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
Six weeks later George Crowninshield, jr., a privateersman, and ten
other ship-masters, went to Halifax in the brig _Henry_ under a
flag of truce, and brought home the bodies of Captain Lawrence and
Lieutenant Ludlow, and they were interred in Trinity cemetery, in lower
Broadway, New York. The monument of the two men can be seen by the
curious wayfarer at the southeast corner of the old brown-stone pile.
On the end that faces Broadway are these words:
Neither the fury of battle, the anguish of a mortal wound, nor the
horrors of approaching death could subdue his gallant spirit. His
dying words were
“Don’t Give up the Ship.”
The report of the capture of the _Chesapeake_ which was published in
London immediately on the arrival of the news was a forged document.
Broke was lying delirious in his cabin from the time the _Shannon_
arrived in Halifax until after the brig that carried the news to
England had sailed. Yet a formal report, signed with his name, was
published in London immediately after the brig arrived. And it is this
forged document that forms the basis of the British accounts of the
fight.
The conventional comparison of the ships shows that the _Chesapeake_
carried forty-nine guns, throwing 540 pounds of metal at a broadside,
to the _Shannon’s_ fifty-two, throwing 547 pounds. Her crew numbered
340 to the _Shannon’s_ 330. The _Chesapeake_ lost forty-seven killed,
and ninety-nine wounded, while the _Shannon_ lost only twenty-four
killed and fifty-nine wounded. “Training and discipline won the
victory” over a “scrub” crew; but it should be kept in mind that this
crew was untrained because there had been no time to train it. If
Captain Lawrence had had the six weeks which the _Java_ had before
meeting the _Constitution_, it would not have been a “scrub” crew. And
it is worth noting that even this crew inflicted far more injury on
the _Shannon_ than either of the British frigates thus far captured
had inflicted on her American antagonist. The _Shannon_ was struck by
twelve eighteen-pound shot, thirteen thirty-two-pound shot and fourteen
bar shot.
“The Americans were filled with a profound gloom and an unreasonable
loss of confidence in their navy, while the English gave vent to
extravagant demonstrations of joy, simply because an English frigate
had captured an American of the same force.” Considering the course of
the naval war up to that time, however, an unprejudiced student must
say that the British joy was not unreasonable if the American gloom
was. The British made Broke a baronet and a Knight Commander of the
Bath. London gave him a sword and the “freedom of the city.” The Tower
guns were fired in honor of the victory. The joy which this lone
victory gave the British people is the strongest proof of their faith
in, and admiration for, American prowess. Broke saw no active service
after the battle. He died in 1841.
[Illustration: The _Shannon_ taking the _Chesapeake_ into Halifax
Harbor.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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