ttom in six
fathoms of water with shot-holes in her hull and thirty-seven of her
crew put out of action. The sting of the _Hornet_ had been prompt and
fatal. Captain Lawrence had only one man killed and two wounded, and his
ship was as good as ever. Crowding his prisoners on board and being
short of provisions and water, he set sail for a home port and anchored
in New York harbor. He was in time to share with Bainbridge the carnival
of salutes, processions, dinners, addresses of congratulation, votes of
thanks, swords, medals, prize money, promotion--every possible tribute
of an adoring and grateful people.

One of the awards bestowed upon Lawrence was the command of the frigate
_Chesapeake_. Among seamen she was rated an unlucky ship, and Lawrence
was confidently expected to break the spell. Her old crew had left her
after the latest voyage, which met with no success, and other sailors
were reluctant to join her. Privateering had attracted many of them, and
the navy was finding it difficult to recruit the kind of men it desired.
Lawrence was compelled to sign on a scratch lot, some Portuguese, a few
British, and many landlubbers. Given time to shake them together in hard
service at sea, he would have made a smart crew of them no doubt, as
Isaac Hull had done in five weeks with the men of the _Constitution_,
but destiny ordered otherwise.

In the spring of 1813 the harbor of Boston was blockaded by the
thirty-eight-gun British frigate _Shannon_, Captain Philip Vere Broke,
who had been in this ship for seven years. In the opinion of Captain
Mahan, "his was one of those cases where singular merit as an officer
and an attention to duty altogether exceptional had not yet obtained
opportunity for distinction. It would probably be safe to say that no
more thoroughly efficient ship of her class had been seen in the British
navy during the twenty years' war with France."

Captain Broke was justly confident in his own leadership and in the
efficiency of a ship's company, which had retained its identity of
organization through so many years of his personal and energetic
supervision. Indeed, the captain of the British flagship on the American
station wrote: "The _Shannon's_ men were trained and understood gunnery
better than any men I ever saw." Every morning the men were exercised at
training the guns and in the afternoon in the use of the broadsword,
musket, and pike. Twice each week the crew fired at targets with great
guns