1805, he took charge of the HMS Druidfor
service in the English Channel, and in Sep-
tember 1806 he acceded to command of HMS
Shannon, an 18-pounder cannon frigate. It
was while at the helm of this vessel that
Broke was to immortalize himself and his
crew and rehabilitate the fighting traditions of
the Royal Navy.
Since the commencement of hostilities
with revolutionary France in 1792, the Royal
Navy displayed complete tactical mastery
over its French counterpart. A succession of
easy triumphs during the next two decades
made the British somewhat complacent, if
not a little smug, about their sense of naval
superiority. Consequently, levels of drill were
not standardized among British warships,
and gunnery practice was scarcely a con-
cern. It was in this single instance that Broke
stood head and shoulders above contempo-
raries. He was a firm but fair disciplinarian,
adored by his crewmen. Furthermore, he
stressed accurate gunnery to the exclusion
of nearly all other shipboard concerns. Gun-
nery drills were undertaken daily, and Broke
went so far as to purchase gunners’ sights
and quadrants at his own expense. Conse-
quently, the Shannongained a reputation as
being among the best-handled frigates in the
Royal Navy, whose marksmanship was sec-
ond to none. Broke subsequently cruised
several months in the North Atlantic, pro-
tecting the whaling fleet off Spitsbergen, be-
fore participating in the 1807 reduction of
Madeira. TheShannon then patrolled off the
coast of Brest and Plymouth for the next
four years until 1811, when Broke was trans-
ferred to the squadron of Vice Adm. Herbert
Sawyer at Halifax, Nova Scotia. He was thus
present following the onset of war with the
United States on June 18, 1812. Shortly after,
Broke formed part of a small British
squadron that unsuccessfully chased Capt.
Isaac Hull of the frigate USS Constitution
for several days. Then Broke, like many
British commanders, settled down for a long
interval of uneventful blockade duty off the
American coast.
Given Britain’s relatively easy experience
defeating the French and a host of lesser
navies, the second war with America came as
a distinct shock to the haughty Britons. The
U.S. Navy was, in fact, as skilled and capable
as the Royal Navy and even possessed a small
fleet of “superfrigates” that were more than a
match for the best British vessels of compara-
ble size. In quick succession, the frigate Con-
stitutionunder Hull and William Bainbridge,
and the frigate United Statesunder Stephen
Decatur, inflicted three sharp defeats on HMS
Guerriere, Macedonian,and Java.The brave
but scandalously poor performance of British
crews threw the naval ministry into an uproar,
and British frigate captains were ordered not
to engage the Americans in one-to-one com-
bat. It was against this background that Broke
and the Shannonassumed blockading posi-
tions off Boston in the spring of 1813. He was
aware that several American warships were
sequestered there and sent a cordial chal-
lenge ashore to Capt. James Lawrence, who
had won a resounding victory over the sloop
HMS Peacock,to engage in battle. This was
against naval ministry orders, but Broke was
supremely confident in his men and ship.
More than anything—especially after 18
months of uneventful blockade duty—he
wanted to prove the Americans could be
beaten in an equal engagement.
On June 1, 1813, Broke received his chance.
That afternoon, Lawrence sailed from Boston
commanding the 38-gun frigate USS Chesa-
peake,a vessel nearly the same size and dis-
placement as the Shannon,but with a slightly
larger crew and heavier armament. Like
Broke, Lawrence was a talented sailor and tac-
tician, but he was also headstrong and impa-
tient. He had never received Broke’s chal-
lenge, but that mattered little: Lawrence was
looking for a fight, despite the fact that his
crew was relatively new and had neither
trained nor fought together, and was anxious
to engage the enemy on any terms. This im-
petuosity might have prevailed against any
other British vessel in the fleet save for the
Shannon,then the best ship of its class. As theBROKE, PHILIPBOWESVERE