frigate Shannon, of thirty-eight guns, had been cruising along the New England coast for some time, looking for prizes, and especially for an opportunity to retrieve the honor of his flag in an encounter with some American war-ship of the size of his own. Lawrence was preparing for a cruise against the English fleet engaged in the Greenland whale-fishery; but when the Shannon appeared in the offing, June 1st, he hastily got his crew together and went out from Boston to fight her.

Broke had sent in to him a letter containing a formal challenge to try the powers of the two ships; but it did not arrive till the Chesapeake had sailed, and Lawrence never received it. One sentence of this letter is very significant, in that it contains the whole germ of the war. "I doubt not that you, equally confident of success, will feel convinced that it is only by repeated triumphs in even combats that your little navy can now hope to console your country for the loss of that trade it can no longer protect." That was it exactly. American trade, the grudge of British merchants, and the constant object of British hostilities, was to be permitted only so far as American guns were able to protect it; and since the American navy, as Captain Broke said, was little, while England's was large, it was confidently believed by his countrymen that this protection would not ultimately amount to much.

At six o'clock in the evening the vessels came within cannon-shot of each other, and the Shannon opened fire at once. But the Chesapeake remained silent till her whole broadside could be brought to bear; then she opened her ports, and for eight minutes there was a terrific and continuous roar. Now, as before, the Americans were the better gunners, and in this broadside firing the advantage was with the Chesapeake; but accident favored her antagonist and gave him an opportunity to use the advantages he possessed in other respects. Two or three shots that struck the rigging of the Chesapeake rendered her for a short time not perfectly manageable, and her mizzen-rigging fouled in the Shannons fore-chains. This exposed her to a raking fire, and her upper deck was swept at once by two of the enemy's guns.

In the broadside firing, Captain Lawrence had been wounded in the leg, the master was killed, the first lieutenant was disabled, and the marine officer, the fourth lieutenant, and the boatswain were mortally wounded. So great a proportion of officers struck down was a rare accident. To increase the misfortune, a Negro bugler had been substituted for the drummer, and when Lawrence ordered the signal to be sounded for boarding, it was found that the bugleman had crawled under the launch, and when he was hauled out he was still so frightened that he could not sound a note. Lawrence then passed down verbal orders for the boarders to come on deck, and at this moment he fell, shot through the body. As he was carried below, he exclaimed: "Tell the men to fire faster, and not give up the ship. Fight her till she sinks!"

But it was too late. The enemy were already on his deck in great numbers, and after a short and unorganized resistance his men were overcome and his ship was captured. The victors considerably increased the casualties by firing down the hatchways with musketry, in justification of which it is said that some one had fired up the hatch and killed a marine.

The havoc in both crews had been frightful for so short a battle. On the Shannon, twenty-four were killed and fifty-eight wounded; on the Chesapeake forty-seven were killed and ninety-eight wounded. Nearly one third of all the men engaged in the action had been struck. Captain Lawrence died in four days. His age was but thirty-one. He had been greatly admired for his personal bravery, his courteousness, his regard for the sailors under his command, and his wonderful nautical skill. In explanation of this defeat, it is said that Captain Broke had been for weeks giving his men a special training for such an encounter; while the Chesapeake had a heterogeneous crew, a part of them were new men, and many of the old ones were in a state of half mutiny from not having received prize money that was due them. Some of the officers were sick on shore, others were inexperienced, and several of the sailors were seen drunk in the streets of Boston an hour before they were summoned to go on board as the vessel was weighing anchor. These facts seem to be well established; but the explanation does not make it any the less a British victory. If Broke's men were under good discipline, while Lawrence's were not, he is entitled to as much credit for his achievement as if it had been accomplished through superior courage or any other means. And Lawrence, had he not died, might properly have been censured, or even punished, for going out to fight under such circumstances, when he could have waited till he had trained his crew. It was also said that the sailors entertained a superstitious belief that the Chesapeake was an unlucky ship. It was she that had been fired into by the Leopard, in 1807, when she had not a single gun in condition to return the shot; and just before her battle with the Shannon she had cruised across the Atlantic to the coast of Africa, and home again by way of the West Indies, without taking a single prize.