able
execution." This describes a semi-raking fire, which lasted four
minutes, from 5.56 to 6 P.M., when the ships came together.

The manner of collision and the injuries received bear out the above
account. The quarter of the "Chesapeake" came against the side of the
"Shannon," the angle at the moment, as represented in James' diagram,
being such as to make it impossible that any of the "Chesapeake's"
guns, save one or two of the after ones, could then bear; and as she
was already paying off, they had been in worse position before. "She
was severely battered in the hull, on the larboard quarter
particularly; and several shot entered the stern windows.... Her three
lower masts were badly wounded, the main and mizzen especially. The
bowsprit received no injury." All these details show that the sum
total of the "Shannon's" fire was directed most effectively upon the
after part of the ship, in the manner described by James; and coupled
with the fact that the British first broadside, always reckoned the
most deadly, would naturally take effect chiefly on the fore part of
the "Chesapeake," as she advanced from the "Shannon's" stern to her
bow,[139] we are justified in the inference that the worst of her
loss was suffered after accident had taken her movements out of
Lawrence's instant control. Under these circumstances it may be
claimed for him that the artillery duel, to which he sought to confine
the battle, was not so entirely a desperate chance as has been
inferred.

It may therefore be said that, having resolved upon a risk which
cannot be justified at the bar of dispassionate professional judgment,
Captain Lawrence did not commit the further unpardonable error of not
maturely weighing and judiciously choosing his course. That the crew
was not organized and exercised at the guns, as far as his time and
opportunity permitted, is disproved by incidental mention in the
courts martial that followed, as well as by the execution done. Within
ten minutes at the utmost, within six of equal terms, the
"Chesapeake," an 18-pounder frigate, killed and wounded of the
"Shannon's" ship's company as many as the "Constitution" with her 24's
did of the "Guerriere's" in over twenty;[140] and the "Constitution"
not only was a much heavier ship than her opponent, but had been six
weeks almost continuously at sea. When her crew had been together four
months longer, the loss inflicted by her upon the "Java," in a contest
spread over two h