of a red bandana handkerchief that was loosely tied round his neck, as though he had not fortitude to look in the face that death which his fears suggested to him impended from the blow of a sabre, a musket, or half pike. Not only his speech, his voice, his look, but his close blue jacket accurately expressing his shape, and the fashion of his duck trowsers, flowing and redundant at the feet-his very apparel-in short, his tout ensemble denoted an English origin: but the resentment of the boarders was inflamed by the conduct of the Americans on the forecastle; and though Captain Broke calmed the alarm and apprehensions of the boy with all the tenderness excited by pity, he found it difficult to restrain his men from including him among the victims of their exasperated rage. When the stripling was suf ficiently assured to rise from his suppliant posture, he threw his blue eyes round on the crowd with a mingled expression of shyness and dislike. To the glances of some midshipmen of his own age and stature, whom curiosity had brought to the spot, he returned a countenance of daring, which told them in intelligible language, that in clinging to their captain for protection he was not

"The British commander was not the only sufferer on this oc"casion; one of his men was killed, and two or three were wounded. "Can it be wondered at, if all the Americans who were concerned in "in this breach of faith, fell victims to the indignation of the Shan"non's men? It was as much as their captain could do, to save "from their fury a young midshipman, who, having slid down a rope "" from the Chesapeake's fore-top, begged his protection."

James's Naval Occurrences, page 218.

U

instigated by any dread of them, but of some rough sons of Erin, who, with naked cutlasses in their hands, were conversing with a malicious gaiety in the dialect of their native soil.* Midshipman Smith, who had now come down out of the fore-top, perceiving the wounded state of Captain Broke, advanced to give him his attendance, and a seaman, while tying a handkerchief round his commander's head, called out, directing his look aft, "There, Sir, there goes up the old ensign over the "Yankee colours." Lieutenant Watts, who, throughout the assault, had kindled the spirit of the boarders by his presence, his voice, and his example, had hauled down himself the American flag, and bending the British colours to the ensign halyards above them, caused the symbol of victory to wave at the peak. No sooner was the triumphant banner displayed, than the English sailors, from both ships, hailed it with three successive shouts, waving, at the same time their hats in the air. Lieutenant Watts joined in the acclamations of the naval multitude, standing near the taffarel, and pointing with exultation to the proud flag of his country, when he was struck in the pride of conquest, by a cannon shot

* On the 30th of May, one day prior to the action, the Shannon fell in with the Sherbrooke, British privateer, having on board 52 Irish labourers, taken out of an American privateer, which had made prisoners of them, in capturing the Duck, from Waterford to Newfoundland, on board which ship they were steerage passengers. Of these men 22 were pressed into the Shannon, recommended by their bodily strength, for it was the first time they were ever on sea "rocking about." Three of these fell in the fight.

fired from his own ship, which killed him on the spot, and changed the general tumult of joy into an universal groan of dejection. Captain Broke was now supported aft by Mr. Smith and some seamen to the quarter-deck, where be seated himself upon one of the carronade slides. The British colours were flying on board the Chesapeake; but notwithstanding their display, some of her crew on the main deck, who had not the courage to risk the event of a sally among the besiegers, made an impotent attempt at deliverance by firing up the hatchway, and killed a marine. Lieutenant Falkener, who was sitting on the booms, provoked at this outrage, ordered some muskets to be fired down the grating in return, and Captain Broke, from his seat upon the carronade slide, called to that officer to summon the Americans to surrender, if they sincerely desired quarter. They answered up the hatchway that they had laid down their arms, and hostilities ceased. About this time the Chesapeake's quarter-gallery gave way with the strain made on it by the Shannon's waist anchor, and the two ships went clear of one another. The jolly-boat from the Shannon came alongside soon after with a reinforcement of men, and Captain Broke, assured that the victory was complete, left Mr. Falkener in charge of the prize, and returned, almost exhausted with blood, to his own ship.

And now, as the Chesapeake's crew were conducted up

After the English had boarded the American frigate, an occasional fire was kept up from the Shannon's bow-guns; a co-operation hazardous to the lives of her own crew, as it is seen in the context.

the main-hatchway, in gangs to be hand-cuffed, they pre sented an assemblage of tall, stout, active, young fellows, who, though prisoners, looked supreme on the deck when compared with the seamen of the Shannon, who wanted, not only their youth and stature, but that freedom of carriage and those disengaged manners, which are the inheritance of the children of Columbia. * As they submitted their wrists to the master at arms, they looked round on the English sailors with a mingled glance of surprize and self reproach, as much as to say, our bondage must be voluntary. One young fellow, a gay Virginian, whispered in the ear of the master at arms, as he held out his hand to be manacled, "If there was a sack placed on "the deck between you and me, and it was agreed that "he who was first put into it of the two should wear the "handcuffs, I guess, shipmate, that my wrists would go

"free. Or, if you and I were ashore on yonder beach, "where there is nothing but clams to take the part of “either, and you presumed to come athwart my hawse

in this manner, there are no snakes in Virginia, if I did “not cut your cable.”

James, who will never be suspected of pronouncing a panegyric on Americans, thus speaks of the sailors of the respective ships: "The "Chesapeake's crew were remarkably stout, healthy young men; 66 especially when contrasted with the Shannon's; most of whom were rather below the middle stature, and a great proportion old or "elderly men. As one proof of stoutness in the Chesapeake's men, "the hand-cuffs that had been placed upon her deck, ready to secure "the British crew, as soon as the Shannon was captured, caused, "when applied to the wrists of the Americans, many of them to wince "with pain."

In this action there was a rigid equality subsisting between the two frigates in dimensions and armament; they were counterparts in length of keel, breadth of beam, and draught of water; their guns were of the same calibre, and their broadsides threw the same weight in metal.* Of the two ships the American had the more numerous crew; the Chesapeake went into action with 431 men; the Shannon mustered 330.

It is an honourable circumstance for the navy of the United States, that the capture of the Chesapeake was hailed in England with a joy that bordered on extravagance. Her Conscript Fathers caught the enthusiasm. When Mr. Croker read the statement of the action before the House of Commons, the members from all parts interrupted him with loud and protracted cheering.† But in this vociferous burst of the British Legislature an implied respect was paid the six-frigate navy of America, witheld, in former victories, from the colossal armadas of Holland, France, and Spain.

The prisoners being distributed, the Shannon stood with her prize towards Halifax, where they arrived on the fifth day after the action. There was nothing to delay them; no mast or spar of either frigate had been shot away; and the words of Captain Broke exhibit a lively

*The Chesapeake is of inferior dimensions to the Constitution and United States: her length is 151 feet, and her breadth 40 feet: she has 14 ports of a side on her main-deck, where she carries long cighteen pounders.

London Chronicle for July 9, 1813.