The Real, Shameful Story Behind 'Don't Give Up the Ship!'-- Part 1

From the Mat 19, 2013, Boston Globe" by Tom Halsted.

On June 1, 1813, a few miles north of Boston, a mortally wounded Captain James Lawrence, as his crew was locked in a vicious hand-to-hand combat,  was taken below deck and allegedly uttered those faomus words, "Don't Give Up the Ship."

These words were published a few weeks later in a Baltimore newspaper and it went on to become the unofficial motto of the U.S. Navy.  This predated the famous slogans "Remember the Maine" and "Remember Pearl Harbor."

Later that year, Oliver Hazard Perry had a flag with those words on his flagship, the USS Lawrence at the Battle of Lake Erie.

But, those words did not mark a historic or heroic moment.

Not So Don't.  --Brock-Perry