Broke and the Shannon

by Peter Padfield

This is the classic, comprehensive biography of a British naval hero.“Sir, as the Chesapeake appears now ready for sea, I request that you will do me the favour to meet the Shannon with her ship to ship to try the fortune of our respective flags.”So began the challenge to equal combat that Captain Philip Broke sent to Captain Lawrence of the United States frigate Chesapeake on 1 June 1813. The same afternoon Lawrence sailed to meet him; the resulting engagement is perhaps the most celebrated single-ship duel in the annals of the Royal Navy.For the challenger, Broke, it was the climax of years of waiting for a chance to distinguish himself, and it succeeded beyond his dreams. In one furious contest the Shannon avenged an unbroken list of five American single-ship victories since the start of the war.In this book, Peter Padfield tells the story of Broke’s life as it led up to this supreme day and vividly describes the action itself as he has discovered it afresh in contemporary documents and survivors’ accounts. As far as possible Broke’s own words have been used, in letters to his beloved wife as she waited in Suffolk, in journals and in other papers. He emerges as much more than simply a fighting sailor – he was a sensitive man, lover of flowers and the Latin poets, yet also a master gunner whose fascination with scientific devices and ideas on training led to the establishment of the first great gunnery school; a patriot, a teacher, a loving and beloved husband and father.First published in 1968, Peter Padfield’s Broke and the Shannon is widely acknowledged as the classic biography of the man, and has inspired several later writers. It is required reading for all with an interest in naval history, and all who enjoy quality biographies.‘The classic biography of Captain Philip Broke, including but not centring on his famous battle in the War of 1812, where he challenged the American frigate Chesapeake to a single-ship conflict outside of Boston Harbor and defeated her in eleven minutes. Beautifully written, interesting, and with those wonderful old-fashioned footnotes that contemporary authors so often omit’ - Amazon reviewPeter Padfield always wanted to go to sea. He started his training for the Merchant Service as a cadet, subsequently serving in Shaw Savill liners to Australia and New Zealand, and then joining the P and O temporarily to sail as a mariner in Mayflower II, the replica of the pilgrim barque commanded across the Atlantic by Alan Villiers. After a brief return to P and O he left big ships and worked his way out to New Zealand on a tug and from there to the Pacific. His travels to the Solomon Islands are recorded in his first book, The Sea is a Magic Carpet . He is the author of several books, including The Titanic and the Californian , which reconstructed the loss of the Titanic and exposed a tragic miscarriage of justice.

Genres: History

Hardcover

First published March 1, 1968

Reviews

[Sophie Turner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well. If I was looking for something that was going to lessen my, erm, historical crush on Captain Sir Philip Broke, this was not the book.

I mean, seriously, I cannot sort this guy out. If you encountered him as-is in fiction you would not believe him as a character. A naval captain that turned his frigate into what was by far the most deadly and efficient fighting machine of her size -- so deadly that in the scant 11-minute engagement with the Chesapeake more men died per minute than in ALL the combined ships at the Battle of Trafalgar (a horrific and yet amazing little fact compiled within this volume).

And yet he called his wife Louisa "LooLoo," and wrote her letters so sweet and affectionate they almost make you want to gag. Almost. But the message is so consistent over time that it is impossible to avoid believing it: this was a man in love, strongly desirous of returning to his wife and children, and yet one who felt his only release from naval service was to earn a form of honor in defeating another ship of equal or greater strength. That he did, at the cost of a blow, whilst boarding, to his head that cut all the way to the brain.

And then, as Padfield eloquently puts it: "While undressing him they had found a delicate chain with a blue satin satchel, now tacky with blood, hanging around his neck. Inside was a lock of blonde hair. When they had put clean bandages around his head and settled him back in his cot Wallis took the keepsake down to his cabin and stowed it carefully. He would deliver it to Louisa after Broke died."

Okay, let's all recover from our swoons, now. Broke did survive, although the wound weakened him severely and affected his health for the remainder of his life, a goodly portion of which was spent looking after his wheelchair-bound wife, whose health eventually also declined. Imagine them together as an infirm couple, Broke completely devoted to her comfort and seeking an alleviation of her spirits in taking her out to their gardens during the day. (Broke, himself, being quite a lover of flowers, likely commenting on the blooms)

As a biography this was very well done. Padfield digs into a certain descriptive prose at points that made me wonder, "has he actually researched this? Did Broke really think/feel that at the time?" But in the end I decided to just go with it. There's a finer narrative to this than many other biographies, and the end result was that I cried a little at the end, which is, I believe, a first for biographies for me, particularly when I knew how it was going to end.