The history of our Navy from its origin to the present day, 1775-1897, vol. 2 (of 4)Spears, John Randolph
History
The history of our Navy from its origin to the present day, 1775-1897, vol. 2 (of 4)
Spears, John Randolph
United States. Navy -- History; United States. Navy -- History -- Spanish-American War, 1898
He was followed by about all the foreigners. Lieutenant George Budd
and a dozen veteran American seamen started for the upper deck, but on
reaching it Budd was struck and knocked down the hatchway. The “novices
held back.” There were not enough veterans to conquer. The _Chesapeake_
swung around and broke clear of the _Shannon_, leaving no more than
sixty of the British on the _Chesapeake’s_ deck, but they had the
deck. Two volleys were fired down the hatches and the Americans were
entirely demoralized. Going aft, the British hauled down the American
flag at 6.05 o’clock and the battle was ended. They had captured the
_Chesapeake_ in just fifteen minutes.
On getting the flag down they hoisted it with a white flag to show
their victory, but by mistake the sailor doing the work got the white
flag under the Stars and Stripes. Seeing this, the men on the _Shannon_
opened fire again and killed and wounded a number of their own men,
including Lieutenant Thomas L. Watt.
On the weary road to Halifax Lawrence gradually lost strength and
became delirious. It is said that then he kept repeating over and over
again his last order on the quarter-deck of the _Chesapeake_, “Don’t
give up the ship.” He died before Halifax was reached. Captain Broke,
also wounded almost unto death, also became delirious, but before he
became so he startled the crews of both ships by ordering a Scotch
piper on the _Shannon_ to play “Yankee Doodle.” “Yankee Doodle” on a
Scotch bag-pipe would be startling, at least to Americans, under any
circumstances, but this time it was played at night and in a dense fog.
It is said that many of the people on both ships supposed at first
that one of the Yankee frigates had “happened along.”
The two ships arrived at Halifax on a Sunday morning. “There was a
great shout from the people, for they thought our prize was the 44-gun
frigate _President_, which had incurred their cordial dislike, but
when they heard that it was the _Chesapeake_, and that Lawrence, her
commander, was dead, not a huzza was heard, except, I believe, from a
brig lying at anchor. Captain Lawrence was highly respected for his
humanity to the crew of the _Peacock_, and marks of real grief were
seen in the countenances of all the inhabitants, I had a chance to
see.” So wrote a British officer.
The body of Lawrence lay on the quarter-deck of the _Chesapeake_,
wrapped in an American flag. It was placed in a coffin and taken ashore
“in a twenty-oared barge, to minute strokes, followed by a procession
of boats at respectful distances. It was met by a regiment of British
troops and a band that played the ‘Dead March in Saul.’” The sword of
the American was placed on his coffin, which was then carried away by
six of the oldest naval officers in the port. The long procession that
followed included many of the wounded of both ships.
[Illustration:
_Broke._
The Fight on the _Chesapeake’s_ Forecastle.
_From a lithograph in the “Memoir of Admiral Broke.”_]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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