description: This is the classic, comprehensive biography of a British naval hero.“Sir, as the Chesapeake appears now ready for sea, I request that you will do me the favour to meet the Shannon with her ship to ship to try the fortune of our respective flags.”So began the challenge to equal combat that Captain Philip Broke sent to Captain Lawrence of the United States frigate Chesapeake on 1 June 1813. The same afternoon Lawrence sailed to meet him; the resulting engagement is perhaps the most celebrated single-ship duel in the annals of the Royal Navy.For the challenger, Broke, it was the climax of years of waiting for a chance to distinguish himself, and it succeeded beyond his dreams. In one furious contest the Shannon avenged an unbroken list of five American single-ship victories since the start of the war.In this book, Peter Padfield tells the story of Broke’s life as it led up to this supreme day and vividly describes the action itself as he has discovered it afresh in contemporary documents and survivors’ accounts. As far as possible Broke’s own words have been used, in letters to his beloved wife as she waited in Suffolk, in journals and in other papers. He emerges as much more than simply a fighting sailor – he was a sensitive man, lover of flowers and the Latin poets, yet also a master gunner whose fascination with scientific devices and ideas on training led to the establishment of the first great gunnery school; a patriot, a teacher, a loving and beloved husband and father.First published in 1968, Peter Padfield’s Broke and the Shannon is widely acknowledged as the classic biography of the man, and has inspired several later writers. It is required reading for all with an interest in naval history, and all who enjoy quality biographies.‘The classic biography of Captain Philip Broke, including but not centring on his famous battle in the War of 1812, where he challenged the American frigate Chesapeake to a single-ship conflict outside of Boston Harbor and defeated her in eleven minutes. Beautifully written, interesting, and with those wonderful old-fashioned footnotes that contemporary authors so often omit’ - Amazon reviewPeter Padfield always wanted to go to sea. He started his training for the Merchant Service as a cadet, subsequently serving in Shaw Savill liners to Australia and New Zealand, and then joining the P and O temporarily to sail as a mariner in Mayflower II, the replica of the pilgrim barque commanded across the Atlantic by Alan Villiers. After a brief return to P and O he left big ships and worked his way out to New Zealand on a tug and from there to the Pacific. His travels to the Solomon Islands are recorded in his first book, The Sea is a Magic Carpet . He is the author of several books, including The Titanic and the Californian , which reconstructed the loss of the Titanic and exposed a tragic miscarriage of justice.
language: English
title: Broke and the Shannon
titlecomplete: Broke and the Shannon
ratings_count: 11
publisher: Hodder & Stoughton