Battlefield Detectives: The War Of 1812 (S3, E7) | Full Episode

in 1813 the United States and Great Britain were once again at War off Boston on June 1st a naval battle took place between two frigates the USS Chesapeake and HMS Shannon since the War Began a year earlier the British have been defeated five times by the United States Navy this time Great Britain prevailed in a spectacular victory the battle lasted just 15 minutes the ships were evenly matched in size and crew numbers yet 69 American Sailors died for the loss of just 34 British the kill rate per minute makes this one of the bloodiest battles of the entire age of fighting [Music] sail historians and scientists are piecing together clues that will answer a puzzle Ling question about this battle why was the casualty rate so much greater on the Chesapeake than on the [Music] Shannon the United States Naval Academy Annapolis Maryland the men and women who will lead tomorrow's Navy are on Parade around them reminders of the last time the United States and Great Britain fought against each other in the War of 1812 the figurehead from his Britannic Majesty shipped Macedonian and these threadbear enens captured from defeated British warships recall American victories in the Great Hall hangs a flag bearing the words familiar to generations of Americans and the motto of the United States Navy don't give up the ship these were the last words of the USS Chesapeake's Commander James lwen they were uttered shortly after he fell mortally wounded in the battle with HMS Shannon few today remember that moments later the Chesapeake was given up as a prize to the British [Music] in Massachusetts historian and author William fer is investigating the background to this forgotten battle and why the American ship was lost the War of 1812 was in many ways a continuation of the American Revolution the United States had been born into a hostile world no one wished us well certainly our old mistress Great Britain did not wish us well Great Britain was fighting for its life against the French dictator Napoleon who controlled most of Europe in 1812 the British were relying on one strategy and one strategy alone to defeat France and that was a long-term economic blockade it was a total war for National survival as a neutral Nation the United States expected to continue to trade with France Great Britain was determined to stop her the British continue to harass our trade on the high seas they impressed our Sailors they violated our neutral rights I know you thank him not only did the Royal Navy Board American ships and confiscate their cargo desperate for skilled seafarers any Sailors believed to be British subjects were impressed or forcibly removed to serve in British warships American anger grew finally in June 1812 president James Madison declared war with more than 600 warships Great Britain had total dominance of the world's oceans a fleet was sent across the Atlantic to begin an economic blockade of American ports the British had four times as many frigs as the Americans so the expectation was that the Americans would be swept from the Seas driven back into Harbor but Great Britain was in for an unpleasant prize despite having just 26 ships the United States Navy was soon proving itself on the high seas in the very early days of the War of 1812 it became readily apparent that britannia's trident was a bit Rusty in quick succession American frigates won five battles against British warships it was an astounding success for Americans and a humiliation for the Royal Navy this was the first time in decades that the Royal Navy had lost ships in single combat the British were in shock this tide of humiliation and defeat needed to be turned but how one Englishman determined that he would restore British honor he was Captain Philip Brook commander of the royal Navy frigate HMS Shannon Brook believed the Americans were only winning because their frig like the USS Constitution had a significant size Advantage the battles were not equal contests The American ships like the constitution in the United States were a third bigger than the British ships they fought still afloat today in Boston the USS Constitution won two of those Famous Five victories during the War of 1812 Not only was she larger than any British frot she also carried bigger guns they weren't 18 Pounders they were 24 Pounders and the ships were built strong enough so that those batteries of 24 Pounders could all be fired at once which was quite a shock to the British I must say it seemed like the Americans just couldn't be stopped and all that confidence all that dynamism and aggression that Nelson and his captains have built up seemed to evaporate confidence ebbed away in the spring of 1813 Captain Philip Brook commanding HMS Shannon was on blockade Duty outside Boston he knew the USS Chesapeake was in Harbor and preparing for sea she had been the last of the American frigs to be built her construction had been plagued by cost cutting design changes and delays they finished the first