USS Chesapeake

The USS Chesapeake was a 36-gun
sailing frigate of the United States
Navy.                                                 Career
                                       Launched:     2 December 1799
She was launched 2 December 1799 by    Commissioned: 1800
Gosport Navy Yard and commissioned
early in the following year, Captain   Fate:         captured
J. Barron in command.                         General Characteristics
                                       Displacement: 1,244 tons
Chesapeake sailed from Norfolk 6 June
1800 to join the squadron patrolling   Length:       152.7 ft
off the southern coast of the United   Beam:         41.3 ft ( m)
States and in the West Indies during
the Quasi-War with France. During this Depth:        20 ft ( m)
cruise, she took as prize the French   Complement:   340 officers and men
privateer La Jeune Creole on 1 January
1801. One of the handful of ships      Armament:     30 x 18-pounders, 12 x
                                                     32-pounder carronades
retained in the Navy at the close of
the war, Chesapeake was in ordinary at Norfolk during most of 1801, then was
readied for her departure from Hampton Roads on 27 April 1802, bound for the
Mediterranean as flagship for Commodore Richard V. Morris. Here she led in
the blockade of Tripoli and convoyed American merchantmen until 6 April
1803, when she departed Gibraltar for America. Arriving at Washington Navy
Yard 1 June, Chesapeake was placed in ordinary.

As tension mounted over violations of American neutrality and the practice
of impressment of American seamen by the British, Chesapeake was prepared
for patrol and convoy duty, and late in June 1807 stood out of Hampton
Roads, passing a British squadron operating in the area to intercept French
ships then at Annapolis. One of the squadron, HMS Leopard followed
Chesapeake to sea, and on 22 June, when Chesapeake's captain properly
refused to allow search for British deserters, Leopard fired on the unready
Chesapeake, killing three men, wounding 18, including the captain, damaging
the ship severely, and carried off four men. The frigate returned to Norfolk
for repairs, and then with Captain Stephen Decatur in command, cruised off
the New England coast enforcing the embargo laws.

With the outbreak of the War of 1812, for which Chesapeake's encounter with
Leopard was one of a number of emotional preparations, Chesapeake was
outfitted at Boston for a lengthy Atlantic cruise. Between 13 December 1812
and 9 April 1813, she ranged from the West Indies to Africa, taking as
prizes five British merchantmen, and through skillful seamanship, evading
the pursuit of a British 74.

At Boston, Captain J. Lawrence took command of Chesapeake 20 May 1813, and
on 1 June, put to sea to meet HMS Shannon (38), the crack frigate whose
written challenge had just missed Chesapeake's sailing. With a new untrained
crew, Lawrence courageously but unwisely engaged Shannon, and suffered the
misfortune of having Chesapeake's rigging cut away in the early exchange of
broadsides in such a manner that she lost maneuverability. Lawrence,
himself, was mortally wounded, and was carried below. The valiant crew
struggled to carry out their captain's last order, "Don't give up the
ship!", but were overwhelmed. Chesapeake was taken to Halifax for repairs,
and later was taken into the Royal Navy. She was sold at Plymouth, England,
in 1820, and broken up.

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The sloop Chesapeake was renamed Patapsco in 1799 while under construction.

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