page_title: HMS Shannon (1806)
section_title: Chesapeake is taken
hierarchical_section_title: HMS Shannon (1806) / Fighting Chesapeake / Chesapeake is taken
caption_attribution_description: English: A depiction of the Royal Navy frigate H.M.S. Shannon leading the captured American frigate U.S.S. Chesapeake into Halifax Harbour, Nova Scotia, Canada, in June 1813.
context_page_description: HMS Shannon was a 38-gun Leda-class 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 USS Chesapeake in a singularly bloody battle.
context_section_description: The British then secured the ship and took her surrender. The engagement had lasted just eleven minutes. Shannon had lost 23 killed, and had 56 wounded. Chesapeake had about 60 killed, including her four lieutenants, the master and many other of her officers, and about as many wounded.  Captain Lawrence had been mortally wounded by fire from Shannon's fore-top and was carried below before Chesapeake was boarded. His last order upon being wounded was "Don't give up the ship!".
  A large cask of unslaked lime was found open on Chesapeake's forecastle and another bag of lime was discovered in the fore-top.  Some British sailors alleged the intention was to throw handfuls into the eyes of Shannon's men as they attempted to board. The historian Albert Gleaves has called the allegations "absurd," noting, "Lime is always carried in ship's stores as a disinfectant, and the fact that it was left on the deck after the ship was cleared for action was probably due to the neglect of some subordinate, or petty officer." 
  Shannon's midshipmen during the action were Messrs. Smith, Leake, Clavering, Raymond, Littlejohn and Samwell. Samwell was the only other officer to be wounded in the action. Mr Etough was the acting master, and conned the ship into the action. Shortly after the frigate had been secured, Broke fainted from loss of blood and was rowed back to Shannon to be attended to by the ship's surgeon. After the victory, a prize crew was put aboard Chesapeake and Shannon escorted her and her crew into Halifax, arriving there on 6 June. Lieutenant Bartholomew Kent, of Nova Scotia brought the first news of the British victory back to London.
  At Halifax Chesapeake's crew was imprisoned. Chesapeake herself was repaired and taken into service by the Royal Navy before she was sold at Portsmouth, England in 1820 and broken up.
caption: An 1830 representation of HMS Shannon leading the captured American frigate Chesapeake into Halifax Harbour in June 1813.
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