america's navy vs royal navy during war of 1812

Lawrence exercised such judgment on 1 June 1813 when he decided to engage Shannon off the coast of Massachusetts. Beyond that objective, Jones’s orders become less precise: “If in the course of your cruise you should derive such information of the force of the enemy, or other sufficient cause, as to render a strict adherence to my instructions prejudicial to the Public Service, you are at liberty to exercise your own judgment.” Lawrence was in a hurry: Secretary of the Navy William Jones wanted Chesapeake underway and patrolling for British supply ships as soon as possible. In their stead, Lawrence took a less-seasoned cohort of recruits. Much of the crew was refusing to re-enlist until a dispute about the distribution of prize money could be resolved. His status as national hero notwithstanding, Lawrence now faced an inauspicious challenge when it came to manning Chesapeake. A few months earlier, Lawrence had achieved fame for his actions on board the sloop Hornet, which engaged and ultimately sank HMS Peacock near Georgetown, Guiana. The Navy assigned Captain James Lawrence to Chesapeake in early May 1813. But, there is also the bigger question of the meaning of the event to contemporaries in the United States, British North America, and Great Britain, for the loss of Chesapeake had as its greatest impact a set of stories people told about the war: why it started, what it was supposed to accomplish, and whether it could be won. First, there is the incident itself––its causes and its lessons for the Navy.

The loss of Chesapeake is significant in two respects. It is also about people’s attempts to make meaning out of the War of 1812-an enigmatic and ambivalent, yet decisive, moment in the history of the early American republic.

The story, then, is about much more than what happened in the waters outside of Boston on 1 June 1813. Immediately, the news of Chesapeake’s capture became a focal point of public opinion on both sides of the Atlantic. Four hundred miles down the coast, the Bostonians, many of whom had witnessed the battle, wept in the streets. Navy’s frigate Chesapeake in June 1813, the people of Halifax, Nova Scotia, rejoiced.

America's navy vs royal navy during war of 1812