The New International Encyclopædia/Chesapeake, The

CHES′APEAKE, The. A thirty-eight-gun vessel famous in the history of the American Navy. Early in 1807, after undergoing partial repairs in the Washington Navy Yard, she proceeded to Hampton Roads, where Commodore James Barron (q.v.) assumed command. On June 22, poorly equipped, insufficiently manned by an untrained crew, and wholly unfit for immediate action, she started across the Atlantic on a training cruise; but when well out to sea was overtaken and stopped by the British frigate Leopard, 50 guns, whose commander demanded the restitution of British deserters alleged to form a part of the Chesapeake's crew. On Barron's refusal to return the sailors demanded, or to permit search for them, the British attacked with vigor, soon killing three and wounding eighteen of the Americans and seriously crippling their vessel. From the Chesapeake only one gun was fired, and that with great difficulty and without effect. Barron finally struck his colors, and the British reclaimed four deserters, three of whom, though they had been formerly impressed into the British service, were native-born Americans. The affair caused intense excitement throughout the country, anti-British feeling ran high, and the people everywhere demanded ‘reparation or war.’ President Jefferson immediately (July 2) issued a proclamation, which proved futile, ordering British cruisers to depart from American ports and forbidding all aid and intercourse with them; and, through Monroe, indignantly demanded redress, but without avail, from the British Government. The incident was one of the chief occurrences that led up to the War of 1812, and is famous in American history as ‘The Chesapeake Affair’ or the ‘Chesapeake Outrage.’ On June 1, 1813, the Chesapeake, then commanded by Captain Lawrence and carrying 50 guns, fought a battle in Massachusetts Bay with the British thirty-eight-gun vessel the Shannon, Captain Broke, then carrying 52 guns. The two vessels were almost evenly matched, except that the Chesapeake had an untrained crew and had only recently changed captains. After an engagement lasting fifteen minutes, the Chesapeake, rendered unmanageable by the terrible fire of the Shannon, was forced to surrender after Captain Lawrence had received a mortal wound. This gallant commander exhorted his men to the end with the words, “Don't give up the ship!” Out of a crew of 379, the Chesapeake lost 61 killed or mortally wounded, and 85 severely and slightly wounded; while out of a crew of 330, the Shannon lost 33 killed and 50 wounded. The Chesapeake was taken as a prize to Halifax, was afterwards used as a British war-vessel, and in 1820 was sold as old timber. Consult: Henry Adams, History of the United States, Vol. IV. (9 vols., New York, 1889-91); McMaster, History of the People of the United States, Vols. III. and IV. (New York, 1883—); Cooper, History of the Navy of the United States (2 vols., London, 1839); Roosevelt, The Naval War of 1812 (New York, 1882); and Barnes, Naval Actions of the War of 1812 (New York, 1896).