planked that at one point during the battle a sailor watched a solid shot literally bounce off the ship, and exclaimed, “Her sides are made of iron!” The name stuck, and not long afterward
Constitution,
now nicknamed “Old Ironsides,” chased down another British frigate,
Java,
and gave her the same treatment.* 10
Then, on the morning of October 12, the American frigate
United States
was spotted in the mid-Atlantic by the British frigate
Macedonian,
which immediately moved in for a fight. The
United States
—captained by Stephen Decatur, one of America’s foremost naval heroes—obliged. What the captain of
Macedonian
didn’t realize was that he was outgunned by the
United States
(fifty-four guns to forty-nine) and that the Americans were expert gunners, a fact he quickly learned, to his regret. Decatur luffed into the wind to slow the ship and unleashed a series of broadsides that cut away
Macedonian
’s rigging and much of her mastage.
More than a hundred solid shots penetrated the Britisher’s hull and more than a hundred sailors were killed or wounded—nearly a third of her crew.
Macedonian
struck her colors barely an hour and a half after the fight had begun and was taken as an American prize. A year and a half later, while conducting treaty negotiations, Decatur authored one of the aforementioned famous slogans that have found their way into the American lexicon: “My country, right or wrong.”* 11
War at sea was not always so successful for the Americans, though. On the first day of June 1813, Captain John Lawrence was in Boston Harbor trying to refit and reman the
Chesapeake,
the same ill-fated American frigate that had been attacked by the British off the Virginia coast some six years earlier in an attempt to impress crewmen, an incident that contributed significantly to the outbreak of war.
Outside the harbor cruised
Shannon,
a thirty-eight-gun frigate; spying
Chesapeake
’s masts, she sent ashore a boat carrying a challenge to battle. Lawrence was at a definite disadvantage, since his crew was almost entirely without experience and included a large number of Portuguese of dubious commitment who spoke no English. Nevertheless, he ordered them to make sail and man the guns.
Just before six p.m. the two ships closed for battle. They were about evenly matched in armament, but the British ship had a far better trained crew. The cannon fire that tore into both vessels produced frightful effects. Theodore Roosevelt, an admired naval historian, described the action this way: “
Chesapeake
’s broadsides were doing great damage, but she herself was suffering even more than her foe; the men in the
Shannon
’s tops could hardly see the deck of the American frigate through the cloud of splinters, hammocks, and other wreck that was flying across it, [but] man after man was killed at the wheel; the fourth lieutenant, the master, and the boatswain were slain.”
After only fifteen minutes the two ships were so close that
Shannon
’s captain ordered grappling hooks thrown across and told his crew to prepare for boarding. At this unpleasant prospect, many of
Chesapeake
’s green sailors “became disheartened” and ran belowdecks. As this was happening, Captain Lawrence, who had made himself conspicuous by standing on the quarterdeck in full-dress uniform, was fatally shot by one of the British marines in
Shannon
’s fighting tops. Lawrence fell to the deck crying, “Don’t give up the ship!”—another of the memorable exclamations from the War of 1812 that soon found a permanent home in the language.
The fighting from then on was at close quarters and extremely savage
—Chesapeake
’s chaplain had his arm nearly severed by a blow from “a broad Toledo blade” wielded by
Shannon
’s captain—but soon it was over and the British victorious. One hundred and forty-eight Americans had been killed or wounded, and the
Chesapeake
was claimed as a British prize and taken to Nova
Constitution,
now nicknamed “Old Ironsides,” chased down another British frigate,
Java,
and gave her the same treatment.* 10
Then, on the morning of October 12, the American frigate
United States
was spotted in the mid-Atlantic by the British frigate
Macedonian,
which immediately moved in for a fight. The
United States
—captained by Stephen Decatur, one of America’s foremost naval heroes—obliged. What the captain of
Macedonian
didn’t realize was that he was outgunned by the
United States
(fifty-four guns to forty-nine) and that the Americans were expert gunners, a fact he quickly learned, to his regret. Decatur luffed into the wind to slow the ship and unleashed a series of broadsides that cut away
Macedonian
’s rigging and much of her mastage.
More than a hundred solid shots penetrated the Britisher’s hull and more than a hundred sailors were killed or wounded—nearly a third of her crew.
Macedonian
struck her colors barely an hour and a half after the fight had begun and was taken as an American prize. A year and a half later, while conducting treaty negotiations, Decatur authored one of the aforementioned famous slogans that have found their way into the American lexicon: “My country, right or wrong.”* 11
War at sea was not always so successful for the Americans, though. On the first day of June 1813, Captain John Lawrence was in Boston Harbor trying to refit and reman the
Chesapeake,
the same ill-fated American frigate that had been attacked by the British off the Virginia coast some six years earlier in an attempt to impress crewmen, an incident that contributed significantly to the outbreak of war.
Outside the harbor cruised
Shannon,
a thirty-eight-gun frigate; spying
Chesapeake
’s masts, she sent ashore a boat carrying a challenge to battle. Lawrence was at a definite disadvantage, since his crew was almost entirely without experience and included a large number of Portuguese of dubious commitment who spoke no English. Nevertheless, he ordered them to make sail and man the guns.
Just before six p.m. the two ships closed for battle. They were about evenly matched in armament, but the British ship had a far better trained crew. The cannon fire that tore into both vessels produced frightful effects. Theodore Roosevelt, an admired naval historian, described the action this way: “
Chesapeake
’s broadsides were doing great damage, but she herself was suffering even more than her foe; the men in the
Shannon
’s tops could hardly see the deck of the American frigate through the cloud of splinters, hammocks, and other wreck that was flying across it, [but] man after man was killed at the wheel; the fourth lieutenant, the master, and the boatswain were slain.”
After only fifteen minutes the two ships were so close that
Shannon
’s captain ordered grappling hooks thrown across and told his crew to prepare for boarding. At this unpleasant prospect, many of
Chesapeake
’s green sailors “became disheartened” and ran belowdecks. As this was happening, Captain Lawrence, who had made himself conspicuous by standing on the quarterdeck in full-dress uniform, was fatally shot by one of the British marines in
Shannon
’s fighting tops. Lawrence fell to the deck crying, “Don’t give up the ship!”—another of the memorable exclamations from the War of 1812 that soon found a permanent home in the language.
The fighting from then on was at close quarters and extremely savage
—Chesapeake
’s chaplain had his arm nearly severed by a blow from “a broad Toledo blade” wielded by
Shannon
’s captain—but soon it was over and the British victorious. One hundred and forty-eight Americans had been killed or wounded, and the
Chesapeake
was claimed as a British prize and taken to Nova
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