^{FN1 Ch12} It may be that the shots did not in fact cut the lines. What is more likely is that at a critical moment the sheets were in the hands of certain of the Chesapeake's crew who were carrying out the command to "luff up." She was overtaking the Shannon and she had to be slowed down a little in order to be at the same speed when coming along side the Shannon, and thus be moving along at the same speed broadside to the Shannon. The Shannon's shots could have hit the seaman with sheets in their hands, as opposed to hitting the sheets themselves: same result.

^{FN2 Ch12} Allen, Battles of the British Navy, Vol. 2, p. 427.

^{FN3 Ch12} Battles of the British Navy, Vol. 2, pp. 427-8.

^{FN4 Ch12} Battles of the British Navy, Vol. 2, pp. 428-9.

^{FN5 Ch12} I recall once when a sailor did not pay proper attention, and either because he hooked the flag wrong end to, or he sent the wrong end of the halyard up, - whatever - the nation's flag was flying upside down, and the mumble in the ranks was that "there would be hell to pay."

^{FN6 Ch12} Battles of the British Navy, Vol. 2, p. 429.

^{FN7 Ch12} A "star-shot" comes out of one of the big cannons. It consisted of two cannon balls linked together by a length of chain. It was usually shot high in order to destroy the rigging of the adversary.

^{FN8 Ch12} See Pullen's wonderful book, The Shannon & The Chesapeake (Toronto: McCelland & Stewart, 1970) and in particular Appendix E, at pp. 139-42.

^{FN9 Ch12} As quoted by Murdoch, History of Nova Scotia, vol. 3, pp. 342-3.

^{FN10 Ch12} Battles of the British Navy, Vol. 2, p. 429.

^{FN11 Ch12} Battles of the British Navy, Vol. 2, p. 430. The estimates vary. "Chesapeake lost about 60 killed, including the four lieutenants, the master and many other officers. A similar number were wounded." (http://www.cronab.demon.co.uk/S1.HTM : 3/13/2005)

^{FN12 Ch12} With Captain Broke severely wounded (he was not expected to live) and his second killed in action, the British command had devolved to a young lieutenant, only 22 years old, Provo William Parry Wallis. Wallis was born in Halifax. He was the son of the chief clerk to the naval commissioner at Halifax and young Wallis was entered into the book of a British war ship at the age of four years old -- everything in the navy very much depended on seniority. Getting both ships back to Halifax was quite a feat as the Americans outnumbered the British seaman. Wallis was to write, "After finding that my captain was hors de combat and the first lieutenant killed, my first care was to get the prisoners secured, which was an easy matter, as the Chesapeake had upon deck some hundreds of handcuffs in readiness for us. So we ornamented them with their own manacles." (Harvey, "Nova Scotia and the Canadian naval Tradition," The Canadian Historical Review, September, 1942, p. 253.) Wallis was to live a long time (d.1892) and rose to the highest rank in the British Navy, Admiral of the Fleet. [See, Heine, Sir Provo Wallis: 96 Years in the Royal Navy (Hantsport, N.S.: Lancelot Press, 1987).]

^{FN13 Ch12} Fergusson's Glimpses of Nova Scotia (Halifax: PANS, No. #12, 1957) p. 63.

^{FN14 Ch12} Ibid.

^{FN15 Ch12} Murdoch, vol. 3, p. 344.

^{FN16 Ch12} Pullen The Shannon & The Chesapeake (Toronto: McCelland & Stewart, 1970), Appendix D, at p. 138.

^{FN17 Ch12} It was reported that there stands at the old Dockyard Cemetery at Halifax inscribed to the memory of the seamen who died in the battle: Owen Callaghan, Peter Lawson, Francis Albert, Francis Dixon and John Anthony. [See C. H. J. Snider's Under The Red Jack (Toronto: Musson, n.d.) at p 135.]

^{FN18 Ch12} Many of the details can be found in John Liddell's journal, a copy of which can be found in Fergusson's Glimpses of Nova Scotia (Halifax: PANS, No. #12, 1957). The Frederick Augustus had been brought into Halifax as a prize on April 16th.

