HMS Shannon was a 38-gun fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1806 and served in the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812. She won a noteworthy naval victory on 1 June 1813, during the latter conflict, when she captured the United States Navy frigate in a bloody battle.
Design and construction Shannon was an 18-pounder frigate. The class was based on the lines of the captured French 38-gun frigate Hébé, a design by Jacques-Noël Sané vaunted as an all-rounder. The naval historian Robert Gardiner argues that the key characteristic of the design, leading to its adoption with the Royal Navy, was its "unspectacular excellence". One ship, HMS Leda, was built during the French Revolutionary Wars in 1800. With the Napoleonic Wars subsequently beginning, the design was revived as one of three mass-produced frigates, contrasting with the strategy of the previous war which had seen a much more sporadic choice of designs.
The first three ships of the revival, including Shannon, were contracted out to private shipyards. The frigate was ordered on 24 October 1803 to be built at Frindsbury by Josiah and Thomas Brindley. Shannon was laid down there in August the following year. The ship was launched on 5 May 1806 with the following dimensions: along the gun deck, at the keel, with a beam of and a depth in the hold of . Her draught was forward and aft, and the ship measured 1,065 tons burthen. The fitting out process for Shannon was completed on 3 August at Chatham Dockyard. Her construction and fitting out cost in total £33,048.
The frigate originally had a crew complement of 284, but this was later increased to 300. Shannon carried twenty-eight 18-pounder long guns on her upper deck. The Leda-class frigates were stipulated to be armed with eight 9-pounder long guns and six 32-pounder carronades on the quarterdeck, but Shannon differed from this. She was given two 9-pounder long guns and twelve 32-pounder carronades. Complementing this were two 9-pounder long guns and two 32-pounder carronades on the forecastle. Shannon was named after the River Shannon, becoming the fourth Royal Navy ship to bear that name.
Sailing reports from ships of the Leda class record that they were generally very fast, reaching in strong winds. They were however not particularly weatherly and rolled heavily. During her service Shannon, described as a "sensitive ship", had her false keel increased to counter these issues. The construction techniques used by the Brindleys included not using knees, which in her later service saw Shannons upper levels loose and "work[ing] like a basket".
Service
Commissioning Shannon spent her first seven years under the command of Captain Philip Broke, who was transferred from and took command of Shannon in June 1806.
Home waters Shannon was quickly put into service. She formed part of a squadron under Commodore Owen that was patrolling off the French port of Boulogne. On 8 October she took part in the bombardment of the town using Congreve rockets.
Her next task was sailing in 1807 with to protect the whale fishery off Greenland. Despite encountering ice on 7 May 1807, they were able to push through, reaching the southern part of Spitsbergen on 17 June. There the two ships surveyed the Bay of Magdalena, at a latitude of 80°N. They eventually reached a latitude of 80° 6' N before the ice stopped them. They then turned westwards and reached the coast of Greenland on 23 July. The island of Shannon is named after the ship. Shannon spent the early autumn cruising from Shetland. She then left, returning to Yarmouth by the end of September, where she cruised off the Downs. She put into Spithead on 28 September to refit.
By the end of 1807, France had invaded Portugal, and Shannon joined Sir Samuel Hood's expedition against Madeira. The British took the island without firing a shot. Captain Broke then escorted the transports that had accompanied the fleet back to England, where they arrived on 7 February 1808. Shannon put into Plymouth before returning to patrolling in the Channel.
On 20 July Shannon was in company with and when they captured Comet. Then on 21 August, Shannon was in company with Surinam and when they captured Espoir.
In November 1808, Shannon took the French frigate Thétis in tow. had shortly before captured Thétis, which later entered service as HMS Brune.
Shannon spent 1809 with the Channel Fleet and on 27 January captured the French 14-gun privateer cutter Pommereuil. Broke sent the prize into Plymouth.
On 1 June 1811, Shannon returned to Plymouth and was put into the dock where her hull was re-coppered. After this was completed, she sailed for Portsmouth to complete her refitting and resupplying in preparation for being assigned to foreign service.
The American coast Broke and Shannon were ordered to sail for North America as tensions between Britain and the United States escalated in the run-up to what would become the War of 1812. Shannon sailed from Portsmouth and arrived in Halifax on 24 September 1811 after a journey of 45 days.
On 5 July 1812 Broke took command of a squadron consisting of Shannon, , , and later . Vice-Admiral Herbert Sawyer then ordered him to carry out a blockade of American ports.
Broke's first success came on 16 July when he captured the 16-gun American brig off Sandy Hook. Nautilus had been on a cruise from New York.
Later in the evening, the squadron spotted and gave chase to as she sailed from Chesapeake Bay to New York. The chase lasted some 65 hours, during which both pursued and pursuers had to tow and warp. Belvidera eventually managed to come within gunshot of Constitution on the afternoon of 17 July, but a lucky breeze blew up, and Constitutions clean bottom allowed her to make good her escape.
