Page:Cambridge Modern History Volume 7.djvu/374

 342 The Shannon and the Chesapeake. that a British frigate of 1813 was twice as efficient as one of 1812. More care was shown in selecting the crews, and the armaments were strengthened ; while the commanders of weak ships no longer recklessly closed with powerful opponents. On June 1 the Chesapeake, 38, Captain Lawrence, engaged the British Shannon, 38, Captain Broke, off Boston. In force the two ships were equally matched. The American had a very slight preponderance in metal, and a crew larger than her antagonist ; but Lawrence was a stranger to his men, having only received command of his ship a fortnight before. The fight which followed was brief and bloody ; in fifteen minutes from the first shot the British, superbly led by Broke, swept on board and carried the American. The enhanced estimation in which American fighting capacity was now held in England was proved by the enthusiastic applause which this action evoked from the British navy and nation. The British captain was famous in his service for his attention to gunnery, and thoroughly deserved his success. He was badly wounded ; his opponent Lawrence fell in the combat, adjuring his officers, in a phrase now historic, not to give up the ship ; he was followed to the grave by the British officers at Halifax, who admired his heroic character and his knightly devotion. In small ship encounters the luck was evenly balanced. The American sloop Hornet, on February 24, sent to the bottom the British Peacock, famous not for gunnery but for the tasteful decoration of her deck; the British Pelican captured the American Argus of inferior force, in St George's Channel; and the American Enterprise took the British Boxer off the coast of Maine. The effects of American depredations upon British commerce were painfully felt in the United Kingdom during 1813. American cruisers of all kinds appeared in British waters, and rendered even transit to Ireland unsafe. In fact, while British ships were blockading the coast of the United States, something approaching a blockade of the British Isles had been established by these audacious antagonists, using the French ports as their bases. The Admiralty appeared to be quite unable to expel the intruders ; and the force of British cruisers in home waters was much below strategical requirements. Premiums of 13 per cent, were paid for the insurance of British ships even on the Irish Sea ; the rate on vessels trading to America increased by 33 per cent. To be safe it was necessary to sail under convoy. Lumber and cotton, articles for which the British consumer depended mainly upon the American producer, rose to enormous prices. In March, 1813, New Orleans cotton was selling at 3s. to 3s. %%d. per pound, though it was stated in Parlia- ment that England had a two years' supply of this raw material for her manufactures. Fortunately for her the price of wheat had fallen, while the retreat from Russia and the battle of Leipzig had destroyed the supremacy of Napoleon ; or even the British nation, for all its stubborn persistence, might have flinched.