Английская Википедия:Chesapeake–Leopard affair

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The Chesapeake–Leopard affair was a naval engagement off the coast of Norfolk, Virginia, on June 22, 1807, between the British fourth-rate Шаблон:HMS and the American frigate Шаблон:USS. The crew of Leopard pursued, attacked, and boarded the American frigate, looking for deserters from the Royal Navy.[1] Chesapeake was caught unprepared and after a short battle involving broadsides received from Leopard, the commander of Chesapeake, James Barron, surrendered his vessel to the British. Chesapeake had fired only one shot.

Four crew members were removed from the American vessel and were tried for desertion, one of whom was subsequently hanged. Chesapeake was allowed to return home, where James Barron was court martialed and relieved of command.

The Chesapeake–Leopard affair created an uproar among Americans. There were strident calls for war with Great Britain, but these quickly subsided. President Thomas Jefferson initially attempted to use this widespread bellicosity to diplomatically threaten the British government into settling the matter. The United States Congress backed away from armed conflict when British envoys showed no contrition for the Chesapeake affair, delivering proclamations reaffirming impressment. Jefferson's political failure to coerce Great Britain led him toward economic warfare: the Embargo of 1807.[2]

Background

Файл:USSChesapeake.jpg
Шаблон:USS, depicted in a Шаблон:Circa painting by F. Muller

On June 22, 1807, during the Napoleonic Wars, several British naval vessels were on duty on the North American Station, blockading two French third-rate warships in Chesapeake Bay.[3] A number of Royal Navy seamen had deserted from their ships and local American authorities gave them sanctuary. One of the deserters, a Londoner named Jenkin Ratford, joined the crew of Шаблон:USS. Ratford had made himself conspicuous to British officers by shouting at them on the streets of Norfolk, Virginia.[4]

Other deserters were reported to be at the Gosport Navy Yard, then commanded by Stephen Decatur. Decatur received a letter from the British consul ordering him to turn over three men alleged to have deserted from Шаблон:HMS. The consul claimed the men had enlisted in the U.S. Navy, which was recruiting a crew for Chesapeake, then at the Washington Navy Yard outfitting for a voyage to the Mediterranean.[1][5]

Vice-Admiral Sir George Berkeley dispatched his flagship, the fourth-rate warship Шаблон:HMS, with written orders authorizing him to board and search the United States warship to recover any deserters.[4] Berkeley ordered LeopardШаблон:'s captain to search for deserters from Шаблон:HMS, Шаблон:HMS, Шаблон:HMS, Шаблон:HMS, Шаблон:HMS, and the cutter Шаблон:HMS.[6]

Attack and search

Файл:Story of one hundred years - A comprehensive review of the political and military events, the social, intellectual and material progress, and the general state of mankind in all lands. Embodying (14595946297).jpg
Officers of Chesapeake offering their swords to officers of the Leopard, depicted Шаблон:Circa

Chesapeake was off the coast of Norfolk, Virginia, commanded by Commodore James Barron, when Leopard, under Captain Salusbury Pryce Humphreys, encountered and hailed her. Barron was not alarmed, and received Lieutenant John Meade on board, who presented Barron with the search warrant. After an inconclusive discussion, Meade returned to Leopard. Captain Humphreys, using a hailing trumpet, ordered the American ship to submit. When Chesapeake did not, Humphreys fired a round across her bow. This was followed immediately by Leopard firing broadsides into the American ship.[7] Her guns unloaded and her decks cluttered with stores in preparation for a long cruise, Chesapeake managed to fire only a single gun in reply. The humiliated Barron struck his colors and surrendered. Three of ChesapeakeШаблон:'s crew had been killed and 18 wounded, including Barron, by the attack. However, Humphreys refused the surrender and sent a boarding party to Chesapeake to search for deserters.[8]

Файл:1807 USS Chesapeake, muster listing crewmen Robert McDonald & Joseph Arnold as killed by Capt. S. Humphreys.jpg
1807 USS Chesapeake, muster listing crewmen Robert McDonald & Joseph Arnold as killed by Capt S. Humphreys

Scores of British nationals had signed on as crewmen of Chesapeake,[7] but Humphreys seized only the four Royal Navy deserters: Daniel Martin, John Strachan and William Ware all from HMS Melampus, and Jenkin Ratford, formerly on Шаблон:HMS. Only Ratford was British-born. The others were American residents,[9] but had been serving on British warships.[7] Daniel Martin, for instance, claimed he was born in Westport, Massachusetts; he was described as age 24, Шаблон:Convert high with "woolly hair", black eyes and dark yellow complexion and a small scar over his right eyebrow. Prior to serving on Chesapeake, Martin served on the merchant vessel Caledonia and was described as "a colored man." Newspaper accounts of the time state Martin was not born in the United States but brought to Massachusetts, (possibly enslaved) when he was six years old by mariner William Howland, from Buenos Aires.[10][11]

Файл:Protection Certificate of Daniel Martin 6 October 1804 , a black man, native of West Port Mass, age 24, hair black, eyes dark. yellow complexion,5' 5 and one half dark complexion mole over eyebrow.jpg
Seaman's protection certificate issued in New Orleans, to Daniel Martin on 6 Oct. 1804

The brig Шаблон:HMS brought the first dispatches to Halifax in early July. Leopard followed with her prisoners for trial.[12] Jenkin Ratford, the sole British citizen, was sentenced to death and was hanged from the yardarm of Halifax on August 31, 1807.[13][14] The three American deserters received sentences of 500 lashes each, but the sentences were later commuted.[14]

