NON_.--THE STRUGGLE ON THE QUARTERDECK.
_Drawn by Henry Reuterdahl._]

Before the new commanding officer could get to the spar deck, the
ships were in contact. According to the report of Captain Broke, the
most competent surviving eye-witness, the mizzen channels of the
"Chesapeake" locked in the fore-rigging of the "Shannon." "I went
forward," he continues, "to ascertain her position, and observing that
the enemy were flinching from their guns, I gave orders to prepare for
boarding." When the "Chesapeake's" second lieutenant reached the
forecastle, the British were in possession of the after part of the
ship, and of the principal hatchways by which the boarders of the
after divisions could come up. He directed the foresail set, to shoot
the ship clear, to prevent thus a re-enforcement to the enemy already
on board; and he rallied a few men, but was himself soon wounded and
thrown below. In brief, the fall of their officers and the position of
the ship, in irons and being raked, had thrown the crew into the
confusion attendant upon all sudden disaster. From this state only the
rallying cry of a well-known voice and example can rescue men. "The
enemy," reported Broke, "made a desperate but disorderly resistance."
The desperation of brave men is the temper which at times may retrieve
such conditions, but it must be guided and fashioned by a master
spirit into something better than disorder, if it is to be effective.
Disorder at any stage of a battle is incipient defeat; supervening
upon the enemy's gaining a commanding position it commonly means
defeat consummated.

Fifteen minutes elapsed from the discharge of the first gun of the
"Shannon" to the "Chesapeake's" colors being hauled down. This was
done by the enemy, her own crew having been driven forward. In that
brief interval twenty-six British were killed and fifty-six wounded;
of the Americans forty-eight were killed and ninety-nine wounded. In
proportion to the number on board each ship when the action began, the
"Shannon" lost in men 24 per cent; the "Chesapeake" 46 per cent, or
practically double.

Although a certain amount of national exultation or mortification
attends victory or defeat in an international contest, from a yacht
race to a frigate action, there is no question of national credit in
the result where initial inequality is great, as in such combats as
that of the "Chesapeake" and "Shannon," or the "Constitution" and
"Guerriere." It is possible