three large frigs they slow down construction said look we've got two other fres that are well underway let's finish those up they finished those up so now they had five the chesapeak SAT pile of lumber not even started by the time construction of Chesapeake finally began her Timber had been used on other ships so they said well look we don't have much money uh we don't have any seasoned wood what can we do to build this ship so they rapidly accumulated wood they provided them a smaller budget than the other ships had had they said let's make a more conservative design that we can build rapidly and then with the Chesapeake even smaller so she was essentially a standard ship if the Chesapeake had been as large as the Constitution Brook might have looked Elsewhere for his opponent but at around 150 ft she was just 10 and 1/2 in longer than the Shannon with both ships so evenly matched two factors would decide the battle's outcome the ability of their Crews and the talent of their Commanders to command a frigate in the age of fighting sail was to be at the very Pinnacle of individual ship command you had to command the most complex and dangerous sailing machine in the world Acres of canvas hundreds of men the potential for disaster at every step these were men who once given command of their ship and sailed Over the Horizon were gone and they weren't in touch with headquarters they weren't in touch with the Admiral they were on their own they were men of huge egos who were in in command and there could be no questioning of their command at the time of the battle sir Philip Bose ver Brook commander of HMS Shannon was 36 years old a landed gentleman his country seat Brook Hall still stands on the banks of an English River not far from London Brook first went to sea when he was 15 from the start he showed exceptional Talent he had commanded the Shannon for 7 years years before the battle with Chesapeake Brook's opponent Captain James Lawrence left his home in New Jersey at 17 to join the fledgling American Navy now 31 he was an accomplished commander who had proved himself courageous in battle these were the contestants in the battle that has gone down as the greatest single frigate action in Naval History the day before the battle Brook wrote a formal challenge to Lawrence he asked the Chesapeake's Commander to come out and meet Shannon in a fair and equal contest a captured American fisherman was given his freedom after vowing that he would personally deliver the challenge take him away come on there's something faintly medieval about Brooks sending in a written challenge to Lawrence saying come on let's have a fair fight between equals he sets out exactly how many guns he's got how many men he's got the fact that he will be alone and that there'll be no other British ships in the vicinity he's offering him a duel a gladiatorial contest between two Noble Warriors and that's what this was all about two men of monumental standing what did they desire most they desire to be famous how does one become famous by being a Victorious Warrior and they did indeed see themselves as Warriors descendants of knights chevaliers so it was Fame that drove these men forward on the morning of June 1st Brook took the Shannon to within 2 miles of Boston Harbor she was clearly visible to Lawrence aboard the USS Chesapeake to further taunt the American captain Brook fired a single Cannon for Lawrence the provocation was too great shortly afternoon the Chesapeake set sail he had not read Brook's written challenge chenge which had not yet arrived but now James Lawrence would Grant the Englishman the battle he had craved for so long James Lawrence had every expectation of Victory when he left Boston flying from the Mast head of Chesapeake was a banner proclaiming free trade and sailors rights he even gave a speech to his men before they engaged in combat extolling the virtues of the Republic and the evils of Britannia hundreds of bostonians pursued the Chesapeake in small boats to cheer her Victory back in Harbor space had been made in the dock to Moore the captured Shannon and a great banquet laid out to celebrate Lawrence's triumphant return America was a very arrogant narcissistic impetuous Youth of a country uh in those days and they expected Lawrence to live up to that in fact you wonder how much Choice Lawrence really had in that battle with Bost all laid out to receive him in Victory he hardly had the choice of not going out and facing Brooke Lawrence had no ining whatsoever that he would lose he went out in full expectation of returning to Boston in a few hours with HMS Shannon in tow but Lawrence was about to face a British commander with a Relentless determination to win glory and restore his nation's honor [Music] suffk England in the old Hall of shrublands part of the brook Family Estate stands the figurehead of HMS Shannon in the family archives Naval historian and author Andrew Lambert is investigating the different ways Philip Brook and James Lawrence prepared for battle Brooke had spent six