The Shannon and Chesapeake collided and British Captain Philip Broke led a boarding party onto the USS Chesapeake. Very close quarter hand-to-hand fighting ensued and Broke was wounded by a saber cut on his skull.
It didn't take long before the American colors came down and the British ensign was hoisted. The battle was over.
Captain James Lawrence's exhortations to his crew came to naught. They did give up the ship, but perhaps not actually. There were no American officers on the deck to formally surrender the ship. The British officers themselves simply declared the fighting over and the ship theirs.
The remaining Americans and Lawrence were taken prisoner and the two ships sailed away in tandem to Nova Scotia, leaving the Boston spectators dumbfounded.
What had happened?
--Brock-Perry
2012 marks the 200th anniversary of America's "Forgotten War," the War of 1812 that took place over three years, 1812 to 1815.
Battle of New Orleans.
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