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Frigate of the Royal Navy

HMS Shannon was a 38 gun frigate of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1806 and served in the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812. She won a noteworthy naval victory on 1 June 1813, during the latter conflict, when she captured the United States Navy frigate Chesapeake in a bloody battle.

Josiah and Thomas Brindley built Shannon at Frindsbury in Kent and launched her on 5 May 1806. She spent her first seven years under the command of Captain Philip Broke, who was transferred from and took command of Shannon in June that year.

Shannon was quickly put into service. She formed part of a squadron under Commodore Owen that was patrolling off the French port of Boulogne. On 8 October she took part in the bombardment of the town using Congreve rockets. Her next task was sailing in 1807 with to protect the whale fishery off Greenland. Despite encountering ice on 7 May 1807, they were able to push through, reaching the southern part of Spitsbergen on 17 June. There the two ships surveyed the Bay of Magdalena, at a latitude of 80°N. They eventually reached a latitude of 80° 6' N before the ice stopped them. They then turned westwards and reached the coast of Greenland on 23 July. The island of Shannon is named after the ship. Shannon spent the early autumn cruising from Shetland. She then left, returning to Yarmouth by the end of September, where she cruised off the Downs. She put into Spithead on 28 September to refit. By the end of 1807, France had invaded Portugal, and Shannon joined Sir Samuel Hood's expedition against Madeira. The British took the island without firing a shot. Captain Broke then escorted the transports that had accompanied the fleet back to England, where they arrived on 7 February 1808. Shannon put into Plymouth before returning to patrolling in the Channel. On 20 July Shannon was in company with and when they captured Comet. Then on 21 August, Shannon was in company with Surinam and when they captured Espoir. In November 1808, Shannon took the French frigate Thétis in tow. had shortly before captured Thétis, which later entered service as HMS Brune. Shannon spent 1809 with the Channel Fleet and on 27 January captured the French 14 gun privateer cutter Pommereuil. Broke sent the prize into Plymouth. On 1 June 1811, Shannon returned to Plymouth and was put into the dock where her hull was re coppered. After this was completed, she sailed for Portsmouth to complete her refitting and resupplying in preparation for being assigned to foreign service.

Broke and Shannon were ordered to sail for North America as tensions between Britain and the United States escalated in the run up to what would become the War of 1812. Shannon sailed from Portsmouth and arrived in Halifax on 24 September 1811 after a journey of 45 days. On 5 July 1812 Broke took command of a squadron consisting of Shannon, , , and later Vice Admiral Herbert Sawyer then ordered him to carry out a blockade of American ports. Broke's first success came on 16 July when he captured the 16 gun American brig Nautilus off Sandy Hook. Nautilus had been on a cruise from New York. Later in the evening, the squadron spotted and gave chase to Constitution as she sailed from Chesapeake Bay to New York. The chase lasted some 65 hours, during which both pursued and pursuers had to tow and warp. Belvidera eventually managed to come within gunshot of Constitution on the afternoon of 17 July, but a lucky breeze blew up, and Constitutions clean bottom allowed her to make good her escape. Shannons next duty was to meet a convoy homebound from Jamaica. An American squadron under Commodore John Rodgers had sailed to intercept it. Shannon ensured the convoy safely passed the Great Banks, before she returned to the American coast. Shannon recaptured the brig Planter, which the American privateer Atlas had captured on 3 August. Shannon put into Halifax on 20 September to take on provisions. Sir John Warren arrived while she was in port, and took up the post of commander in chief of the North America and West Indies Station. He then despatched Shannon with the schooner to rescue the crew and offload the money being carried by the frigate , which had been wrecked on Sable Island. While carrying out this mission, Shannon encountered and subsequently captured an enemy privateer schooner, Wily Reynard on 11 October, that she took back to Halifax with her. On 31 October, while Shannon was cruising with , , and , Broke captured the American privateer brig Thorn. Thorn was armed with eighteen long 9 pounder guns and had a crew of 140 men. She was three weeks out of Marblehead on her first cruise. Sent to Halifax with a prize crew, Thorn was subsequently purchased and renamed as the Nova Scotia privateer brig Sir John Sherbrooke. Sir John Warren was at Bermuda during the winter of 1812, and left Broke in command of the Royal Navy squadrons operating on the coasts of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and New England. In December Broke took the Shannon and escorted a homebound convoy halfway across the Atlantic, returning to North America by sailing round the Azores. On 31 January 1813 Shannon recaptured the ship Hebe, which the American privateer had captured six days earlier in a hard fought action. In 1813, Captain Oliver arrived on the station aboard the 74 gun third rate , and took command from Captain Broke. Broke continued to deploy with his squadron until Shannon and Tenedos became separated from them in a gale. They decided to steer for Boston, reaching the port on 2 April. Having observed the activity in the port, they returned to their squadron and reported the presence of the American frigates Congress, President and Constitution. In their absence, Chesapeake had entered the harbour through the eastern channel. Captain Capel aboard ordered Shannon and Tenedos to watch the port from close inshore, while the rest of the squadron cruised in the offing. On 16 May Shannon and Tenedos chased a large armed ship under American colours, and forced her to run aground near Cape Ann Town. Shannon anchored close to the grounded ship and fired a few shots to disperse a number of militiamen who were assembling. Lieutenant George Watt of Shannon then managed to bring the ship off the shore without loss. She was the French corvette built privateer Invincible, of 16 guns, originally named Invincible Napoleon. On 25 March Shannon took on stores of water and provisions from Tenedos, which was then detached, with orders to rejoin the Shannon on 14 June.