long and uneventful years blockading the French Coast to occupy his time he produced hundreds of notes and sketches Lambert discovers a personal letter Brook wrote but never sent instead he turned it over and he produced a drawing of the quarter deck of HMS Shannon showing in great detail where all the small arms were stored ready for a boarding action so the boarding parties could pick them up as they went to board an enemy ship and they were in exactly the right places Pikes on gangways and fol 28 muskets each gangway 16 cutlasses and eight tomahawks and eight pistols folo blockade Duty had given Brooke more than enough time to prepare his ship for an eventual battle the log of the Chesapeake captured by the British and now in the brook archive shows that James Lawrence had far less time to ready his ship on May 20th 1813 Captain James Lawrence came on board and took command of the ship at 600 p.m. beat to quarters and exercised the guns loaded them with round shot and grape shot Lawrence has only been on board 5 hours and he's already getting his men ready for a battle Lawrence had a reputation as a conscientious and efficient Commander the log proves that time not temperament was to be an influential factor in his defeat Lawrence's tenure as Chesapeake's Captain would be all too brief Monday May the 31st it's very interesting Lawrence has crammed this entry into the bottom of the page he needs the next two pages for what's going to happen on June the 1st which he must have known was going to be a day of battle there isn't another entry in the log book James Lawrence was a brave and successful officer he'd won battles he he'd been involved in war for a long time he knew what he was doing he was very good Brooke was in another League another League Beyond anything Lawrence had anticipated nobody else was thinking the way Brooke was thinking those blank pages in The Chesapeake's captured log book tell an extraordinary story they bear witness to a revolution in the way guns were used at Sea a revolution inspired by one man the captain of HMS Shannon Philip Brook before Brook's stunning victory over Chesapeake there was only one way to fight a battle at Sea close with the Enemy and fire at the biggest thing on the ship usually the rigging disabled and out of control the Quarry could then be boarded and captured but Brooke invented a revolutionary new tactic he realized that the way to win battles quickly and decisively was to to hit a range of specific targets take out their Captain take down the ship's wheel destroy their ability to maneuver their ability to sail he plans for his men to knock over the enemy's guns and Gunners Brook's strategy was to neutralize the command structure and kill the systems that control the ship to do that he needed to reinvent the way Shannon's guns were deployed accuracy and Marksmanship would be the key to his plans for victory but on a moving ship at Sea accurate fire was not easy to achieve ballistics expert David balur is investigating how at a range of 300 yard a targeting error of just one degree of true means missing the targeted gunport here we have an outline of the USS Chesapeake it's simplified of course and we've concentrated on the hull the cross at the center of the diagram represents the midpoint of the Target in this case a gunport on the side of the Chesapeake and then we've allowed an eror of one degree plus or minus above and below the gunport the inner Square shows how wide of the targeted gunport The Cannonball would be if the angle of fire was just 1° from True one degree is not a lot and most uh people would find it hard to to detect it or notice it but you can see that one degree High goes over the top of the deck and one degree low can fall in the water a two 2° error and the shot either lands well short in the water or well above the ship so to hit a gunport required a high degree of precision before Brook navies took the view that accuracy was less important than speed it wasn't that the other captain in the Royal Navy ignored Gunnery they didn't but their aim was to improve the speed at which the gun crews could arm and fire their Cannon they wanted to outgun the enemy in terms of speed Brook saw Beyond speed and simple Firepower he was a Visionary during 6 years at Sea he spent long hours designing new sighting systems mounts and carriages for his ship's guns he was revolutionizing the way sailing ships would fight Brooke is very interested in accurate sighting the sights on his ship's guns he designed ordered and he paid for the Navy did not issue gun sights they really didn't think it was necessary if you were close enough you didn't need sights Brooke disagreed proof of his passion for targeted fire can be seen today outside Province house in Halifax Nova Scotia right beside Nova scotia's prental legislature we have what is believed to be one of the guns from HMS Shannon the most interesting markings on this gun are the sight notches you'll see them uh three notches on the breach one at the top and two either side and