The Norfolk-built frigate Chesapeake has been called by one leading historian an "odd duck". From the refusal of the ship to go down the ways on the first attempt to launch her to her capture by HMS Shannon in the War of 1812, the frigate was a hard-luck ship. Given the parsimonious approach to naval expenditures taken by President James Madison's administration, it is not surprising that the outbreak of war with England in June of 1812 found Chesapeake in a terrible material state.

The Commandant of the Boston Navy Yard felt she could be ready to cruise by October, but it was not until 17 December that her new commander, Captain Samuel Evans was able to get under way. His orders were to patrol the Atlantic between the Cape Verde Islands and Brazil for British merchant ships. The patrol proved largely uneventful. Chesapeake returned to Boston on 9 April 1813. On 20 May, Evans was relieved for health reasons by Captain James Lawrence.

Captain Lawrence, thirty-two and newly promoted as a result of his victory over HMS Peacock while in command of Hornet, did not want the job. His wife was ill, and he pleaded to be given Constitution instead which would have given him a few more months at home. Secretary of the Navy, Smith was firm, however, and ordered Lawrence to sea as soon as ready. Off shore waited the 38-gun frigate, HMS Shannon, under the command of Captain Philip Bowes Vere Broke.  Pollard Hopewell entered the Navy as a Midshipman in June 1812, and reported to frigate CHESAPEAKE   August 21st.

The British frigate SHANNON overtook their ship on 1 June 1813.  He appears to When Chesapeake passed forward alongside Shannon and the first broadside from Shannon killed or wounded nearly everyone on the quarterdeck.  Of the two men at the wheel, Daniel Burnham and Jefferson Griffiths, the first fell dead, James Woodbury took his place and was killed almost immediately and Griffiths was badly wounded by grape shot. James Lewis tried to control the wheel but fell to the deck wounded and no one took his place. Capt. Lawrence was struck on the right knee by a pistol ball and fell against the binnacle with blood pouring down his leg. At the same time the first Lieutenant, Augustus Ludlow, was hit and badly wounded, Midshipmen John Evans and Courtlandt Livingstone were killed outright and Lieutenant Broome of the marines and Midshipman Pollard Hopewell were mortally wounded. The wounded Ludlow was struck by a splinter and brought down leaving no officers on the upper deck.

At this point Midshipman Cosnahan in Shannon`s maintop hurled down a grenade which exploded in a box of ammunition on Chesapeake's quarterdeck, killing and wounding more men and starting a fire which raced over the whole upper deck.  The Captain is credited with the saying, "Don't give up the ship!" The crew was forced to give up the ship. 

Chesapeake was taken to Halifax, Nova Scotia under the command of Capt. Alexander Gordon, and, after repairs, on to England. She served in the Royal Navy under the command of Capt. Francis Newcombe, until placed in ordinary (that is roofed over, and masts removed) in 1816. The ship was sold in 1820 to a cooper, Mr. Holmes, for £500. He in turn sold Chesapeake's timbers as building material for houses in Portsmouth, England. Her gun deck timbers were used in the construction of Chesapeake Mill. Which still stands at Wickham in Hampshire.

This was rebuilt and renamed by John Prior who was a miller, using timber that he bought in 1820 from the American man-o'-war Chesapeake, a ship captured, as told by the ballad, by HMS SHANNON in the American War of Independence.²

For more on Chesapeake and Shannon

a  Peter I Oboe, pg 14 Our Navy 9/53

1. http://userpages.umbc.edu/~pdavis2/Participants/dawsonm/smc/articles_files/nov_pollard.htm  by: Linda Reno, 9/10/2000

2. http://www.mdarchives.state.md.us/msa/speccol/sc2600/sc2685/house/html/smhouse.html  Edward C. Papenfuse

Public Records St. Mary's County MD