The bloody encounter caused a storm of protest from the U.S. government, and the British government eventually offered to return the three American residents[9] and to pay reparations for the damage to Chesapeake.[15] After over 5 years spent in bonded service with the Royal Navy, the last two deserters were returned to Boston, Massachusetts by the schooner Шаблон:HMS, one month after the outbreak of the War of 1812.[16]

Aftermath

Шаблон:Warof1812-Origins The incident outraged American public opinion, and many felt the country's "sense of honor" had been violated.[17] Americans of every political stripe spoke of the need to uphold national honor, and to reject the dismissal of the United States by Britain as a third-class nonentity. Americans talked incessantly about the need for force in response.[18] President Thomas Jefferson noted: "Never since the Battle of Lexington have I seen this country in such a state of exasperation as at present, and even that did not produce such unanimity."[19][20] James Monroe, then a foreign minister acting under instructions from U.S. Secretary of State James Madison, demanded British disavowal of the deed, the restoration of the four seamen, the recall of Admiral Berkeley, the exclusion of British warships from U.S. territorial waters, and the abolition of impressments from vessels under the United States flag.[21]

The event raised tensions between the two countries and, while possibly not a direct cause, was one of the events leading up to the War of 1812. Many Americans demanded war because of the attack, but President Jefferson turned to diplomacy and economic pressure in the form of the ill-fated Embargo Act of 1807.Шаблон:Citation needed

The Federal government began to be concerned about the lack of war material. Their concerns led to the establishment of a tariff protecting the manufacturers of gunpowder, which helped ensure the fortunes of the DuPont company.[22]Шаблон:Better source needed

The incident had significant repercussions for the U.S. Navy. The public was shocked that Chesapeake had not been able to put up any resistance and surrendered so quickly, questioning the ability of the Navy to defend the country in the case of a war with Great Britain, despite the expensive and controversial frigate-building program. A court-martial blamed Barron and suspended him from service for five years as punishment.[23]

In 1820, Commodore Barron challenged and mortally wounded Commodore Stephen Decatur in a duel over remarks Decatur had made about Barron's conduct in 1807 (Barron was also wounded). Decatur had served on the court-martial that found Barron guilty of being unprepared and barred him from command for five years.[24]

Chesapeake herself was captured during the War of 1812, when on June 1, 1813, after a series of naval engagements with the Royal Navy, the British frigate Шаблон:HMS captured Chesapeake in a single-ship action near Boston. The Royal Navy commissioned Chesapeake, but put her up for sale at Portsmouth in July 1819.[25] Her timbers are now part of the Chesapeake Mill in Wickham, England.[26]

In fiction

The fallout from the Chesapeake–Leopard affair features prominently in two novels of the Aubrey–Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian. It is first mentioned in the fifth novel, Desolation Island, when the fictional Captain Jack Aubrey is given command of Leopard (which he privately refers to as the "horrible old Leopard") a few years after the incident. Though the United States and Great Britain are at peace at the time, and neither he nor any member of his crew had any direct involvement with the affair, he is met with mistrust and hostility from American whalers due to their negative association with the ship.[27] The subsequent capture of Chesapeake during the War of 1812 features prominently in the sixth Aubrey–Maturin novel, The Fortune of War, as Aubrey is aboard Шаблон:HMS during the engagement.[28]

The Chesapeake–Leopard affair is mentioned in the Boston Jacky novel of the Bloody Jack adventures series by L.A. Meyer.[29]

See also

References

Шаблон:Reflist

Bibliography

Further reading

External links

Шаблон:Attacks on US Navy ships Шаблон:Thomas Jefferson Шаблон:Authority control

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  1. ↑ 1,0 1,1 Шаблон:Cite book
  2. ↑ Шаблон:Cite book
  3. ↑ Шаблон:Cite book
  4. ↑ 4,0 4,1 Шаблон:Cite book
  5. ↑ Шаблон:Cite book
  6. ↑ Шаблон:Cite book
  7. ↑ 7,0 7,1 7,2 Шаблон:Cite book
  8. ↑ Шаблон:Cite book
  9. ↑ 9,0 9,1 Free and enslaved people of African descent were not legally allowed to be American citizens in 1807.
  10. ↑ Шаблон:Cite news
  11. ↑ Шаблон:Cite book
  12. ↑ Шаблон:Cite book
  13. ↑ Шаблон:Cite book
  14. ↑ 14,0 14,1 Шаблон:Cite book
  15. ↑ Шаблон:Cite bookШаблон:Dead link
  16. ↑ Шаблон:Cite book
  17. ↑ Norman K. Risjord, "1812: Conservatives, War Hawks and the Nation's Honor". William and Mary Quarterly: A Magazine of Early American History (1961): 196–210. in JSTOR
  18. ↑ Robert L. Ivie, "The metaphor of force in prowar discourse: The case of 1812". Quarterly Journal of Speech 68#3 (1982) pp. 240–253.
  19. ↑ Шаблон:Cite web
  20. ↑ Шаблон:Cite book
  21. ↑ Шаблон:Cite book
  22. ↑ Шаблон:Cite book
  23. ↑ Шаблон:Cite book
  24. ↑ Шаблон:Cite book
  25. ↑ Шаблон:London Gazette
  26. ↑ Шаблон:Cite web
  27. ↑ Шаблон:Cite book
  28. ↑ Шаблон:Cite web
  29. ↑ Шаблон:Cite book
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