the corresponding notches on the uh the muzzle at the far end these sighting notches were just one Innovation introduced by Brooke during the years he spent on the Shannon wedded to what he called his wooden wife he steadily Advanced the efficiency of her Weaponry he had for example drawn bearing angles on the decks he had cut down the carriages asymmetrically to compensate for the shear of the decks in the brook archive Lambert is uncovering evidence that shows just how far ahead of his time Philip Brooke was what we have here is a collection of the rough working notes of a man at sea for six long years years getting his ship and his ship's company worked up to the very pitch of perfection for a particular kind of battle Brooke Drew complex mathematical diagrams to work out the best way to maneuver his ship when engaging an enemy vessel he devised the tactics needed to win a battle by positioning the Shannon to achieve maximum accuracy from her guns but the naval Cannon was an old technology largely un changed for two centuries could it be harnessed to realize Brook's dream of a new era of accurate Gunnery the battle between the USS Chesapeake and HMS Shannon lasted just 15 minutes British commander Philip Brook's revolutionary new tactics and Superior crew account for the quick British Victory but there are Mysteries at the heart of this battle twice as many Americans died as Britain's and the kill rate was 10 times that of earlier battles of the War of 1812 the quest to unravel these puzzling statistics must begin with the Cannons on the British ship by 1813 the naval Cannon was an old technology ready fire but as this mid 19th century artillery piece demonstrates the cannon could be highly effective if aimed accurately the gun we're shooting here today is a 12 pounder a lot of them were 24s 32s even 48 Pounders uh on some of the real big ships so the effect just goes up by the square of the size of the gun because your projectile's much heavier and your powder charge is much higher David B alord designs Advanced Computer programs used to test the performance of today's weapon systems now for the very first time this software is being used to analyze how much power was generated inside the barrel of an 1812 Naval Cannon when the charge was ignited as you can imagine we cannot fire today uh one of these cannons that's 200 years old and expect to get the same results it will have been worn by rust and corroded and the barrel Dimensions will not be as they were once instead data contained in these 19 century artillery tables are entered into the computer program the tables were issued to British gun captains by the Royal Navy during the War of 1812 we have details about the size of the cannon the B the charge weight the weight of the ball that it fired the Shannon carried a number of short barreled cannons called carad the computer stimulates the firing process and measures what happens inside the barrel at ignition the curves show the buildup of pressure inside the barrel as the black powder charge ignites it's that pressure that drives the projectile out of the cannon it all happens in a tiny fraction of a second and the time is quite small it's in the order of 8 milliseconds in this particular case that's 8,000 of a second what Baler has discovered is that cannonballs were traveling at almost mck 1.5 as they left the muzzles of Cannon during the battle faster than the speed of sound it has to go from a standing start to 1,600 ft per second in in a very short [Music] time what this computer simulation shows is that the cannons used in the battle produced vast amounts of power was that power harnessed in a particular way by the British so that it killed many more men on the American ship before Philip Brook no one in Naval Warfare had thought of aiming to concentrate that power on a particular Target instead it was distributed along a wide spectrum called a broadside Brooke had the ingenious idea that if several Cannon could be aimed at a single Target a ship's wheel for example or a group of officers the destru power could be concentrated with far greater tactical effect artillery expert Charles smithall is testing Brook's system known as director fire this is an interesting concept that he developed to fire three guns at one point at a time the point would be on the side of the enemy ship and he has the guns lined up and marked so that he can concentrate fire on one thing cuz the gun one ball will do a certain amount of damage three ball balls will do five times the amount of damage if they're hitting at the same point that's not a slip of the tongue Smith Gall has observed that the damage increases exponentially with the number of projectiles used name of the game is put as big a hole as possible your enemy now we're using the Rope here to visualize a line of sight so if I lay these across here uh it's not quite lining up what I have to do is bring the rear of the gun to the right little more there we go now we're lined up straight and that should be the trajectory of the