^{FN19 Ch12} "Capt. Lawrence lies in the yard of Trinity Church, Broadway, New York, where his tomb is to be seen on the left of the entrance." (Akins, "History of Halifax City," NSHS, #8, p. 156.)

^{FN20 Ch12} Pullen, in his work The Shannon & The Chesapeake (Toronto: McCelland & Stewart, 1970), set out in Appendix F, the muster roll of the Chesapeake, at pp. 14 & 54. In the muster roll there are notations about which prisoners were returned. In addition to the Frederick Augustus and the Henry, the Agnes is also mentioned.

^{FN21 Ch12} Though at the start of the Napoleonic Wars, in 1793, Melville Island (then known as Kavanagh's Island) was first acquired by the Nova Scotian government so that war prisoners might be accommodated, it was only in 1803 that the place was ready to receive prisoners. (See Cuthbertson, "Melville Island Prison during the War of 1812," Journal of the Royal Nova Scotia Historical Society, vol. 6, 2003, pp. 40-64.) Certainly by 1812, it was up and running as a military prison. During The War of 1812 the number of American prisoners (mostly crews taken off of American privateers) kept at Melville Island, on average at any given time, was around a thousand. Because of conditions, many of these American men died and were buried on a nearby little island now called Deadman's Island.

^{FN22 Ch12} The names are listed at http://www.cronab.demon.co.uk/PoW2.htm : 10/14/2005

^{FN23 Ch12} All I know of the Regulus is that which was gleaned out of John Liddell diary. [See Fergusson's Glimpses of Nova Scotia (Halifax: PANS, No. #12, 1957)] She was seen to have come into Halifax Harbour on October 2nd, 1810, in company with Diadem from Portsmouth with the 2nd Battalion of the 8th Regiment on board; both the Regulus and the Diadem were en flute. Ten days later, on the 12th, the pair sailed for Portugal with the 23rd Regiment on board. The same duty can be seen to be done by the Regulus, when, on July 8th, 1813, she came in, en flute, from Malta and Gibraltar with the "Foreign Regiment De Meuron 1100 Men on their way to Canada." Two days later she departed Halifax for Quebec with this regiment of German soldiers still on board; she was sailing in company with HMS Dover and HMS Melpomene. By September, the Regulus was back in Halifax. On September 5th, she sailed with the Melpomene for England.

^{FN24 Ch12} September 5th: Sailed HMS Regulus & Melpomene en flute for England. (John Liddell.)

^{FN25 Ch12} John Liddell.

^{FN26 Ch12} Murdoch, vol. 3, p. 347.

^{FN27 Ch12} See Padfield, Broke and the Shannon (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1968), p. 150.

^{FN28 Ch12} DCB. Broke married Sarah Louisa Middleton in 1802. They had six children, five boys and a girl. The third boy became Admiral Sir George Broke Middleton. The Brokes actually raised eleven children. Five were the fatherless children of Broke's sister who had come to live at Broke Hall. [Padfield, Broke and the Shannon (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1968), p. 212.] We read (http://www.royal-navy.mod.uk/static/pages/5815.html : 12/18/2005) where The Shannon was "placed in the reserve in 1831. She was renamed the St Lawrence in 1844 and became a receiving ship at Sheerness, before finally being broken up in November 1859." As for the "Chesapeake, she was taken into the Royal Navy under the same name and Captain Francis Newcombe commanded her at Plymouth during 1815. On 18 August 1819 she was sold to Mr J. Holmes for breaking up and the timber from her gun-deck was bought by John Prior in 1820 for £3,450 to build a water mill alongside the River Meon in the village of Whickham in Hampshire. It is now known as the Chesapeake Mill." (See http://www.cronab.demon.co.uk/cmill.htm) The mill may still be standing, but in disrepair. There was an effort by a local group to restore the mill so to show off the timbers, but I do not know whether the project ever got off the ground." Only one other regular [United States] navy vessel was named Chesapeake, a Naval Academy training ship launched on June 30th, 1899. In 1905, Captain Seaton Schroeder, the Director of Naval Intelligence, was wary of the ignominious reputation of the namesake. He petitioned the Secretary of the Navy to have the ship's name changed. On June 15th she was renamed Severn. No American warship since has been christened Chesapeake. [http://www.cronab.demon.co.uk/ches1.htm]