Shannons next duty was to meet a convoy homebound from Jamaica. An American squadron under Commodore John Rodgers had sailed to intercept it. Shannon ensured the convoy safely passed the Great Banks, before she returned to the American coast. Shannon recaptured the brig Planter,Lloyd's List №4715. which the American privateer Atlas had captured on 3 August.
Shannon put into Halifax on 20 September to take on provisions. Sir John Warren arrived while she was in port, and took up the post of commander in chief of the North America and West Indies Station. He then despatched Shannon with the schooner to rescue the crew and offload the money being carried by the frigate , which had been wrecked on Sable Island. While carrying out this mission, Shannon encountered and subsequently captured an enemy privateer schooner, Wily Reynard on 11 October, that she took back to Halifax with her.
On 31 October, while Shannon was cruising with , , and , Broke captured the American privateer brig Thorn. Thorn was armed with eighteen long 9-pounder guns and had a crew of 140 men. She was three weeks out of Marblehead on her first cruise. Sent to Halifax with a prize crew, Thorn was subsequently purchased and renamed as the Nova Scotia privateer brig Sir John Sherbrooke.
Sir John Warren was at Bermuda during the winter of 1812, and left Broke in command of the Royal Navy squadrons operating on the coasts of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and New England. In December Broke took the Shannon and escorted a homebound convoy halfway across the Atlantic, returning to North America by sailing round the Azores.
On 31 January 1813 Shannon recaptured the ship , which the American privateer had captured six days earlier in a hard-fought action.
In 1813, Captain Oliver arrived on the station aboard the 74-gun third rate , and took command from Captain Broke. Broke continued to deploy with his squadron until Shannon and Tenedos became separated from them in a gale. They decided to steer for Boston, reaching the port on 2 April. Having observed the activity in the port, they returned to their squadron and reported the presence of the American frigates , and Constitution. In their absence, had entered the harbour through the eastern channel.
Captain Capel aboard ordered Shannon and Tenedos to watch the port from close inshore, while the rest of the squadron cruised in the offing. On 16 May Shannon and Tenedos chased a large armed ship under American colours, and forced her to run aground near Cape Ann Town. Shannon anchored close to the grounded ship and fired a few shots to disperse a number of militiamen who were assembling. Lieutenant George Watt of Shannon then managed to bring the ship off the shore without loss. She was the French corvette-built privateer Invincible, of 16 guns, originally named .
On 25 March Shannon took on stores of water and provisions from Tenedos, which was then detached, with orders to rejoin the Shannon on 14 June.
Fighting Chesapeake
Issuing a challenge During his long period in command of Shannon, Broke had drilled his crew to an extremely high standard of naval gunnery.
The weekly routine at sea was for the watch on deck to be exercised at the great guns on Monday and Tuesday forenoons, and in the afternoons the first division of the watch was exercised at small arms. Wednesday and Thursday forenoons saw the watch on deck at the carronades, and in the afternoons the second division of the watch at small arms. Friday was reserved for the midshipmen – great guns in the morning, small arms in the afternoon. Thus each man had one morning at the 18-pounders, one morning at the carronades and two afternoons with musquets in every week. Saturdays were reserved for washing clothes and scrubbing the berth deck in the afternoon. Sunday, apart from Church service and any necessary evolutions with the sails, was free.
In addition to these gunnery drills, Broke was fond of preparing hypothetical scenarios to test his crew. For example, after all hands had been drummed to quarters, he would inform them of a theoretical attack and see how they would act to defend the ship. He would also arrange on occasion for a wooden cask to be sent over the side so competitions could be held to see which crew could hit it and how fast they could do so. A game called 'singlestick' was also practised. "This was a game employing roughly similar thrusts and parries as were used with cutlass, but as it was played with blunt sticks, hits, although painful, were not often dangerous. It soon developed quickness of eye and wrist."
Eager to engage and defeat one of the American 'super-frigates' that had already scored a number of victories over smaller Royal Navy ships in single-ship confrontations, Broke prepared a challenge. The warship President had already slipped out of the harbour under the cover of fog and had evaded the British. Constitution was undergoing extensive repairs and alterations and would not be ready for sea in the foreseeable future. However, Chesapeake appeared to be ready to put to sea.
Consequently, Broke decided to send his challenge to Chesapeake, which had been refitting in Boston harbour under the command of Captain James Lawrence, offering single-ship combat. While patrolling offshore, Shannon had intercepted and captured a number of American ships attempting to reach the harbour. After sending two of them off to Halifax, he found that his crew was dangerously reduced in numbers. Broke therefore resorted to burning the rest of the prizes in order to conserve his highly trained crew in anticipation of the battle with Chesapeake. Broke sent the boats from the burnt prizes into Boston, carrying Broke's oral invitation to Lawrence to come out and engage him. He had already sent Tenedos away in the hope that the more favourable odds would entice the American out, but eventually began to despair that Chesapeake would ever come out of the harbour. He finally decided to send a written challenge.