gun right and left director fire required each gun crew to aim accurately because Brooke had trained his Gunners to hit small targets the system worked in the battle with the Chesapeake he has multiple guns aimed at one point to caus as much damage as possible versus just indiscriminately shooting uh this would be a way if take get steering mechanism out to uh try to disable it in the water or maybe if you knew where the powder magazines were you could fire into those ready fire uh I'm saying we did what was intend Ed this is a very small Target area we put one through the exact target but two just above it so it there's one right beside each other so we did a a tremendous job of hitting the same exact spot going bring a sponge bucket bar Brooke marked out the deck to help the Gunners achieve consistently accurate fire one function of these markings was to bring the guns back into the firing position after recoil with the guns back in place we will the second firing be as accurate ready fire originally the first two holes were here there's one here's one of the new ones and there's one of the new ones and that was the original hole so it did exactly what he predicted they all went through the exact same place under Brook's watchful eye Shannon's gun Crews honed their skills Captain Brooke drilled his men incessantly in fact on some occasions he even paid for the gunpowder himself uh the Royal Navy was a bit ponus so his men knew how to fight so Shannon was probably one of the most remarkable Fighting Machines of the royal Navy drill after drill the best Gunners were rewarded with pouches of tobacco paid for by Brooke himself this is Brook's list of the Marines and the sailors on his ship who put shots in the Target unlike every other captain in the Royal Navy Brooke wasn't just interested in firing the guns quickly and pretty much at the Target he was interested in hitting the target not the ship but a much smaller Target he wanted to put shots through the enemy's gunports he wanted to knock down the gun crew knock over their guns he was very clear the way to capture the ship was to kill the crew when the day of battle finally came Brook may have had an extra weapon in his Armory did this unorthodox but deadly ordinance contribute to the far higher death rate on board the USS Chesapeake after taking just 15 minutes to defeat and capture the Chesapeake Shannon led her prize to the British Naval Base at Halifax Nova Scotia on June 6th 1813 in the library of Halifax's provincial legislature museum curator Dan conin is looking for a long forgotten eyewitness account of Chesapeake as she limped into Harbor here almost 200 years ago Thomas Chandler halberton was a judge and a very powerful Arch conservative figure in colonial Nova Scotia but he was also a very gifted writer he wrote a whole series of histories and satirical novels that at his Peak actually so Dickens in England as a Young Man halberton managed to get aboard Chesapeake in his later years he described a very Goose some scene that he saw there the deck had not been cleared for reasons of necessity that were obvious enough and the coils and folds of rope were steeped in Gore as if in a slaughterhouse pieces of skin with dependent hair were adhering to the sides of the ship and in one place I noticed portions of fingers protruding as if thrust through the OD wall of the frig and her splinters had wounded nearly as many men as Shannon [Music] shot did the timber used to build the Chesapeake actually increase the number of American casualties actually Bring It Low the curator of the Museum of Civil War medicine George wonderlick wants to find out he builds a Target using 2in thick planks of seasoned Oak Oak was the 18th century ship Builder's Lumber of choice so how did it behave in the heat of battle yes let's go check it out nice shot Mr Preston thank you very much well done when you take a 12lb ball and fire it from a gun like this one that ball will reach uh the target any place under 300 yd away with the same impact as dropping a Volkswagen automobile from the ninth story of a building it gives you some indication just how powerful we're talking about we certainly have a significant amount of splintering here we have a lot of lost material here and here I mean this is what you're looking at impacting a human body this one's well over a quarter of an inch square this would have made a very if not deadly certainly a very painful and uh a serious injury causing missile can you imagine how much more incredible this would have been with the the impact the concussive power coming through a gun deck where you've got a fairly low ceiling you're an enclosed area with guns going off and probably multiple missiles coming into the ship at one time but halton's account of the Chesapeake after the battle contains a vital clue that could explain the far higher casualty rate among the American Sailors she was a furb built ship and her splinters had wounded nearly as many men as Shannon shot Chesapeake was the last of the six frigs she