During his long period in command of Shannon, Broke had drilled his crew to an extremely high standard of naval gunnery. The weekly routine at sea was for the watch on deck to be exercised at the great guns on Monday and Tuesday forenoons, and in the afternoons the first division of the watch was exercised at small arms. Wednesday and Thursday forenoons saw the watch on deck at the carronades, and in the afternoons the second division of the watch at small arms. Friday was reserved for the midshipmen – great guns in the morning, small arms in the afternoon. Thus each man had one morning at the 18 pounders, one morning at the carronades and two afternoons with musquets in every week. Saturdays were reserved for washing clothes and scrubbing the berth deck in the afternoon. Sunday, apart from Church service and any necessary evolutions with the sails, was free. In addition to these gunnery drills, Broke was fond of preparing hypothetical scenarios to test his crew. For example, after all hands had been drummed to quarters, he would inform them of a theoretical attack and see how they would act to defend the ship. He would also arrange on occasion for a wooden cask to be sent over the side so competitions could be held to see which crew could hit it and how fast they could do so. A game called 'singlestick' was also practised. "This was a game employing roughly similar thrusts and parries as were used with cutlass, but as it was played with blunt sticks, hits, although painful, were not often dangerous. It soon developed quickness of eye and wrist." Eager to engage and defeat one of the American 'super frigates' that had already scored a number of victories over smaller Royal Navy ships in single ship confrontations, Broke prepared a challenge. The warship President had already slipped out of the harbour under the cover of fog and had evaded the British. Constitution was undergoing extensive repairs and alterations and would not be ready for sea in the foreseeable future. However, Chesapeake appeared to be ready to put to sea. Consequently, Broke decided to send his challenge to Chesapeake, which had been refitting in Boston harbour under the command of Captain James Lawrence, offering single ship combat. While patrolling offshore, Shannon had intercepted and captured a number of American ships attempting to reach the harbour. After sending two of them off to Halifax, he found that his crew was dangerously reduced in numbers. Broke therefore resorted to burning the rest of the prizes in order to conserve his highly trained crew in anticipation of the battle with Chesapeake. Broke sent the boats from the burnt prizes into Boston, carrying Broke's oral invitation to Lawrence to come out and engage him. He had already sent Tenedos away in the hope that the more favourable odds would entice the American out, but eventually began to despair that Chesapeake would ever come out of the harbour. He finally decided to send a written challenge. As the Chesapeake appears now ready for sea, I request you will do me the favour to meet the Shannon with her, ship to ship, to try the fortune of our respective flags. The Shannon mounts twenty four guns upon her broadside and one light boat gun; 18 pounders upon her main deck, and 32 pounder carronades upon her quarter deck and forecastle; and is manned with a complement of 300 men and boys, beside thirty seamen, boys, and passengers, who were taken out of recaptured vessels lately. I entreat you, sir, not to imagine that I am urged by mere personal vanity to the wish of meeting the Chesapeake, or that I depend only upon your personal ambition for your acceding to this invitation. We have both noble motives. You will feel it as a compliment if I say that the result of our meeting may be the most grateful service I can render to my country; and 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. Favour me with a speedy reply. We are short of provisions and water, and cannot stay long here. By now Shannon had been off Boston for 56 days and was running short of provisions, while the extended period at sea was wearing the ship down. She would be even more at a disadvantage facing Chesapeake, fresh from harbour and a refit. Broke despatched a boat carrying the invitation, manned by a Mr Slocum, a discharged American prisoner. The boat had not reached the shore when Chesapeake was seen underway, sailing out of the harbour. She was flying three American ensigns and a large white flag at the foremast inscribed 'Free Trade and Sailor's Rights'. Though Lawrence had not received Broke's letter before leaving harbour, according to author Ian W. Toll, it would not have made any difference, Lawrence intended to sail at the first day of favourable weather. The fact that it was not in his nation's interests at this point in the war to be challenging British frigates seems not to have entered into his reasoning; President had in fact slipped out of harbour in foul weather to commerce raid, which was deemed in the US national interest. The two ships had in one another about as close a match as could exist in a state of war. Chesapeakes (rated at 38 guns) armament of twenty eight 18 pounder long guns was an exact match for Shannon. Measurements proved the ships to be about the same deck length. The only measurable difference between the two ships was the size of their complements: Chesapeakes 379 against Shannons 330. Shannon carried 276 officers, seamen and marines of her proper complement; eight recaptured seamen; 22 Irish labourers who had been 48 hours in the ship and of whom only four could speak English, and 24 boys, of whom about 13 were under 12 years of age. Broke had trained his gun crews to fire accurate broadsides into the hulls of enemy vessels, with the aim of killing their gun crews, rather than shooting down the masts. By contrast, half of Chesapeakes officers and up to one quarter of the crew were new to the ship. Her crew had conducted no practice at small arms nor of the main battery. Despite this, Lawrence believed that he would win the battle. The previous American victories over smaller Royal Navy ships left him expectant of success, especially since Chesapeake had a substantially larger crew than Shannon. Still, before setting sail, Lawrence wrote two quick notes, one to the Secretary of the Navy pronouncing his intentions and another to his brother in law asking him to look after Lawrence's wife and children in event of his death. He then set sail. Just before the engagement, the American crew gave three cheers.

