Marshall Rare Books
A Series of Four Views, to Illustrate the Naval Action Fought on the First Day of June, 1813 Between the English Frigate Shannon and the American Frigate Chesapeake.
ONE OF ONLY A FEW COMPLETE SETS
London: Smith Elder & Co. 1830. Portfolio ( 615 x 475mm), Contemporary Boards, rebacked with Original Letterpress Title mounted on upper board, with descriptive leaf of text, Four hand-coloured lithographed plates by L. Haghe after Schetky.
A very rare set of views depicting one of the best-known frigate actions in history. Only a few complete sets have appeared at auction.
The U.S.S. Chesapeake was one of six original frigates authorized in 1794 to form the United States Navy. She was under the command of James Lawrence when he made the fatal decision to leave Boston on 1 June 1813 to fight the British frigate Shannon, which was offshore challenging the Chesapeake to engage in battle. After a fierce and annihilating battle that lasted all of eleven minutes, according to the documented account by British captain R.N. King, the Chesapeake surrendered. Of her crew, eighty-four men, including Captain Lawrence, were killed or mortally wounded and 115 others severely wounded. The Shannon lost thirty men and counted fifty-six wounded. The Chesapeake was taken to Halifax after her capture and thence to Britain.
During the Anglo-American War of 1812-14 the event which captured the public s imagination more than any other was the celebrated duel between the Royal Navy s frigate H.M.S. Shannon and the new republic s frigate Chesapeake. Cruising off the eastern seaboard Captain Philip Broke of the Shannon spotted the American frigates Chesapeake and Constitution refitting in Boston. Broke immediately challenged Captain Lawrence of the Chesapeake to come out and fight and at about noon on 1st June 1813 the latter weighed anchor and stood out of Boston Roads accompanied by a small flotilla of pleasure craft crowded with spectators anxious to witness the fight. A furious action followed lasting a mere fifteen minutes; Captain Broke was badly wounded leading his boarding party and casualties on both vessels were very high. Soon overwhelmed Chesapeake surrendered and Shannon took her as a prize into Halifax Nova Scotia where on the 6th June the captors were given a heros welcome.
The descriptive leaf of text is lacking the lower right corner losing a small area of text.
We can trace only 2 institutional copies: Yale University’s Sterling Memorial Library and the New York Historical Society.
[unrecorded in the standard bibliographies; no copy recorded on COPAC]
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