was built cheaply and in a hurry with whatever wood was available after her original Timber was used elsewhere when Oak was unavailable the ship Builders used fur or pine in the village of Wickham in Hampshire England stands a flower Mill that holds another important clue to the Chesapeake's construction the mill was built using the deck Timbers of James Lawrence's last command when the Royal Navy sold the captured Chesapeake for scrap in 1820 when a sample of Timber from these beams is analyzed it reveals a startling truth that confirms halton's long forgotten eyewitness account the wood in this English Mill is Longleaf yellow pine a species of fur native to the Eastern United States halberton wrote that as many of the the Chesapeake's crew were killed or injured by splinters as by shot from Shannon's guns if George wonderlick can show that Pine behaves differently on impact to Oak this might help account for the far higher death toll on the American ship this is actually non-plantation old growth Pine it's going to be very similar in construction weight uh density and uh just about every other major feature that we're interested in to the old long leaf yellow pine that would have been used on the decks uh of American ships at the time it's a lot lighter than the oak so this should be an interesting test it's very interesting because we have a glancing shot here but look at the splintering that we have the splintering goes much lower than the Cannonball actually hit very different than our than our uh shots in Oak we didn't have anything like this you can see the Cannonball didn't get as far down as my thumb and yet over 7 in away we have wood missing this is this is quite dramatic it's interesting we got a good direct shot it does not look at first glance as mangled as the oak because it didn't hold together but as we begin to look up the hill we can see two three actually good siiz pieces and as I'm looking at it here we're missing a lot of wood um it completely came apart and unlike the oak which at least held stringers together of the of the uh various boards this just completely came apart wonderlick has shown that both Oak and pine would have produced splinters during the battle along with projectiles from the guns they would have created Havoc among both ship's Crews but the test fails to prove that Pine splinters were so much more devastating that they account for the far higher casualty rate on the Chesapeake that day in 183 this 200-year-old collection of Dusty documents in suffk England must give up more of its secrets to explain why so many Americans lost their Liv [Music] lives in the captured log book of the USS Chesapeake Andrew Lambert has discovered new clues about James Lawrence's intentions as he sailed out to do battle with HMS Shannon the log book is very revealing you can see this man is getting ready for a battle it's quite clear he's training his Gunners he's not thinking of slipping out getting past the British he's going to go out in the middle of the day he's going to take up the challenge not the written challenge that Brooke has sent in that hasn't arrived but the physical challenge Brooke is out there he's saying come on you up for this and the log book reveals another secret about Lawrence's decisionmaking in the days immediately before he sailed out to meet the Shannon May the 29th 1813 some stores are loaded 13 star shot 52 chain shot eight langage these are all projectiles designed to dismantle the rigging of the sailing ship this 200-year-old drawing in Brook's own hand shows the long forgotten ammunition known as star shot a series of bars surrounded a central iron ring as it flew through the air the bars opened like a star at the Target it tore through the rigging cutting ropes and sails to Pieces chain shot exactly the same these are anti- ring projectiles Lawrence is loading up for a particular kind of fight after the battle Brooke in his methodical obsessive way calculated every single hit on both ships and what he discovered was that 14 American Round Shot from the main deck guns these 18 Pounders had hit but the first American broadside had been these barshot designed to damage the rigging and the sails James Lawrence intended to Fire anti- Ring ammunition at the Shannon from a distance disabling her the Americans had used the same tactic in their previous victories over the British but this time they were dealing with an exceptional commander who would fight a different kind of battle Brook maneuvered the Shannon so skillfully that she was never a suitable Target for long range fire instead the Chesapeake was drawn steadily closer until the ships were just yards apart because Lawrence had loaded his guns ready for one kind of battle and ended up fighting another he lost in the moments before the battle began the Chesapeake changed course instead of Crossing Shannon's Stern from where his guns could have murderously Rak the British deck Lawrence veered to starboard it was a fateful decision by the young American captain he had an