The two ships met at half past five in the afternoon, east of Boston lighthouse, between Cape Ann and Cape Cod. Shannon was flying a rusty blue ensign and her dilapidated outside appearance after a long period at sea suggested that she would be an easy opponent. Observing Chesapeakes many flags, a sailor had questioned Broke: "Mayn't we have three ensigns, sir, like she has?" "No," said Broke, "we've always been an unassuming ship." Shannon refused to fire upon Chesapeake as she bore down, nor would Chesapeake rake Shannon despite having the weather gage. Lawrence's behaviour that day earned him praise from British officers for his gallantry. The two ships opened fire just before 18:00 at a range of about , with Shannon scoring the first hit, striking Chesapeake on one of her gunports with two round shot and a bag of musket balls fired by William Mindham, the gun captain of one of Shannons starboard 18 pounders. Two or three further broadsides followed that swept Chesapeakes decks with grape and roundshot from Shannons 32 pounder carronades. Shannons fire destroyed Chesapeakes helm and fore topsail halyards; this caused her to 'luff up' into the wind. Chesapeake, unable to manoeuvre, then made sternway (was blown backwards). Her port stern quarter contacted Shannons side, level with the fifth gun port from the bow, and was trapped by one of Shannons anchors. With Chesapeake trapped against Shannon and unable to manoeuvre, Chesapeakes stern now became exposed to raking British fire. Her situation worsened when a small open cask of musket cartridges abaft the mizzen mast blew up. When the smoke cleared, Captain Broke judged the time was right and gave the order to board. Lawrence, too, tried to give the order to board, but the British were faster.