ship--though they knew of its reputation as an unlucky one--but were
unacquainted with one another and nearly all were strangers to the
officers. The best of these were absent from illness and other causes.
Worse than all, many were in a maudlin state of drunkenness when the
_Chesapeake_ started out with flags flying to engage the well-manned
_Shannon_.

On the way down the bay some of the _Chesapeake's_ crew impudently
notified Lawrence that they would not fight unless they received the
prize money earned a short time before. It was a humiliating situation
for the young commander, but he was virtually in the face of the enemy
and he issued prize checks to the malcontents. Well aware of the
character of the foe he was about to encounter, he must have looked upon
the meeting with foreboding. Maclay uses these impressive words:

[Illustration: THE BATTLE BETWEEN THE "CHESAPEAKE" AND THE "SHANNON."]

"The calm deliberation with which the American and English commanders
went out to seek each other's life and the earnestness with which they
urged their officers and men to steep their hands in the blood of
their fellow beings form one of the sombre pictures of naval history.
Lawrence was the youngest son of John Lawrence, Esquire,
counselor-at-law at Burlington, N.J., and was the second in command at
the celebrated capture of the _Philadelphia_ in the harbor of Tripoli.
Broke was the descendant of an ancient family which had lived in Broke
Hall, England, over three hundred and fifty years and for four hundred
years at Leighton. Both were men in the prime of manhood, Lawrence in
his thirty-second year and Broke in his thirty-seventh. Both were models
of chivalry and manly grace; both were held in the highest estimation in
their profession. Lawrence had just taken an affectionate farewell of