opportunity to rake the deck of the uh Shannon and apparently declined it the only thing one I can understand from it is they both of these captains were so imbued with the idea of sh shival contest that they had to be broadside to each other in order to be fair and even and manly and they and facing each other for a duel Rook had set his SA fails to ensure Shannon was barely moving making just two knots at this late stage Lawrence could not slow down and the Chesapeake making three knots slid up on Shannon's starboard side the first American broadside of anti- ring barshot had to be fired at Point Blank Range it hit the side of the Shannon just above the water line where it did no damage each of Shannon's guns was Lo with an 18lb ball as well as anti-personnel grape shot as the Chesapeake ranged alongside the Shannon Brooks Gunners have been trained to fire through the gunport exactly opposite their own on the American ship and that's exactly what they did morence could not slow down in time Chesapeake came alongside Shannon moving slightly faster presenting Shannon's aft Gunners with the perfect Target because Brook's men were trained to aim into the gunport s the forward American Gun Crews were shot to Pieces where they stood the broadside from Shannon sweeps across Chesapeake's deck almost instantaneously Lawrence goes down wounded the sailing Master is killed the fourth Lieutenant is killed others including the boson are injured So within a very few moments the command structure of Chesapeake is decimated Brook used different weapon systems against different targets the Chesapeake's wheel was knocked out by a 9lb cannon the American captain was hit by a marksman in the rigging every shot fired from the Shannon had a precise Target the Chesapeake surviving gun Crews fought courageously inflicting a number of casualties on the British Sailors but Brooke had told his crew to kill the men and the ship is yours in those climactic opening minutes and despite the screams of the dying on their own deck the Shannon had done his bidding Chesapeake begins to come up into the wind they lose steerage they lose control she drifts and she drifts towards Shannon Shannon comes towards her and the vessels grapple that of course is fatal the vessels are now locked together across the deck comes a boarding party from HMS Shannon led by no other than Captain Brooke several minutes of desperate and bloody hand-to-hand fighting with muskets swords Pikes and cutlasses climax when three American Sailors leap on Captain Brook before they are cut to Pieces by members of his own crew they leave Brook with a terrible gash to the skull that exposes his brain the entire engagement takes only about 15 minutes but it's a bloody bloody 15 minutes about 60 a Americans die and roughly half that number of British so in 15 minutes nearly 100 men die Captain Lawrence of course is dying down below and many people also believe that Captain Brooke is dying as well although he will not die the British victory was total Lawrence's Misfortune was twofold Philip Brook was a man ahead of his time and HMS Shannon was the most effective warship in the world with the Chesapeake under Royal Navy command the two ships sail north towards the British Naval Base at Halifax Nova Scotia with land in sight James Lawrence of the Chesapeake succumbs to infection brought on by his Grievous wounds now in death the British Accord the defeated American captain the full military honors reserved for a true warrior he's buried with great ceremony in Halifax senior officers from the Royal Navy are there as his Paul beers this is a proper tribute to a brave enemy but Halifax was not to be the final resting place of the captain of the USS Chesapeake the British allowed an American ship to take his remains to be reburied on American soil in September 1813 James Lawrence was brought here to Trinity Church in New York City in the heart of what is now the financial district he was given a grand funeral this impressive Monument pays tribute to his courage and reputation despite losing the battle with the Shannon and losing his ship this was a man America wished to celebrate had James Lawrence lived and come home he would not have been as celebrated as he was in death he undoubtedly would have been been subjected to a court of inquiry and he may well have been subjected to a court Marshal in defeat James Lawrence becomes a Great Hero his dying words don't give up the ship uh become the slogan the rallying cry for the American Navy Heroes gain greater stature when they die in the battlefield particularly those who have lost the [Music] battle Captain Brook survived the terrible wound to his head and returned to England where he was lauded as the man who had restored the honor of the royal Navy and Great Britain he inspired the founding of the world's first school of Naval Gunnery the war between the United States and Great Britain came to an end in 1815 the next time they fought together a century later it would be side by side as allies [Music] [Music]