War with United States of America to war in Syria - from A.D. 1811 to A.D. 1840.
Several brig-sloops and other small craft were also captured during the war by the Americans, who had every reason to be proud of the gallantry displayed by their seamen. Success, however, did not always attend on the “star-spangled banner,” and, as was natural, the captains of the British 38-gun frigates were eager to fall in with one of the famed American forty-fours. Among others, Captain Philip Vere Broke, commanding theShannon frigate, resolved, if possible, to show what a well-disciplined crew could do. He had from the time he had been appointed to her, several years before, diligently exercised his crew in gunnery, so that those who knew him and his ship’s company felt confident of his success. The following lines, written soon after the commencement of the war, prove this:—
“And as the war they did provoke,
We’ll pay them with our cannon;
The first to do it will be Broke,
In the gallant ship the Shannon.”
The following song well describes the far-famed action:—
The “Chesapeake” and the “Shannon.”
At Boston one day, as the Chesapeake lay,
The captain, his crew thus began on:
See that ship out at sea, she our prize soon shall be;
’Tis the tight little frigate the Shannon.
Oh, ’twill be a good joke
To take Commodore Broke,
And add to our navy the Shannon.
Then he made a great bluster, calling all hands to muster,
And said, Now boys, stand firm to your cannon;
Let us get under weigh without further delay,
And capture the insolent Shannon.
Within two hours’ space
We’ll return to this place,
And bring into harbour the Shannon.
Now alongside they range, and broadsides they exchange,
But the Yankees soon flinch from their cannon;
When the captain and crew, without further ado,
Are attacked, sword in hand, from the Shannon.
The brave commodore of the Shannon
Fired a friendly salute
Just to end the dispute,
And the Chesapeake struck to the Shannon.
Let America know the respect she should show
To our national flag and our cannon;
And let her take heed that the Thames and the Tweed
Give us tars just as brave as the Shannon.
Here’s to Commodore Broke of the Shannon;
May the olive of peace
Soon bid enmity cease
From the Chesapeake shore to the Shannon.